Dear friends,
Demons may be very interesting for Jesus' day. But what does it have to do with today? Demons today? Yes, today, according to prominent Christian authors.
A noted Swiss physician, counsellor and author, says:
"In the thought of the Bible, evil - for the devil represents the source of moral evil as well as sickness (Revelation 18:2) - is not the absence of good, or some simple, natural failing, it is an active personal power, with its order of battle and its strategy. Doubtless there are many doctors who in their struggle against disease have had, like me, the feeling that they were confronting not something passive, but a clever and cunningly resourceful enemy."
"The trouble is that we are self-centred," wrote Bishop William Temple in “Nature, People and God”, and no effort of the self can remove the self from the centre of its own Endeavor; the very effort will plant it there the more fixedly than ever." The demon of self-centeredness!
Demons? Today? Yes, today.
Jesus continues to listen and speak today. He does it through his Holy Spirit and through the Church.
"The Word of God cuts through to the heart like a two-edged sword dividing bone from marrow,"
the Bible says, driving out the demons which possess us - loneliness, estrangement, anger, resentment, revenge. Jesus listens and speaks today!
Demons? Today? Yes, today. But Jesus is also speaking today. "Shut up!" He says to the demonic powers at work in our world and in our lives. And then, "Come out!"
Canon Gary
