“Return to your house, and declare what great things God has done for you.” He went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:39
Deuteronomy 11-12
Deuteronomy 11
Rewards of Obedience
1 Therefore you shall love the Lord your God and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always. 2 Know this day—for I do not speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, 3 his signs, and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; 5 and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel; 7 but your eyes have seen all of the Lord’s great work which he did.
The Lord’s Great Blessings
8 Therefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I am giving you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you are going over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land, where you are going in to possess is not like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it manually, by foot, like an herb garden. 11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain from the sky, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares, for the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
13 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16 Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them, 17 and the Lord’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land does not yield its fruit, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.
Remember the Lord’s Words
18 Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.
22 For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I am commanding you—to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him— 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, to the western sea shall be your border. 25 No man will be able to stand before you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you.
A Blessing and a Curse
26 I am setting before you today, a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am giving you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn away from the way in which I am commanding you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
29 It shall happen, when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are going in to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31 For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it. 32 You shall be careful to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I am setting before you today.
Deuteronomy 12
One Place for Worship
1 These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall be careful to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. 3 You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out from that place. 4 You shall not do so to the Lord your God, 5 but to the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there.
6 You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there. 7 There you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 You shall not do all the things that we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.10 But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is causing you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then it shall happen that to the place which the Lord your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the Lord. 12 You shall rejoice before the Lord your God—you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
13 Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in any place that you see, 14 but in the place which the Lord chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
15 Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, according to the desire of your heart and the Lord your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.
17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you make, nor your free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; 18 but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates.
You shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you put your hand to.
19 Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20 When the Lord your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because you desire to eat meat, you may eat meat, according to all the desires of your heart. 21 If the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill from your herd and your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates, according to all the desire of your heart. 22 As the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat. 24 You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. 26 Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord shall choose. 27 You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the alter of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the alter of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat.
28 Listen to and observe all these words which I am commanding you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in eyes of the Lord your God.
Warning against Idolatry
29 When the Lord your God cuts off the nations from before you where you are going in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” 31 You shall not do so to the Lord your God, for every abomination to God, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 Whatever thing I command you, that you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
Luke 8:22-39
Jesus Stills the Storm
22 Now on one of those days, Jesus entered into a boat, he and his disciples, and he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake,” so they launched out. 23 But as they sailed, he fell asleep. A wind storm came down on the lake, and they were taking on dangerous amounts of water. 24 They came to him and woke him up, saying, “Master, master, we are dying!” He awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and it was calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” Being afraid, they marveled, saying to one another, “Who is this then, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”
Demons Cast into Pigs
26 They arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.
27 When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and did not live in a house, but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me!” 29 For Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For the unclean spirit had often seized the man. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and fetters. Breaking the bonds apart, he was driven by the demon into the desert.
30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered into him. 31 They begged him that he would not command them to go into the abyss. 32 Now there was there a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain, and they begged him that he would allow them to enter into those. Then he allowed them. 33 The demons came out of the man, and entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned. 34 When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.
35 People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 36 Those who saw it told them how he who had been possessed by demons was healed. 37 All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were terrified. Then he entered into the boat and returned. 38 But the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him that he might go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your house and declare what great things God has done for you.” He went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
Psalm 70
Come Quickly to Help Me, O Lord
For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder.
1 Hurry, God, to deliver me.
Come quickly to help me, Lord.
2 Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my life.
Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.
3 Let them be turned because of their shame
who say, “Aha! Aha!”
4 Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation continually say,
“Let God be exalted!”
5 But I am poor and needy.
Come to me quickly, God.
You are my help and my deliverer.
Lord, do not delay.
Proverbs 12:4
4 A worthy woman is the crown of her husband,
but a disgraceful wife is like rot in his bones.