An Identity Crisis

   The crime of identity theft is increasing in America. In this crime, someone wrongfully obtains and use’s another’s personal data for fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. Unlike your fingerprints, your personal data-especially your Social Security number, bank accounts or credit card number, and telephone calling-card personal identification number (PIN)-can be terribly abused if they fall into the wrong hands, profiting others at your expense. Every day, hundreds of people across the country report funds stolen from their accounts. In the worst cases, identities, run up vast debts, and commit crimes, leaving the victims with destroyed credit and a criminal record that takes years to correct.

   In 1970, in an entirely different form of identity tampering, the federal government established the Federal Witness Protection Program. This program provides a new identity to individuals who give court testimony or serve as witnesses in situations where do so could endanger their lives-for instance, in cases against organized crime syndicates. In exchange for valuable testimony, the government gives each witness a completely new identity, furnishing a new name, legal papers, occupation, and home. The government will even create new histories, complete with high school and college diplomas! In some cases, if a witness has a criminal record, it is wiped perfectly clean!

   God promises His redeemed, “You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name” (Isaiah 62:2). God gives His children a new identity in Christ. “To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it” (Revelation 2:17).

   There is no reason for you to be confused about who you are. Your new identity is a grand one, with a real purpose and a real home. “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

   A naturalist visiting a farm one day was surprised to see a beautiful eagle in the farmer’s chicken coop. Befuddled, he asked, “Why in the world is that eagle living with chickens?”

   “Well,” answered the farmer, “I found an abandoned eagle’s egg one day and laid it in the coop, and a chicken adopted it and raised the creature after it hatched. It does not know any better; it thinks it is a chicken.” The eagle was even pecking at grain and strutting awkwardly in circles.

   “Does it ever try to fly out of there?” asked the naturalist, noticing that the bird never lifted its gaze. “No,” said the farmer, “I doubt it even knows what it means to fly.”

   The naturalist asked to take the eagle a few days for experiments, and the farmer agreed. The scientist placed the eagle on a fence and pushed it off, bellowing, “Fly!”    However, the bird just fell to the ground and started pecking. He then climbed to the top of a hayloft and did the same thing, but the frightened bird just shrieked and fluttered ungraciously to the barnyard, where it resumed its strutting.

   Finally, the naturalist took the docile bird away from the environment to which it had grown accustomed, driving to the highest butte in the county. After a lengthy and sweaty climb to the hillcrest with the bird tucked under his arm, he peered over the edge and then spoke gently: “You were born to soar. It is better that you die here today on the rocks below than live the rest of your life being a chicken. It is not what you are.”

   Then, with its keen eyesight, the confused bird spotted another eagle soaring on the currents high above the bluff, and a yearning was kindled within it. The naturalist threw the majestic beast up and over the edge, crying out, “Fly! Fly! Fly!”

   The eagle began to tumble toward the rocks below, but then it opened its seven-foot span of wings and, with a mighty screech, instinctively began to flap them. Soon it was gliding gracefully, climbing in ever-higher spirals on unseen thermals into the blue sky. Eventually, the mighty eagle disappeared into the glare of the morning sun. The bird had become what it was born to be.

“Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nation.” –Matthew 28:18, 19, KJV

Go and Tell

   When Robert Moffat, Scottish missionary to Africa, came back to recruit helpers in his homeland, he was greeted by the fury of a very cold British winter. Arriving at the church where he was to speak, he noted that only a small group had braved the elements to hear his appeal.

   Although no one responded to Moffat’s call for volunteers for mission service in Africa, the challenge thrilled a young boy that had come to work the bellows of the organ. Deciding that he would follow in the footsteps of the pioneer missionary, he went to school, obtained a degree in Medicine, married Moffat’s daughter, Mary, and spent the rest of his life ministering to the unreached tribes in Africa. His name: David Livingstone! God works in mysterious ways to carry out His wise purposes.

   Usually, when Jesus made a journey to heal someone, it was at the request of a parent or friend. However, in this unique story of the demoniac, Jesus crossed the ocean as if commissioned only by His heavenly Father. He made the perilous journey to transform a madman-whom He cleansed, clothed, and then commissioned. It was a total deliverance, an enormous transformation; the man had a brand-new purpose.

   I suspect very few churches would consider sponsoring a missionary to cross a stormy sea to reach just one person. By most church standards, people would have counted this missionary endeavor of Jesus a bleak failure.

   I can almost hear the indignation of the mission board as they reviewed Jesus’ journey. “What? You made a dangerous trip, risking the lives of Your associates, just so You could preach to one deranged, naked man. And then You left after only a few hours?”

   Christ’s trip underscores the incredible value that God places on a single soul-one whom most people, if honest with themselves, would have deemed worthless. Yet, Jesus crossed the vast expanse of the universe to reach just you. Yes. If you were the only one to be saved, He would have made the trip from heaven and died on the cross just for you! “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?” (Matthew 18:12).

   We learn that the particular focus of the man’s testimony was in the region of Decapolis. “He departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled” (Mark 5:20). 

   As I mentioned earlier, Decapolis was a federation of ten cities (deka means “ten”; polis means “city”) that lay east of Galilee and the Jordan River. If you had interviewed al the residents of Decapolis and asked them to vote for the most unlikely candidate for conversion, this nameless man would have won the vote unanimously. Yet Jesus crossed a stormy sea to save this one man, and then He made Him His first missionary.

   That’s right! Jesus sent this man out preaching even before He sent out the disciples on their first preaching tour. The converted demoniac became Jesus’ first missionary. There can be little doubt that his most eloquent testimony was about the radical transformation that Jesus made in his life, proclaiming the great things the Lord had done for him.

   In fact, Jesus gives this blessing ministry of witnessing to every saved sinner. We come to Jesus; then we go for Him. The Lord invites us to come to Him in the context of the great invitation: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Then He bids us go for Him under the mandate of the great commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19).

   The Lord has set us to “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison of those who are bound” (Isaiah 61:1). In fact, telling others our testimony of what Jesus has done for us is part of our rehabilitation from bondage. “They overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11).

   This man was so grateful for his salvation from demon possession and his new life that he wanted to tell everyone. He, who is forgiven much, loves much. Mary Magdalene had seven devils cast out of her and then went on to become one of Jesus’ most devoted disciples.

   Indeed, when the demoniac left on his first mission, he was filled by a spirit-but now by a radically good Spirit, who was there as an invited guest and not as an invader.

“The man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.’ And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.” –Luke 8:38,39

Going Home

   A young man bound for the mission field found himself seated on an airplane next to Billy Graham. He eagerly told the famed evangelist how he was on his way to some remote mission station, where he confidently expected to lead many heathen to the Lord.

   Graham said that was wonderful news. Then he asked how many souls the young missionary had brought to Jesus in his family or neighborhood. Looking a little downcast and distracted, the young man responded that he had not brought anyone to the Lord yet-and then he commenced to offer a series of contrived excuses for why it was so difficult to produce converts in his hometown.

   After a prayerful pause, Graham soberly advised the young man to return home, saying, “If you have not been successful in reaching nobody in your family or neighborhood, it is likely you will not experience success in a foreign land either.”

   As Jesus began to board the boat to leave Decapolis, the newly restored man pleaded that He might accompany Him. What a transformation! The one who feared His arrival now dreaded His departure. It is likely that he even wished to become one of the Lord’s disciples.

   However, the commission Jesus gave the demoniac was considerably different from His instruction to others He had healed. Usually, He told them to keep quiet about what he had done for them (see Matthew 8:4; Luke 8:56). * The former demoniac was not to sit at Jesus’ feet indefinitely either, but to go and tell others about Jesus-beginning with those in his own home. **  So many sit in church week after week and never share their faith. As a result, their Christian experience atrophies. The “home” environment represents the best but also the most challenging training ground for developing missionaries. The first person the disciple Andrew led to Jesus after he found Him was his own brother, Peter (John 1:40, 41). When the Samaritan woman at the well learned Jesus was the Messiah, she immediately went to share the Living Water with her neighbors (John 4:28,29). Jesus even asked His disciples to begin witnessing to those who were closest at hand and then expand the circle outward-ultimately, to the far corners of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

   It is also important to note that Jesus did not command the former demoniac to go home and become a great orator, but simply to give testimony to what Jesus had done in his life. Being a witness is as simple as that! It will always be true that there is no more powerful sermon than a life that Jesus has transformed! “He went on his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him” (Luke 8:39,40). ***  

   Perhaps you have some dear family members or friends who have drifted far from God. Perhaps they are caught in a downward spiral of self-destruction. You might even wonder if your many prayers in their behalf are a waste of time. The good news is that if Jesus could reach this man, He can reach anybody!  No condition other than death itself could ever have appeared more hopeless, no bondage more complete. This man was truly as far from God as we could imagine. In other words, there is always hope, so do not ever give up on those you love.

   Before we leave this story, please take in this amazing contrast one last time:

The possessed man moves among decomposing carcasses in the shadow of the surrounding hills, snorting the cries of the foul swine. His ripped and raw flesh drags remnants of mangled shackles and chains. Screaming and moaning, his snarling mouth foaming with saliva, he wanders aimlessly among the silhouettes of caves and tombs, his stinking, naked body followed by a cloud of flies. He continually stabs at his scarred limbs with dirty rocks, and his wild eyes glare menacingly from under his dirty, matted hair.

  Isaiah 1:5, 6, describes this so well: “You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.” Before meeting Jesus, the demoniac was the ultimate picture of LOST-all capital letters! He was unclean, unsociable, unrestrained, and tormented. 

   And now, the contrast: After he came to Jesus, he was tranquil, civilized, clothed, smiling, and in his right mind.

   *There were volatile political tensions between the people of Galilee and Judea and their Roman overlords. If Jesus miracles were too widely publicized, they would have fanned the messianic hopes of the people into flames of revolt. There was no such danger in Decapolis; therefore, the mercy of the Lord was to be freely proclaimed.

  **Notice that Jesus first told the demons to go and then He told the man to go. Jesus sent the demons to the pigs, and He sent the man to the lost. It is also symbolic that the ones who took care of the pigs left to share bad news. After the demoniacs encounter with Jesus, he went to the same area to share the good news. 

***The Gospel of Luke implies that Jesus returned to this district and that because of the powerful ministry of this one man, the whole region was waiting for Jesus when He returned. That is our job too. Jesus is returning to earth very soon, and we are to do all we can though our word and example to prepare others to meet Him in peace.

   What a difference Jesus made in his life! It was the difference between light and darkness, lost and found, and life and death. Jesus can and will make the same difference in your life too! As someone once said, “When I look at myself, I wonder how I can be saved. When I look at Jesus, I wonder how I can be lost.” Whatever chains might be, Jesus can break them and set you free. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV).

   If you have not already asked Jesus to save you, ask Him to do so now. Then go and tell what great things He has done for you.

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

What then, Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:12-18).

Remember my friends…with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26