Tell Them Everything God Has Done For You

Meditations in the Season of Epiphany 

February 18, 2022

Tell Them Everything God Has Done For You

“No, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you.” So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.

Luke 8:39

Read: Luke 8:26-39

In 2010, on my first morning in Israel, I stood on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and looked eastward toward the Golan Heights which, now as it was in Jesus’ time, is not a part of Israel. I tried to imagine Jesus and his disciples crossing this lake. On the way across the Sea, Jesus calmed a storm in a demonstration of his authority over all creation. He demonstrated this authority again when he arrived on the other shore.   

At the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Roman invaders were thought to be the personification of Satan. It was also believed that evil, or monsters, came out of the sea. The Jews believed that any contact with a person, such as the demon-possessed man encountered by Jesus would make them unclean, as would contact with pigs and cemeteries. Accordingly, everything in this incident, from the perspective of the Jews, was evil and unclean. When Jesus exercised his authority over the demons (the forces of evil) and gave them permission to enter the pigs he was sending the evil back to the sea from whence it had come.

As Jesus prepares to leave, the newly freed man wants to go with him. Jesus bids him to stay with his family “and tell them everything God has done for you.” So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.” (v.39)

Do you notice what happened? Jesus told the man to tell what God had done for him. The man went about telling what Jesus had done for him. For two thousand years, the church has struggled to find a way to describe the truth of God in Christ. The man did not allow himself to get bogged down in trying to understand how God and Jesus were one and the same. He just testified to what he knew Jesus had done for him.

My Takeaway: That’s all I need to remember: “Tell them everything God has done for you.”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.