An Identity Crisis
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The
crime of identity theft is increasing
in America. In this crime, someone
wrongfully obtains and use’s
another’s personal data for
fraud or deception, typically for
economic gain. Unlike your
fingerprints, your personal
data-especially your Social Security
number, bank accounts or credit card
number, and telephone calling-card
personal identification number
(PIN)-can be terribly abused if they
fall into the wrong hands, profiting
others at your expense. Every day,
hundreds of people across the country
report funds stolen from their
accounts. In the worst cases,
identities, run up vast debts, and
commit crimes, leaving the victims
with destroyed credit and a criminal
record that takes years to correct.
In 1970,
in an entirely different form of
identity tampering, the federal
government established the Federal
Witness Protection Program. This
program provides a new identity to
individuals who give court testimony
or serve as witnesses in situations
where do so could endanger their
lives-for instance, in cases against
organized crime syndicates. In
exchange for valuable testimony, the
government gives each witness a
completely new identity, furnishing a
new name, legal papers, occupation,
and home. The government will even
create new histories, complete with
high school and college diplomas! In
some cases, if a witness has a
criminal record, it is wiped
perfectly clean!
God
promises His redeemed, “You
shall be called by a new name, which
the mouth of the Lord will name”
(Isaiah 62:2). God gives His children
a new identity in Christ. “To
him who overcomes I will give some of
the hidden manna to eat. And I will
give him a white stone, and on the
stone a new name written which no one
knows except him who receives
it” (Revelation 2:17).
There is
no reason for you to be confused
about who you are. Your new identity
is a grand one, with a real purpose
and a real home. “You are a
chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, His own
special people, that you may proclaim
the praises of Him who called you out
of darkness into His marvelous
light” (1 Peter 2:9).
A
naturalist visiting a farm one day
was surprised to see a beautiful
eagle in the farmer’s chicken
coop. Befuddled, he asked, “Why
in the world is that eagle living
with chickens?”
“Well,”
answered the farmer, “I found an
abandoned eagle’s egg one day
and laid it in the coop, and a
chicken adopted it and raised the
creature after it hatched. It does
not know any better; it thinks it is
a chicken.” The eagle was even
pecking at grain and strutting
awkwardly in circles.
“Does
it ever try to fly out of
there?” asked the naturalist,
noticing that the bird never lifted
its gaze. “No,” said the
farmer, “I doubt it even knows
what it means to fly.”
The
naturalist asked to take the eagle a
few days for experiments, and the
farmer agreed. The scientist placed
the eagle on a fence and pushed it
off, bellowing, “Fly!”
However, the bird just fell to the
ground and started pecking. He then
climbed to the top of a hayloft and
did the same thing, but the
frightened bird just shrieked and
fluttered ungraciously to the
barnyard, where it resumed its
strutting.
Finally,
the naturalist took the docile bird
away from the environment to which it
had grown accustomed, driving to the
highest butte in the county. After a
lengthy and sweaty climb to the
hillcrest with the bird tucked under
his arm, he peered over the edge and
then spoke gently: “You were
born to soar. It is better that you
die here today on the rocks below
than live the rest of your life being
a chicken. It is not what you
are.”
Then,
with its keen eyesight, the confused
bird spotted another eagle soaring on
the currents high above the bluff,
and a yearning was kindled within it.
The naturalist threw the majestic
beast up and over the edge, crying
out, “Fly! Fly! Fly!”
The eagle
began to tumble toward the rocks
below, but then it opened its
seven-foot span of wings and, with a
mighty screech, instinctively began
to flap them. Soon it was gliding
gracefully, climbing in ever-higher
spirals on unseen thermals into the
blue sky. Eventually, the mighty
eagle disappeared into the glare of
the morning sun. The bird had become
what it was born to be.
“Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying, All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all
nation.” –Matthew 28:18,
19, KJV
Go and Tell
When
Robert Moffat, Scottish missionary to
Africa, came back to recruit helpers
in his homeland, he was greeted by
the fury of a very cold British
winter. Arriving at the church where
he was to speak, he noted that only a
small group had braved the elements
to hear his appeal.
Although
no one responded to Moffat’s
call for volunteers for mission
service in Africa, the challenge
thrilled a young boy that had come to
work the bellows of the organ.
Deciding that he would follow in the
footsteps of the pioneer missionary,
he went to school, obtained a degree
in Medicine, married Moffat’s
daughter, Mary, and spent the rest of
his life ministering to the unreached
tribes in Africa. His name: David
Livingstone! God works in mysterious
ways to carry out His wise purposes.
Usually,
when Jesus made a journey to heal
someone, it was at the request of a
parent or friend. However, in this
unique story of the demoniac, Jesus
crossed the ocean as if commissioned
only by His heavenly Father. He made
the perilous journey to transform a
madman-whom He cleansed, clothed, and
then commissioned. It was a total
deliverance, an enormous
transformation; the man had a
brand-new purpose.
I suspect
very few churches would consider
sponsoring a missionary to cross a
stormy sea to reach just one person.
By most church standards, people
would have counted this missionary
endeavor of Jesus a bleak failure.
I can
almost hear the indignation of the
mission board as they reviewed
Jesus’ journey. “What? You
made a dangerous trip, risking the
lives of Your associates, just so You
could preach to one deranged, naked
man. And then You left after only a
few hours?”
Christ’s
trip underscores the incredible value
that God places on a single soul-one
whom most people, if honest with
themselves, would have deemed
worthless. Yet, Jesus crossed the
vast expanse of the universe to reach
just you. Yes. If you were the only
one to be saved, He would have made
the trip from heaven and died on the
cross just for you! “What do you
think? If a man has a hundred sheep,
and one of them goes astray, does he
not leave the ninety-nine and go to
the mountains to seek the one that is
straying?” (Matthew 18:12).
We learn
that the particular focus of the
man’s testimony was in the
region of Decapolis. “He
departed and began to proclaim in
Decapolis all that Jesus had done for
him; and all marveled” (Mark
5:20).
As I
mentioned earlier, Decapolis was a
federation of ten cities (deka
means “ten”; polis
means “city”) that lay east
of Galilee and the Jordan River. If
you had interviewed al the residents
of Decapolis and asked them to vote
for the most unlikely candidate for
conversion, this nameless man would
have won the vote unanimously. Yet
Jesus crossed a stormy sea to save
this one man, and then He made Him
His first missionary.
That’s
right! Jesus sent this man out
preaching even before He sent out the
disciples on their first preaching
tour. The converted demoniac became
Jesus’ first missionary. There
can be little doubt that his most
eloquent testimony was about the
radical transformation that Jesus
made in his life, proclaiming the
great things the Lord had done for
him.
In fact,
Jesus gives this blessing ministry of
witnessing to every saved sinner. We
come to Jesus; then we go for Him.
The Lord invites us to come to Him in
the context of the great invitation:
“Come to Me, all you who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Then
He bids us go for Him under the
mandate of the great commission:
“Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations” (Matthew
28:19).
The Lord
has set us to “proclaim liberty
to the captives, and the opening of
the prison of those who are
bound” (Isaiah 61:1). In fact,
telling others our testimony of what
Jesus has done for us is part of our
rehabilitation from bondage.
“They overcame him [Satan] by
the blood of the Lamb and by the word
of their testimony” (Revelation
12:11).
This man
was so grateful for his salvation
from demon possession and his new
life that he wanted to tell everyone.
He, who is forgiven much, loves much.
Mary Magdalene had seven devils cast
out of her and then went on to become
one of Jesus’ most devoted
disciples.
Indeed,
when the demoniac left on his first
mission, he was filled by a
spirit-but now by a radically good
Spirit, who was there as an invited
guest and not as an invader.
“The man from
whom the demons had departed begged
Him that he might be with Him. But
Jesus sent him away, saying,
‘Return to your own house, and
tell what great things God has done
for you.’ And he went his way
and proclaimed throughout the whole
city what great things Jesus had done
for him.” –Luke 8:38,39
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