THE GERASENE

I guess not everybody gets to follow Jesus like the disciples, the healed demoniac must've thought; but he'd been told to go back home and "show how great things God had done for him." So...he got to work right away, publishing throughout the city so much so when Jesus came back, the people gladly received him; for they were waiting for him."  (Luke 8:37-40).

It was reading about that incident today that hit me between the eyes. I don't know why some of us dense humans need truths related to us many times before we finally get it. I think God was telling me: "June, you want to tell others about me, and you want to do it in church...but maybe I want you to witness, like that demoniac, to publish to family and friends in Decapolis.  When they meet the Gospel again, maybe they too will have hearts prepared: eager and receptive for Me. Go to it."

Obedience is the key word. When Jesus instructs, "Tell no man, "MUM is the way to go. Some intelligence work requires absolute hush-hush. But when the Master says, "Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so!" (Ps. 107:2) why, like the demoniac at the Gerasenes, we can let out all the stops! Pictured is one of the pigs that went charging down the hill when Jesus freed the man of his Legion of demons. Because he'd stayed a layperson and told those around him about God's tender love and his new life, the people were all ears by the time the Lord returned! Better spiritual-personal PR work than any disciple could've done, don't you think?

Few even know about that healed demoniac. He probably wasn't a certified preacher with ordination. But I wonder, wouldn't God have welcomed him to Heaven with, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant"?