What God Can Do

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

— Colossians 1:13

 

Our society doesn't really have answers for all the problems we are facing in our country today. Ironically, our society seems to do everything it can to undermine the only one who can help us, and that is Jesus Christ.

There are people caught in our legal system as repeat offenders. There are judges who make the wrong decisions. There is the breakdown of the family. And all of these elements combined produce a society that can do very little to change a person's heart, if anything at all. Rehabilitation efforts largely fail. In fact, the only real programs that seem to produce lasting change are faith-based, and more specifically, are being operated by Christians who are calling people to faith in Jesus Christ. Society doesn't have the answers.

A Certain Future

So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

— Colossians 2:10

 

After crossing the Sea of Galilee, Jesus and His disciples arrived in the region of the Gadarenes, where He was met by two pathetic, demented men who had come completely under the power of the devil.

In Luke's account of this story, he zeroes in on one of these men in particular, probably because he was the more extreme of the two. In fact, in Luke 8:27, he writes that this man didn't wear clothes and lived among the tombs. In addition, we know he would beat and bruise himself, as well as cut himself with sharp rocks. An attempt had been made to chain him up, but with superhuman strength, he was able to break the chains.

All the Power We Need

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

— 2 Peter 1:3

 

Human history has been all about power: using it, and sometimes exploiting it. First there was manpower. Then there was steam power. Now we have nuclear power. But what we seem to lack is willpower. Human beings are able to harness the powers of the universe, but we can't seem to control ourselves.

But the good news is that we serve a mighty God who will give us all the power we need to live the Christian life. Some people may say it is kind of difficult to be a Christian. But I would disagree. I don't think it is difficult to be a Christian; I think it is impossible—without the help and the power of the Holy Spirit, that is.