compassion

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Mark 1:41 NIVWhat we touch can make us unclean. Pornography is a perfect example. Touch it and be stained. This is one reason why holiness seems so painful to so many of us. We imagine we will achieve it by not touching. I won’t touch lust, greed, envy, bitterness, pride, gluttony, hatred, perversion, gossip, and the list goes on. Keeping clean in this way can be very tiresome. Especially if something inside me wants to lust after that woman walking down…

Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. — Mark 5:5Here is a man who was in torment. He had no rest day or night. He was driven away from people and had no one to share his suffering with. He was lonely and in terrible pain.Yesterday we looked at the storm from the perspective of the disciples. God brought them through the storm so they might see a clearer picture of who Jesus is.Today I’d like to look at the storm from the perspective of this desperate, demonized…