Luke 8: 26-39

Illustrated New Resources

  • What's in a Name?

    by Jazzy Bostock
    In the 1590s, William Shakespeare penned the line, “What’s in a name?” as part of a longer soliloquy that Juliet speaks to herself. She discovers Romeo’s family name and is dismayed – the Montagues and the Capulets have been feuding for years. The boy she is interested in is expressly forbidden to her. And so, she begins to work it through. “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” she begins. As she goes on, the line comes out, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” As in – the name for something or someone doesn’t matter – it is one’s essence that makes a difference. This line reverberates through these readings because of their connection to identity – to names and namelessness. What’s in a name?...
  • What Are You Doing?

    by Jim Eaton
    At one time I was the pastor of an old New England church, one founded when Connecticut was a colony. It was a small congregation with a big building and a trust fund that had become a kind of cave, a source of security. When some parents in our area began to talk about creating a Montessori preschool, it caused a lot of discussion in the church. It would take up space; it would cost a lot of money In the way of Congregationalists, this all came to a head at a meeting. Honestly, I thought the plan might well fail; caves are comfortable places. Several people talked about the insurance, the problems of having outsiders in the church, the cost and so on. Then one of our oldest members slowly pushed her cane down stood up and said, “I don’t know why we’re arguing, this church founded the high school here in this town and several Sunday schools. It’s what we’ve always done and we should keep doing it.” There was a little silence; suddenly that church remembered it’s mission. When the vote was called, it was unanimous and we went forward and today that school is almost twenty years old. It wasn’t a miracle; it was a plan that came from asking, “What are you doing, Lord?”—and doing that...
  • Sermon Starters (Proper 7C)(2022)

    by Scott Hoezee
    I once read a story about Tommy, a little six-year-old boy in Kindergarten. For a couple of weeks before Christmas all the children in the class worked on a very special present for their parents and on the final day of school before the Christmas holiday vacation, each child, including Tommy, took the special present home, all wrapped up in pretty paper. Tommy’s father and mother waited for him outside the school, and when Tommy saw them, he eagerly began to run to them, carrying the special present in front of him. But in his excitement he tripped and he fell and the special present went flying through the air and landed with a sickening ceramic crash. Tommy began to weep and to cry so hard. His father tried to be strong. “It doesn’t matter, son” the father said, “it just doesn’t matter.” But Tommy’s mother was wiser. She knelt down next to her brokenhearted child and said, “Oh but it does matter—it matters very much” and she began to weep with her son...

Other New Resources

Recommended Resources

{Based on requests from several members (although I am reluctant to do so since my favorites may not be those of others), I am listing here some of my own favorite resources. FWIW!!]

Illustrated Resources from 2019 to 2021

  • Dealing with the Devil

    by Jim Chern
    “A Night with an Exorcist.” It’s amazing that just posting that online or on some flyers around campus the response we received. To this day, this event remains the most popular program Newman Catholic at Montclair State has held over the last decade. In fact, it was so popular in 2011 that we repeated it in 2016 (one benefit to campus ministry is the ability to recycle something once the student population has completely turned over). It was also one of the easiest things to arrange. We reserved the University Conference center which could seat well over 700 people; reached out to Fr. Vincent Lampert who is the official exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and was trained at the Vatican for this task over 15 years ago to see if he was available and willing to come (which he generously was) and then did a little publicity. Both times we had standing room only attendance with people sitting on the edge of their seats for over an hour and a half and staying for another hour for Questions and Answers. There was no refreshments or enticements. It was the easiest program to promote and generate interest...
  • Sermon Starters (Proper 7C)(2019)

    by Scott Hoezee
    In his perennially best-selling book years ago, The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck opened by saying that across his many years of practice as a psychologist, the number one obstacle he encountered in helping people get better had nothing to do with stubborn chemical imbalances in the brain that were resistant to medication but rather the #1 obstacle was people’s unwillingness to do the hard things that needed doing to make the necessary changes in their behavior. It’s not that Dr. Peck could not come up with good programs of activities people could engage in that would make a difference. But getting people to act on those programs . . . well, as Johnny Carson used to like to say, you can lead a horse to water but to get him to swim the backstroke is tough!
  • Demons or Baggage: Stop and Listen

    by Dawn Hutchings
    Bobby wasn’t like any other 10-year-old boy. Bobby had the face of an angel but the temperament of a devil. Bobby was a beautiful child. His blond hair and blue eyes together with his alabaster skin, pointed toward his Scandinavian heritage. At first sight, Bobby appeared to be the kind of child that any congregation would be proud to count as a member. But, Bobby’s physical appearance was deceiving and Bobby’s presence in church was not welcome. Bobby didn’t go down to Sunday school classes with the other children. The Sunday school teachers had tried to include Bobby, but after several parents threatened to withdraw their children, they asked Bobby’s parents not to send Bobby anymore. So Bobby stayed in the sanctuary with the adults. Most of the adult members tried to tolerate Bobby’s presence but for some, Bobby’s presence was simply unnerving. Bobby is autistic. Sitting and behaving in church was impossible for him. As long as we were singing hymns, Bobby was happy. He would catch the rhythms of the music and rock back and forth and sing. He never sang the same words as the rest of the congregation. But it was clear from his movements and the sounds that emanated from his lips that Bobby was singing. The trouble was that Bobby never stopped singing when we did. When his parents would attempt to put an end to Bobby’s song, he would flail about and sometime throw himself on the floor...
  • Inviting Us Out of the Tombs

    by David Lose
    There are very likely folks in your congregation who have experienced homelessness or been on the brink of that experience. Others “live in the tombs” and in the place of death more metaphorically, but no less painfully. Those trapped by mental illness or addiction. Those in abusive relationships. Those who feel terribly alone. Those who feel that something they’ve done, or something that has been done to them, disqualifies them from acceptance. Those who have been rejected because they do not conform to the norms and identities with which we are most comfortable. Those who struggle to find any sense of value in themselves or purpose in life. And the list goes on. Indeed, broadening what it means to “live in the tombs” in this way, there is likely not a single person who has not had this experience...
  • A Scene So Terrible (Luke)

    Art and Faith by Lynn Miller
    The people were unable to bear the sight (Luke 8:26-39). In the context of this story of healing - where Jesus made whole the man who had been possessed by a "Legion" of demon spirits, this was the moment that the people just could not handle. It was a scene that might have looked like the one below...
  • Name Your Demons

    by David Sellery
    In the hours immediately after five of their children were gunned down in their schoolhouse by a man possessed by some unknown demon, the grieving Amish community offered this prayer: “I pray for this man’s wife and the load she must be carrying. Father, help her deal with this in the hard days ahead.” Later one grieving parent added: “I realize that if I didn’t forgive him, I would have the same hole in my heart that he had… The devil feels like he’s had a heyday. But people all over the world are praying for us.”...
  • What Happens When You're Not Prepared for What Happens?

    Sermon Starter by Leonard Sweet
    I would like to call your attention to a movie, Cheaper By The Dozen, starring Steve Martin. There are numerous scenes in this movie that illustrate how one father tries to take care of things while his wife is away. This movie is about a father who has just gotten his dream job of coaching football at his college alma mater. But this job change calls for him, his wife, their twelve children - yes, twelve - to move from their beloved home and community in order for Dad to get his wish fulfilled. No sooner have they settled into their new home, than his wife, who has been writing a book on how to successfully raise twelve children, is off to New York City to clinch a deal to have her book published. She learns that the deal also involves obligatory cross-country tour engagements to promote it. Meanwhile, Coach/Dad is back home trying to handle this tribe and his new job at the university. The truth is, there is just too much going on for anyone to manage all this...
  • Going Sane

    by Carl Wilton
    The preacher Frederick Speakman once told the story of an endearing and somewhat sad character in a small Pennsylvania mining town: the town drunk. Week in and week out, the drunk could be found on the sidewalk, sleeping off the last night’s excess. His clothes were shabby, his behavior less than socially acceptable; but he was “one of them,” so his neighbors tolerated him. Once a year, in the summer, things would change. Summer was when the tent-meeting revival came to town. In the front row, every year, sat the town drunk. And every year, on the last night of the revival, he would walk down the aisle and promise the whole community he would change.The man wasn’t being false. For the next few weeks he wouldn’t go near a bar. His threadbare clothes would look a little neater. He’d enter into the life of the town, going to church, attending social functions. But every year a strange thing happened:when he was sober, no one would talk to him. He made them uncomfortable. The people found a reformed town drunk much harder to handle than an unreformed one...
  • Images of Miracles

    Compiled by Jenee Woodard
  • Images of Satan/Demons

    Compiled by Jenee Woodard
  • Movies/Scenes Representing Satan

    Compiled by Jenee Woodard

Illustrated Resources from 2016 to 2018

  • Relationships Are Tricky

    by Richard Burden
    Marriage signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and Christ’s church. And as such it is a model for all Christian relationships, every one of which is to be based in mutual joy, shared help and comfort, in sickness and health, in prosperity and adversity. Marriage, in other words, is a microcosm of community. And like all communities it requires well-formed individuals who are committed to the well-being of the whole. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke speaks to this understanding. In one of his letters when he writes: “Marriage is in many ways a simplification of life, and it naturally combines the strengths and wills of two people so that, together, they seem to reach farther into the future than they did before…The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of their solitude… A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side by side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.”...
  • On Pigs and Sacrifice and Foreshadowing

    by Janet Hunt
    it was the spring of 1960 when my mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. While she tested positive, the extent of her infection was extremely small --- about the size of a dime on one lung. No matter. Her doctor reacted quickly and had her admitted to Muirdale TB Sanatorium near Milwaukee. When she first arrived, they said she could expect to be there for six months. (It turns out her stay in that place was much shorter. After nine weeks they determined what had been so from the start: she wasn't really sick and they let her go home.)
  • A Chevy Nova, Tea and the One in Which We Live and Move and Have Our Being

    by Dawn Hutchings
    In his book, A New Harmony the Scottish mystic John Philip Newell tells a story about his first trip to India. “One day,” says Newell, “as I sat in the Lal Bagh Gardens in Bangalore, I was approached by an elderly Indian gentleman. He greeted us kindly and we entered into conversation. After a few pleasantries, in which I learned that he was a retired banker, he said with a gentle sideways wagging of his head, “I have one question for you. Who are you?”
  • Demons or Baggage? Stop and Listen.

    by Dawn Hutchings
    Bobby wasn’t like any other 10-year-old boy. Bobby had the face of an angel but the temperament of a devil. Bobby was a beautiful child. His blond hair and blue eyes together with his alabaster skin, pointed toward his Scandinavian heritage. At first sight, Bobby appeared to be the kind of child that any congregation would be proud to count as a member. But, Bobby’s physical appearance was deceiving and Bobby’s presence in church was not welcome. Bobby didn’t go down to Sunday school classes with the other children. The Sunday school teachers had tried to include Bobby, but after several parents threatened to withdraw their children, they asked Bobby’s parents not to send Bobby anymore. So Bobby stayed in the sanctuary with the adults. Most of the adult members tried to tolerate Bobby’s presence but for some, Bobby’s presence was simply unnerving. Bobby is autistic.
  • God in the Shadowlands

    by David Lose
    All of which means that Jesus, the Jewish itinerant rabbi proclaiming the coming kingdom of God, goes to an unclean land to meet a man possessed by an unclean spirit living in an unclean place. This is, in short, the very last place Jesus should be. Which, when you think about it, is where God usually shows up. At our moments of profound doubt, grief, loss, and defeat. And – and this is the one that often surprises us – among those who may to this point have little interest in, let alone relationship with, God.
  • Ordinary 12C (2016)

    by LaDonna Sanders Nkosi
    On a recent mission trip to South Africa, I encountered these words from the late president Nelson Mandela: “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” The difference between being free and being bound is at the center of our Gospel text this week...
  • Freedom Is Scary

    by Joseph Peters-Mathews
    Longing for freedom, being scared when it is offered, and doubting or fearing those who have experienced it are not limited to Jesus’ casting demons from a man across from Galilee. It’s discussed and experienced when talking about crab mentality. Contemporary lyricist Greg Kotis notes it in the song “Run, freedom run” from Urinetown. Unlike crabs in a bucket or those bound in Plato’s cave, the characters in Urinetown name their fear. Their revolutionary leader says, “As well you should be. Freedom is scary. It’s a blast of cool wind that burns your face to wake you up.”
  • Healing the Angry Young Man

    by Nancy Rockwell
    And if we are the Gerasenes, who is our young madman? As the nation has honored the life of Muhammad Ali, it has been important to acknowledge that he has been one such young man. Barely schooled and barely literate, Ali found the world of boxing and, believing in his own ability to excel despite continual rejection for his race and his learning disabilities, Ali did excel. In Elijah Muhammed Ali found a rabbi to speak to his angers and fears, which his childhood experience of Christianity did not do for him.
  • Name Your Demons

    by David Sellery
    In the hours immediately after five of their children were gunned down in their school house by a man possessed by some unknown demon, the grieving Amish community offered this prayer: “I pray for this man’s wife and the load she must be carrying. Father, help her deal with this in the hard days ahead.” Later one grieving parent added: “I realize that if I didn’t forgive him, I would have the same hole in my heart that he had… The devil feels like he’s had a heyday. But people all over the world are praying for us.”
  • Proper 7C (2022)

    by Richard Swanson
    And then came the events in the club in Orlando. I have no use for analyses that wonder about whether the murderer was driven by demons, and commentators who suggest that mental illness played a role have, at least to this point, contributed nothing of great use. Most of them seem to imagine that postulating mental illness makes everything easier, either because it diverts political attention away from demands that assault weapons be banned, or because it provides a (too) easy argument for the impact of putting a rigorous system of background checks in place before people can buy weapons.
  • What Happens When You're Not Prepared for What Happens

    Sermon Starter by Leonard Sweet
    I would like to call your attention to a movie, Cheaper By The Dozen, starring Steve Martin. There are numerous scenes in this movie that illustrate how one father tries to take care of things while his wife is away. This movie is about a father who has just gotten his dream job of coaching football at his college alma mater. But this job change calls for him, his wife, their twelve children - yes, twelve - to move from their beloved home and community in order for Dad to get his wish fulfilled. No sooner have they settled into their new home, than his wife, who has been writing a book on how to successfully raise twelve children, is off to New York City to clinch a deal to have her book published. She learns that the deal also involves obligatory cross-country tour engagements to promote it. Meanwhile, Coach/Dad is back home trying to handle this tribe and his new job at the university. The truth is, there is just too much going on for anyone to manage all this.

Illustrated Resources from 2010 to 2015

  • Lectionary Lab (Proper 7C)(2013)

    by Delmer Chilton
    "A Lutheran pastor was visiting a very sick parishioner in the hospital? She sat by the bedside, talking about life and love, and God's mysterious will and Jesus' loving ways. After a while, she took out her old and battered Occasional Services book and communion kit and celebrated a bedside Eucharist. Almost absent-mindedly, she finished the service by anointing the patient's head with oil and praying a prayer for healing..."
  • Pinky and Perky

    by John Filsak
    ("So there were , happily minding their own business, along with a herd of other pigs on the slopes above the Sea of Galilee. Suddenly there's a bit of a commotion in the middle distance, and, without warning, the pigs hurtle down the slope into the lake, where they drown...")
  • Proper 7C (2010)

    by Scott Hoezee
    ("A mouth was involved in this story and we might well reflect on it. The Scriptures often speak of the importance of the mouth - to speak the truth, to bless others, and to praise God. A mouth can also be captive to evil and speak lies and profanities. Here is a mouth that does both...")
  • On Giving God the Credit

    by John Jewell
    ("A medical resident caught me as I .entered the ER, pulled me aside and filled me in on a young woman who had arrived in restraints with three EMTs to handle her. The resident was wide eyed and somewhat hyper, 'Man, I've never seen anything like this. I shot her with enough thorazine to put down a horse!' I could hear her screaming incoherently...")
  • Naming Demons: Reclaiming the God in You

    by Kari Henkelmann Keyl
    ("They tried to make her go to rehab, and she said… no, no, no. Singer Amy Winehouse became famous as the Grammy Award winner who won't go, go, go, with her song of resistance, Rehab in 2006. She has been in and out of rehab since then, reportedly finding some health, but it hasn't been easy...")
  • The Cost of Healing

    by Luke Powery
    Jessica Yang knew this as an 11th grader when she wrote a reflection called “The Cost of Healing.” In her own words, “Ever since elementary school, I have dreamed of becoming a doctor - I wanted to cure illness and make people feel better. My dream job was specifically to be a pediatrician, because I thought getting to talk with kids and to work with their parents would be fun and really cool, and I would be helping them. Now as a high school student thinking practically about my college and future career goals, I wonder whether I will be able to realize this dream.” She questions her dream because of the cost of higher education — college and medical school — and the loan debt many face and the difficulty in trying to pay off those loans at times.
  • Proper 7C (2010)

    by Steve Saxe
    In St. Luke's account, this exorcism occurs in between events that display Jesus' divine power: Jesus' authority over wind and water in the calming of a storm, and His authority and power over and death in the raising of Jairus' daughter. When combined with those two miraculous events, the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac would have made a very clear statement about Jesus' identity to observant Jews familiar with messianic prophecy...
  • Jesus' Ten Commandments

    Sermon Starter by Leonard Sweet
    ["From Mary Shelly's Frankenstein to The Nightmare on Elm Street's 'Freddy', from Friday the Thirteenth's 'Jason' to Stephanie Meier's vampire 'Voltaire', we are always creating new monsters. Why are we constantly on the lookout for bigger, scarier "bumps in the night"?..."]
  • Proper 7C (2013)

    by David Zersen
    The demonic's real problem was that he was excluded from society, abandoned by his family and left to cope with solitude. He wasn't in a prison, in a real sense, but in a figurative sense he might as well have been. In a recent editorial, a comparison of the views of David Brooks and Thomas Friedman clarifies this. Friedman has written about the hyper-connectivity among people in our society resulting from technology and communication...

Illustrated Resources from the Archives

  • Our Many Selves

    by Mickey Anders
    ("At 94, for reasons known only to herself, Carrie Miller, of Wynne, Arkansas, decided it was time to die. She planned her passing in the meticulous, unflinching fashion for which she was known, even taking the time to leave a short note for her longtime housekeeper, Mabel. Her explanation was brief and to the point: You'll find me in my car, in the same place my husband was killed...")
  • Evil

    by Judy Boli
    ("Before I retired from teaching, Mr. Spencer Porter was often the art teacher assigned to work with my fifth grade students. He was one of the best art teachers I have ever seen. If the youngsters were doing art on paper, he would start passing out the supplies...")
  • Proper 7C (2007)

    from the Center for Excellence in Preaching
    ("In this best-selling book The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck famously began by saying that after many years of clinical experience, he had concluded that the number one problem most people have in life is that they are finally unwilling to do the things that would bring positive change to their lives...")
  • Acting Kindly in Jesus' Name

    by John Christianson
    ("I called on a woman in my congregation who was having a bitter feud with another woman. It was threatening to draw others in and do real damage to the congregation. I called on one of the women – the one I thought had the key to the problem. We visited about twenty minutes, and then I started to raise the issue, as carefully as I was able to....")
  • The Legacy of Legion: Jesus and Mental Illness

    by Nancy Cushman
    ("at a former church we had a seriously mentally ill woman come looking for help. She was dangerously dehydrated and obviously not eating much. She did not have shoes or underclothes on. We gave her water and some food which she couldn’t keep down. Then we called 911 for help...")
  • The Deliverance of the Demoniac

    by Robert Deffinbaugh
    ("I was walking to my room at a conference center where I had been invited to teach for a week. Standing in my path was a handsome young man, twenty-seven years of age, dressed in army fatigues. His manner was strange and threatening. His voice was flat and colorless. His eyes looked cold and empty. I felt fear as I looked at him....")
  • Ordinary 12C (2001)

    by Todd Donatelli
    ("First, for powers to be exorcised, they must be named. Getting powers to be named is not always an easy task. The reality of denial is nothing new, and the reality of denial reminds me of a story where a gentlemen is browsing through the shop of a blacksmith....")
  • And the Pigs Went Wild

    by Gwen Drake
    "Anne Lamott wrote a book entitled Bird by Bird. She writes about perfectionism like it is a demon. She says, 'Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life..."
  • Proper 7C (2007)

    by John Filsak
    ("Did anybody do a modern languages "A" level in the 1970's? There was a bit where you had to write a little essay on some topic or other, like Should Britain join the Common Market? Or Will Decimalisation be a Disaster? We were taught the right way to do it. First an introduction, then points in favour of your argument, then points against, finally a conclusion...")
  • Lord of the Silence

    Narrative Sermon by Frank Fisher
  • A Healing Name

    by Don Hoffman
    ("Back in the 1950’s a new book was written, followed by a movie, that utterly shocked and fascinated people. The book and movie were called The Three Faces of Eve. Eve apparently had several personalities inhabiting a single body, something we hadn’t thought was possible, before...")
  • What Is Your Name?

    Narrative Sermon by Don Hoffman
    ("My name is MOB, for I am an unruly crowd. My name is MOB, for I am a person of many parts that push and pull against one another. I am filled with contrasts and conflicts, enthusiasms and panics, brave adventures and wild terrors, noble beginnings and tragic endings...")
  • Freedom From Dark Powers

    by John Jewell
    ("M. Scott Peck in his book People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, has a provocative word for those who are closed to the idea of the devil. In his chapter on 'Possession and Exorcism' Peck raises the question, 'Does the Devil Exist' and offers this personal reflection...")
  • Beyond Despair

    by David Leininger
    ("Jim Wallis began his address by recounting another speaking engagement, this one not at a university, but rather at Sing Sing. The invitation letter had come from the prisoners themselves and it sounded like a good idea, so he wrote back asking when they wanted him to come. In his return letter, the young Sing Sing resident replied, 'Well, we're free most nights! We're kind of a captive audience here.'...")
  • Are You Addicted?

    by David Martyn
    ("Clarence Jordan who wrote The Cotton Patch Gospels suggests this modern scenario. It is a large hog operation just over the border from Galilee, a 'bootleg pork' enterprise catering to good Jews who had to leave town to enjoy a good pork tenderloin or ham on rye...")
  • The Truth Is Out There

    by David Martyn
    "This weekend is the opening of the X-Files movie. The tag line of the movie and each television episode is 'The truth is out there'. In case you have never watched the show you need to know that the truth they chase is far from the garden variety. Often it’s extraterrestrial..."
  • Mad Men and Deviled Ham

    by Jim McCrea
    ("A year or so ago, the Des Moines Register ran an article about a homeless man named Eddie, who lives in downtown Des Moines. Eddie used to be a construction worker, but hasn't been able to work since a construction accident in 1992. Between 1991 and 2000, he had been convicted on criminal charges 92 times. Mostly, they were things like trespassing and public intoxication...")
  • What's Possessing You?

    by Jim McCrea
    ("In their best-selling book Small Miracles, Yetta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal tell the story of a father and son in Cleveland who had a tragic falling-out. Joey Riklis decided to drop out of college, quit his job and travel to India to seek enlightenment. None of that really bothered his father, who felt that everyone needs to find their own way through life...")
  • When Jesus Comes to Visit

    by James Moor
    ("The dramatic change in this troubled man's life is the kind of transformation sung about by U2 in the song When Love Comes to Town. The verses tell the story of a life marked by betrayal, confusion, and lossness, a life changed when it is confronted by a great robust love. 'I did what I did before love came to town,' says the chorus...")
  • Ordinary 12C (2004)

    by Paul O'Reilly, SJ
    "A long time ago, I brought a group of mentally handicapped people to a Safari Park. That is a kind of zoo where the animals are kept free to roam in the park and the visitors drive through in vehicles. As we came round one corner, there was a full grown lion right by the side of the road. Emily ­ a beautiful child at the age of about 35 - had her nose right up to the window...."
  • Disposing of Demons

    by John Pavelko
    ("Richard Foster in his book on prayer tells us that even the famous church leader Saint Augustine was at one time a healthy skeptic. The famous bishop questioned whether people could still be healed four hundred years after the death of his Lord...")
  • When We Say, 'Enough'!

    by Michael Phillips
    ("A great movie, in case you haven’t seen it, yet, is The Legend of Bagger Vance. The setting for the story is the deep south (Savannah, GA) amidst the great depression. The main characters are Captain Juna, played by Matt Damon, a Golf Caddy, played by Will Smith, and Juna’s high school/pre-war sweetheart played by Charlize Theron...")
  • They Asked Jesus to Leave

    by Chandler Stokes
    ("In the family systems theory of Edwin Friedman he teaches therapists to support the healthiest members of the family system, not the identified patient....")
  • Surrendering to the Power of Healing

    by Alex Thomas
    ("Jesus calls us the faith that can make healing possible. 'But faith means being grasped by a power that is greater than we are, a power that shakes us and turns us, and transforms us and heals us. Surrender to this power is faith. The people whom Jesus could heal and can heal are those who did and do this self-surrender to the healing power in him...")
  • Men and Their Caves

    by Keith Wagner
    ("In his popular book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, John Gray describes the syndrome of how men go to their caves to cope with stress. It is one of the biggest differences between men and women. When women cope with stress they are overwhelmed and emotionally involved. Men, on the other hand, withdraw, they go to their cave...")
  • Proper 7C (2004)

    by Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
    ("Some of you may remember a Fifth Estate television program, several years ago, about certain persons with multiple personalities. Toward the end of this segment of the show, the issue arose about how people suffering from this disturbing condition could be helped to integrate their various personalities and become just one personality...")
  • Identifying with the Scapegoats

    by David Zersen
    Many ancient religious systems employed a type of scapegoating which involved sacrifice. One of the most colorful modern presentations of this occurs in the Mel Gibson's movie Apocalyptico. The apocalyptic character of the story lay in the realization for the viewer that the mistreatment of the native peoples at the hands of the Mayan religious leadership was soon to be repeated with the arrival of the Christian leadership...
  • Healing

    by Tim Zingale
    ("Once there was a very wealthy young man who lived in a great,elaborate house with dozens of rooms. Each room was more comfortable and more beautiful than the one before it. One day he decided to invite the Lord to come and stay with him. When the Lord arrived, this young man offered Him the very best room in the house....")
  • Proper 7C (2004)

    by Samuel Zumwalt
    An old friend, a former pastor who’s been working the Alcoholics Anonymous program since 1981, used to say to me, 'Most of the demons are inside'. Memories of parental neglect or abuse of some sort are inside. Memories of childhood taunts and humiliations are inside...

Other Resources from 2019 to 2021

Other Resources from 2013 to 2015

Other Resources from 2010 to 2012

Other Resources from the Archives

Children's Resources

The Classics

Recursos en Español