Demons in Kaw-fawr Nakh-oom

Yeh-shuah often stayed in Kaw-fawr Nakh-oom, on the shores of the Sea of Gawlee-law. Whenever he was in town, great crowds came to him. On Sabbaths, many people were turned away from the synagogue because there was no more room. “Yeh-shuah teaches with authority,” the people said. “The chief teachers here don’t know anything, and when they think they do, they argue among themselves just to prove each other wrong.”

Yeh-shuah never mentioned their disagreements, but instead presented the most beautiful truths directly and simply. He met prejudice with tact, and disarmed the skeptics with illustrations taken from everyday life.

One Sabbath, while speaking about his mission to liberate the captives of the Evil One, a wild scream shattered the peace of the synagogue. “Leave us alone!” the possessed man shrieked as he broke into the room and shook his fists menacingly. “Have you come to destroy us, you, you Yeh-shuah of Nad-zorah? I know you. You are the Evil-Free One from Elo-heem!”

The congregation looked back and forth from the madman to Yeh-shuah with alarm, not knowing what was going to happen next. In a loud voice Yeh-shuah said, “Be quiet and come out of him!” The poor man thrashed wildly about on the floor until the demon came out, leaving him exhausted and breathing heavily.

“Free at last!” he croaked hoarsely. “Thank you Almighty Elo-heem for setting me free!” He turned to face Yeh-shuah and said, “I came to ask you for help, but all I could do was scream and curse.”

Yeh-shuah nodded silently at him while people exclaimed, “What’s going on? Even evil spirits obey his commands!”

Yeh-shuah said a few more words and then left the synagogue for Petros’ house to rest. When he and his disciples arrived, Petros’ mother-in-law lay sick in bed with a high fever. After Yeh-shuah spoke a few words to her, she got up perfectly healthy and prepared the meal for everyone.

As word of his work spread, many people came looking for him. On Sabbaths, though, in fear of the chief teachers, no one dared to come for healing. As soon as the sun disappeared below the horizon on the seventh day, the sick came from everywhere throughout the city, some hardly able to walk. It was late into the night when the last of the sick left and everyone else went home. Yeh-shuah slept a few hours, then, before anyone else was up, he found a solitary place to commune with his Father. Some nights he never slept, but went alone to the mountains to meditate.

He left Kaw-fawr Nakh-oom, though, when his popularity became so great that it endangered his mission. The people wanted him to become king and establish an earthly kingdom, but he wished to channel their minds from earthly things to spiritual things. A worldly kingdom at this time would fail, and only interfere with his mission.

We have subjected ourselves to years and years and centuries of indoctrination and brainwashing by allowing others to think for us and tell us what to believe, very much like other, powerful world religions. We study the the same old SS lessons, year after year after year, etc.

By stuffing our minds into a container, perhaps very much like the box our friends the Pharisees climbed into, we stifle our imaginations and block our creative thinking as we read the scriptures. When our lives on earth are over and we meet our creator at the Judgment Day, we may ask ourselves, "Why did we belive THAT? We were so blind."

Our mission here on Earth is to meet the qualifications for a job in the next life, and recruit others, too. Jesus taught and demonstrated what we need to do. His unfailing kindness, compassion, self-sacrifice, never-ending concern for the well-being of others, and his determination to enlist as many as possible into his future Kingdom should be our goals, too.

Sometimes our polluted, misguided, narrow, self-centered religion gets in the way, and pimps and whores and gays and lesbians end up being kinder, more thoughtful people who are closer to the Kingdom of God than us self-centered, possession-oriented, extremely righteousness, "truth"-possessing, church-goers.

When we want to be hired for a job we're interested in, we may go to school for training in order to have our application taken into serious consideration. So, too, we must carefully study the entire Bible, our only text book, to train ourselves for our work in the next life. It's the poor, the meek, and the humble who have the best chance for the future life, because they have nothing left but to trust in God to take care of them.

Do we, in our pride, rudeness, and egotistical behavior, hurt others and turn them away from God? If so, then we are the unfaithful servants who ultimately killed the Vineyard owner's son. Our nastiness killed the desire to love and obey God in others.

We don't have to be nasty, though. Jesus talked repeatedly about masters and servants. None of us will ever be masters in the Kingdom of God. We will be the servants. We're never happy by being nasty or selfish. True happiness comes in serving others, giving them our money for food and clothes, doing something, anything, use your imagination, to make their lives a little better by knowing that someone cares.

There will be no positions in the Kingdom of God for those who abuse or mistreat others. They will be the dust under the feet of those who truly cared enough about others to do something for them besides discussing it in church every Sabbath. We had better find people to help before it's too late. We have to let them know we care by doing something for them.