Luke 8:28 “When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and said in a loud voice, “What do You have to do with me, Jesus, You Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don’t torment me!”

   The forces of darkness are not well understood. On one hand that is a good thing. Delving too deeply into demonology is not only dangerous, but useless. However, on the other hand, evil is not understood as well as it should be by most because good is not understood as well as it should be by most. A proper understanding of the good, will aid in perception about evil.
   This is not widely accepted, but it is true. You don’t have to be a master of evil to really know evil. In fact, those who might call themselves lords of the darkness really have no idea what they are playing with. Scripture makes it clear that those who really understand the operations of the dark ones are those who are well acquainted with the light. Those who belong to Christ and cling close to Him have much more perception concerning evil than anyone else.
   The demonic forces here did what most would not expect them to do. They proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of the Most High. Why? Why would they do this? Wouldn’t that be counterproductive? Yes and no. I say yes because they really had no choice but to submit to the Lord Jesus. So in that since they had no hope of doing anything beneficial to their cause. But no because this was still consistent with their mission. If they recognized Him though on the surface it would seem to bring glory to Him, it actually brought glory to them.
   How so? The answer is a very important concept to grasp. God cannot truly be glorified by anyone without His involvement. For instance, if a person who is antagonistic to God praises Him that does not directly bring Him glory. Now, indirectly, everything brings Him glory one way or the other. That is because He is so powerful that He can work out even the bad to turn out for the good. But, the proper way to bring Him praise and glory is to do it in accordance with His will. Thus, this demonic personality did not glorify Jesus, at least not willingly.
   What about the boon the demons ask about torment? What was their purpose? Were they just afraid? So, once again we have to understand what is going on here. The forces of darkness are ALWAYS afraid. Don’t forget that. They exist in absolute dread of The One Who Is, our God, the True and Living One. The devil himself has never yet for one moment stopped being absolutely scared half out of his mind. He is insane with fear. Everything he does is motivated by it. And, he cannot, nor will he ever, stop.
   These dark ones asked Jesus not to torment them for two reasons. First, they knew He could do much more that torment them! They were not completely sure of His intentions, but they knew His capabilities. The devil himself, I am convinced, did not fully grasp the magnitude of what Christ was about to accomplish. And why, because he couldn’t actually conceive of anything that loving or beautiful. Second, the demons hoped to cast a bad light upon Christ. To give the picture of Jesus vexing this personality implied a limitation in Christ. He needs not to test or try the forces of darkness. He needs only to command and they must obey. Much like their master, they were subtly tempting Christ. But, He wasn’t about to fall for it.
   Always remember one very important thing. The devil is a showman. And all of his minions are as well. Their most diabolical schemes will never follow the line of our expectations. This is why we need to ready the panoply of God and stand firm in resistance.

   Heavenly Father, You are so powerful that all that this world and its worst cannot even be compared with Your little finger! You are so great and wise and good, that the most studied in the arts of evil are completely caught off guard by things that the least of Your children understand readily. You are the Great and Mighty God of the Universe! You alone are able to understand the deep things of this creation of Yours. Only You can truly conceive of anything outside of it. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:27 “When He got out on land, a demon-possessed man from the town met Him. For a long time he had worn no clothes and did not stay in a house but in the tombs.”

   It is unclear why this man came to meet Jesus. Did the demonic forces in him really wish to see Jesus? Or was the man somehow in control and wanted to see Him in hopes that he would be freed? The former is more likely. The devil and his minions do not always act as we might expect. They are sly, and spend all their time thinking of evil.
   If the demons stayed away, some might think they were afraid of Jesus. If the demons met Him and He didn’t drive them out, they would be seen as stronger. Of course there was always the chance that He would prevail. But this possibility didn’t give them pause. Why? Because it never keeps the devil from doing things either. In his way of thinking, it is a risk. But, he will not run from the attempt.
   As we will see, though these demonic forces felt it best to engage their enemy, that didn’t mean they weren’t scared. And it didn’t mean that they really thought they would prevail either. They came simply because that is consistent with the way of the wicked. They are, one way or another, drawn to their own doom.
   Indeed, this was especially true of this particular group. They were in the propaganda business. This nude dude in the tombs had quite a reputation in the area, and had something of a following from the standpoint of the sale of fear. That is the business of the devil, fear and death.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for life! Thank You for love! Thank You for a sound mind! You alone can give us clarity in this world. Everywhere else we find confusion, fear, deceit, indecency, and corruption. Help us to cast out the deeds and thoughts of darkness and embrace Your light. You are the One Who knows everything. You understand things that the powers of this world can’t even dream of in their wildest imagination. You are All Powerful! Thank You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:26 ” Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.”

   As we see in the passage following, Jesus had a very specific ministry to this group of people. Indeed the Gadarenes serve as an example of how the whole world is with Christ. He comes to their area and does something that absolutely nobody else can do. And then He is pushed away. People are not sure what to do with Him, and so they let fear override and push Him out.

   Heavenly Father, help us not to serve fear, but love and truth. Give us a mind and heart full of Your Spirit! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:25 “But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”

   The translation here is intriguing. Jesus simply asks where their faith has gotten to. Its almost like saying, where is your anchor, or where is your life-jacket, or where is your boat? He says it like it is one of the things they would have automatically brought along with them. He says it like it should be a forgone conclusion.
   But so often it is not. In fact faith tends to be our last consideration, rather than our first. We will think we are very prepared for an adventure without having yet prepared our faith at all. We will journey onward without prayer, without a focus on Christ, without making trust in the Lord our foundation at the outset.
   The disciples were surely amazed. And they understood that this miracle had a special significance. People just didn’t command the weather like that. Even Elijah had to pray fervently to accomplish the drought in the time of his ministry. Joshua asked for the sun to be stilled. But these are examples of men asking God to do these signs. Jesus simply directly commanded the weather as if it was the most natural thing in all the world that it would instantly obey Him. And indeed, it is.

   Heavenly Father, Jesus is Lord of all! Thank You for Him! He is the answer to every question I have. You have shown us Yourself in Him. All praise be to You forever and ever! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:24 “And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm.”

   The disciples felt Jesus needed to know what was going on. They didn’t want Him to sleep right up to the moment of greatest peril. I wonder if any of them had a fleeting thought ‘if He is Who He says He is, why doesn’t He wake up’ since He would know what was going on?
   But, as they soon discovered, He knew exactly what was going on. Indeed, they couldn’t have sunk without Him waking. He would be sure to solve the problem in any case. But, their eagerness to wake Him showed the strength of their faith, which was fairly weak.

   Heavenly Father, You are worthy of our most confident trust. Yet so often we trust You with our words, but miss the mark with our actions. We think we need to manage everything instead of letting You handle it. You are the One Who knows everything, we can depend upon that! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:23 “But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.”

   So if Jesus is God then He should have just kept anything bad from happening, right? I mean if Jesus could calm the storm then surely He could have prevented it altogether. So why didn’t He? What was the purpose of intentionally allowing this windstorm to overtake them?
   Jesus is infinitely more powerful than we can imagine. What He can do and what He does do are often different things. This is an important thing to understand about God. He could do a lot of things with our world that He just doesn’t do. And why? It is because of His nature.
   God is totally different from the imagined gods of mankind. He isn’t fickle, limited, lazy, petty, or capricious. He is good, tremendously good, and extremely holy. He does only the most perfect things all of the time. He never does anything evil, but He also never does anything incorrectly. He doesn’t make mistakes.
   Jesus didn’t need to make the disciples lives a veritable smorgasbord of supernatural blessings in order to teach them what they needed to know. On the contrary, it seems He chose to do things the way He did in order to teach them better. He didn’t keep them from hardship or fear, but delivered them and told them not to be afraid right in the middle of all of it. And this is because their lives would be the same once He had returned to heaven.
   God doesn’t put an invisible bubble of complete protection around His children. At least, not the way we see it. He does indeed protect us, but again not as we might think. He will allow hardship, hurt, and pain to be a part of our daily lives. He wants us to love Him in the middle of all that. And why is that?
   The devil once said that Job, a great servant of God, served the Lord only because God had blessed Him. This was not the case, but God worked out the proving of this fact. And He does similar things in our lives today to show us how to have a relationship with Him in spite of anything that might come into our lives in the meantime.

   Heavenly Father, though we often have a hard time understanding, we know Your way is perfect. You know exactly what You are doing. If we can trust You today, we can trust You tomorrow. Thank You for approaching us the way You do. You are gracious, kind, and loving. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:22 “Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, ‘Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.’ And they launched out.”

   Jesus knew what would happen next. He was altogether aware of everything. Yet, He had decided to take a nap. At least that seems to be one of His purposes. His other, more primary, purpose was likely to give His disciples a test of faith. And He had everything under control.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for always having everything figured out. Never once have You been mistaken about anything. It is good to know that in our world of uncertainty. There is so much deceit and misinformation that we come into contact with all the time. Your truth is dependable! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:21 “But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

   It is not to be supposed that Jesus completely shunned His earthly family. Even on this occasion He likely went and met with them. But, on many occasions He took the opportunity to teach this important lesson about the family of God. Blood was not to be thicker than the Spirit. Though Christians are to love an care for their families, the family of God takes precedence. This is especially applicable when it comes to making a choice between the two. If family demands that a person take one course, and Jesus asks for another, the Lord should win the day.
   This was controversial in Jesus’ day and in that cultural setting. Families followed certain rules such that children and parents had certain expectations that were not to be shunned. As a result, family could control a person’s marriage, career, location, and many other aspects of life.
   Jesus did not teach a cult-like attachment to the church. Cults operate on principles of coercion and control that should never be found in the church. But, He is teaching that the individual is free to personally choose Christ over family demands as long as it is consistent with following Christ to do so. Jesus and the Apostles upheld many of the biblical teachings about our responsibility to family. So, this doesn’t teach carelessness, but freedom. Over and over Christians are told to love and care for their families. But if the your family can’t stand Christ and won’t consent to Him ruling your life, Christ takes precedence.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for clarity. It is wonderful that You minister Your truth to us. You are wise and mighty. Your words are precious to us. Each of Your precepts brings comfort to our souls. In every nuance we find a new blessing. You are amazing! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:20 “And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.”

   The desire to see Christ is strong among His followers. We long to see His face. And yet His earthly family were familiar with it. It was difficult for them to accept His significance. They knew Him, and yet they didn’t know Him. And for us now it is the other way around. We know Him, but have not yet seen Him. However, the great comfort we have is that when we shall see Him, we will see Him as He truly is, in all of His glory.

   Heavenly Father, I long to understand. I long to know and see and experience You and the Son directly. But, as it is, I am so glad that in my spirit I know and experience You. Without that we are all truly lonely in this world. Thank You for Your presence in our lives! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 8:19 “Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd.”

   We know little for certain about Jesus’ earthly family. We cannot even be sure of the purpose of this visit. In any case we know He did care for them and saw especially to the needs of His mother. And we know that His brothers were not converted until after the fact of His resurrection.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us just what we need. You care for us and nurture us. This world seeks to tear us apart, but You seek to make us whole. Thank You for the wholesomeness of Your goodness. I love You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.