Fwd: 4/5/13 day 95

> 4/5/13 day 95
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> "You say I am empowered by Satan. But if Satan is divided and fighting against himself, how can his kingdom survive? And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. But if I am casting out demons by the power of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. For when a strong man like Satan is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe— until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings. "Anyone who isn't with me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me. "When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before." (Luke 11:18-26 NLT)
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> I have never read this passage from this translation before. I like this line: "For when a strong man like Satan is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe— until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings." I never got the connection between the parable of the strong man and Jesus' casting out of demons before, but this phrase "strong man like Satan," ties them together. That being said, the parable of the strong man fits perfectly here, in context! Jesus uses this as a teaching opportunity for the people that he just drove the demons out from. Jesus is trying to say to the people who he just drove the demons from, (your slate has been wiped clean, but you need to fill that hole inside you with me, or the demon will come back and take over again.) How does this relate to me? I don't have a demon? Well, one way this can relate to us is in terms of the mind. Our thought lives are a very active part of us. But when we ask God to get rid of a particular thought pattern, we can't just get rid of it. We need to REPLACE it with something, or the old thought pattern will continue to creep into our mind, until it dominates our thoughts again. I think this is what Jesus is trying to get across here. Another way to look at it is who is your god? You are going to have a god no matter what, but who or what is it? If TV was your god, and you take it out of your life, but don't replace it with God, then TV will sneak back into that place of god in your life. This teaching can go for many different aspects of our lives.
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