Will Vaus

Listen for God’s word to you from Mark 5:1-20… They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.   When Jesus got out of the boat,   a man with an impure spirit   came from the tombs to meet him.   This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.   For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him.   Night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.   He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me,   Jesus, Son of the Most High God?   In God’s name don’t torture me!”   For Jesus had said to him,   “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!” Then Jesus asked him,   “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,”   he replied, “for we are many.”   An...

  A German immigrant once wrote, In December 1958, I came to America from Germany on the USS Butner, a transport ship. After we left Bremerhafen we passed through the North Sea into the North Atlantic. Huge waves buffeted the ship, and every day seemed the same—water, water everywhere, to the north, the south, the east, and the west. All we could hear was the monotonous grinding of the ship’s engine. Finally, five days later, the scene changed dramatically. There was water to the east and the south, but to the west stood the Statue of Liberty gleaming in the morning sun. We had come home. Walking by faith is like this. Waves of opposition battle us, with no change in sight. In all directions there seems to be nothing, with the Lord seemingly asleep. Until a special day arrives, revealing that we have been moving according to plan.  James Hoover has written, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” These words may ring rather hollow when we, and not someone else, face a fearful or life...

Listen for God’s word to you from Mark 4:21-34… He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or wha...