I love children. They bring innocence to our world. They’re gifts from God. Little ones are humble and honest.

I teach two year olds. It’s my ministry to families. Or maybe they teach me.

Mark 9:

³⁵ He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”

³⁶ Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf^[a] welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.”

³⁸ John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.”

³⁹ “Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰ Anyone who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded.

⁴² “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.

Every year when I read through the four Gospels and study the life of Jesus I love to read again how He healed people.

This year, the situations in which Jesus dealt with demon possessed people really stands out to me. In some of the situations loved ones would come to Jesus and say straight out that the person that needed to be healed was demon possessed. I always take note of how fearful and knowledgeable the demons were of Jesus. I even like to turn it around and use the words of the demons against them when I honor and thank God in prayer. For example, the demons called Jesus the Son of the Most high God. So, I thank Jesus that He is truly the Son of the most high God, my Heavenly Father. Here’s another example, once demons in a possessed person mentioned that they would be tortured by Jesus, so, I thank God that at His appointed time the devil and his demons will be tortured and cast into the lake of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But when I speak of my enemies ultimate destruction, I say it in Jesus name and realize, as Christians, our lives must be used to prevent human souls from being eternally destroyed. I must tell the Good News of Jesus Christ to others.

Something else that comes to mind is, if as Christians, we want a great revival to come in these end times, part of it will deal with modern day demon possession. If you said someone was demon possessed today that would be a very big insult. The cure for demon possession today is to be medicated and see a psychological professional. So, this question lingers in my mind, how do Christians kindly,  compassionately and respectfully love a demon possessed person to Jesus?

Mark 9:

¹⁷ One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk.¹⁸ And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.^[a] So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”

¹⁹ Jesus said to them,^[b] “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

²⁰ So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.

²¹ “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.

He replied, “Since he was a little boy.²² The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”

²³ “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?”Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

²⁴ The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil^[c] spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”

²⁶ Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.

²⁸ Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.^[d]”

Jesus healed a blind man.

Mark 8:

²² When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him. ²³ Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”

²⁴ The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.”

²⁵ Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. ²⁶ Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home.”

Jesus came to help the Jewish people. He preached to them and healed them. After His death and resurrection He told His followers to preach about Him to all the rest of the world. People who were not Jews were called Gentiles in Jesus’ day.

Once a Gentile woman came to Jesus asking Him to heal her daughter from a demon. They talked some and then because of her faith Jesus healed her daughter without even seeing the young girl and touching her.

Mark 7:

²⁵ Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil^[a]spirit, ²⁶ and she begged him to cast out the demon from her daughter.

Since she was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia, ²⁷ Jesus told her, “First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews.^[b] It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸ She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.”

²⁹ “Good answer!” he said. “Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.

I looked up the definition of hypocrite. I self-check myself from time to time to not be this.

Everyone sins and does wrong. But if we acknowledge our wrong then God forgives. God promises that His mercies are new every morning.

Jesus spoke harshly to the religious leaders of His day. He called the Sadducees and Pharisees hypocrites. They followed strict religious traditions but they had drifted from having a sincere, seeking heart toward God.

Mark 7:

5 So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.” 6 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ 8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.” 9 Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. 10For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ 12 In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. 13 And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

In Bible times, people saw and knew Jesus healed. I never tire of reading situations in the four Gospels when Jesus healed someone. I love the words in Mark 6:56 in which it says all who touched Jesus were healed. I know, that healing capacity is still true today. When Jesus healed, it is important to note He healed their soul and their body.

Mark 6:

⁵³ After they had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret. They brought the boat to shore ⁵⁴ and climbed out. The people recognized Jesus at once,⁵⁵ and they ran throughout the whole area, carrying sick people on mats to wherever they heard he was.⁵⁶ Wherever he went—in villages, cities, or the countryside—they brought the sick out to the marketplaces. They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him were healed.

It is an interesting study to notice while reading through the four Gospels in the New Testament, how Jesus responded when fear rose up in people. Jesus instantly calmed their fears. In His wisdom and His love for them He knew to promptly stop their fearfulness.

Once, when a powerful storm arose while His disciples were in a boat (some of them were well-weathered fishermen), Jesus calmed the men and told them to take courage. Like Joshua, in the Old Testament, as he lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, the disciples were calmed by trusting God. God still calms us today. Whether we’re about to go and conquer new territory in our lives, God goes before us, or whether we’re in the midst of a horrific, fearful storm, Jesus is there fully present to calm our anxious thoughts.

Mark 6:

⁴⁷ Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land. ⁴⁸ He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o’clock in the morning^[a] Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go past them, ⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. ⁵⁰ They were all terrified when they saw him.

But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!^[b]” ⁵¹ Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed,⁵² for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in.

Psalm 39:

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
    Remind me that my days are numbered—
    how fleeting my life is.
⁵ You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
    My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
    at best, each of us is but a breath.”

It’s interesting to me to read the interaction Jesus has with religious leaders of His time on earth. Sometimes leaders would be deceptive and try to trick into saying something wrong. Sometimes Jesus would light into them and speak out against their hypocrisy. But sometimes a leader would trust Jesus.

Jairus was a leader of a local synagogue and went to Jesus having faith to humbly ask Him to heal his daughter. Here’s how the story unfolded, with an added healing in the midst of it.~~

Mark 5:

²¹ Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. ²² Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, ²³ pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”

²⁴ Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him.²⁵ A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.²⁶ She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. ²⁷ She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. ²⁸ For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

³⁰ Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”

³¹ His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

³² But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. ³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”

³⁶ But Jesus overheard^[a] them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

³⁷ Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. ³⁹ He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”

⁴⁰ The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. ⁴¹ Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” ⁴² And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.⁴³ Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.

I like to remind my enemy, the devil and his demons, he’s a loser. Even his demons call Jesus the Son of the Most High God.

So, I worship Jesus as He ought to be worshiped and thank Him that He is the Son of the Most High God! He rules my life today and I am thankful for the unsurpassing peace He brings to my life plus many other blessings.

Mark 5:

5 So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes.^{[a] 2} When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil^[b] spirit came out from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain.⁴ Whenever he was put into chains and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones.

⁶ When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. ⁷ With a shriek, he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Jesus had already said to the spirit, “Come out of the man, you evil spirit.”

⁹ Then Jesus demanded, “What is your name?”

And he replied, “My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.” ¹⁰ Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place.

¹¹ There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby.¹² “Send us into those pigs,” the spirits begged. “Let us enter them.”

¹³ So Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.