There is no place for the devil in my life

Good morning, happy Wednesday, and many blessings my dear Holyrood family.

In today's Gospel, Matthew 8: 28-34, it is shown that Satan, or the Devil, is afraid of Jesus. Is a story of how we can overcome evil. But we also learn that first we must start with ourselves, and any demonic influence, then we can be pure and ready to help another break free.

As Christians, we often make one of two mistakes, or ignore Satan and the demons and pretend that they have no power and are nothing more than myths or past problems, or we stop at them and give them credit for every misfortune, illness or problem that enters our lives. There is something that you need to sure about. The Devil and Demons are real. There is a negative energy that tries to destroy the positive energy, an evil that tries to destroy what is right. There are also devilish thoughts and there are devilish people. There are good people with devilish actions and there are bad people with devilish actions.

The two men in today’s story were possessed or oppressed or something by the enemy. I don't know a lot about demons, haven't spent a lot of time studying them and don't intend to.

This is what I know. The word Demon is mentioned 89 times in the bible, the first being in Deuteronomy 32:17 They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared. And the last being in Revelation 18:2 He gave a mighty shout: "Babylon is fallen-that great city is fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a hideout for every foul spirit, a hideout for every foul vulture and every foul and dreadful animal. The term "evil spirits" is used 38 times, Devil 41 times and Satan 67 times. If you combine them you get a total of 146 time that demons, evil spirits, the Devil or Satan are mentioned in the Bible.

The Name Jesus is mentioned 1552 times, Christ is mentioned 560 times, Holy Spirit 138 times and God 5271 times. For a total of 7,521 times. 235 times vs 7,521 times. So, who do you think we should be focused on? The bad guys or the good guys. And again, I know we can't ignore the reality of spiritual warfare and demons and evil spirits, they are there, but let's not obsess over them.

There are people, even in the church, who love doing devilish jobs for the purpose of doing wrong and destroy. What I want is for you to know today Jesus Did What He Went to Do I understand that there is a battle to be fought but the reality is the war has been won. The demons knew that, Jesus knew that, and you need to know that Here is your promise for today. Romans 8:38; And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow-not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

Do you believe that promise today? Do you want it to be a reality in your life? God is in control and he wants to be in control of your life. We can get into all kinds of discussions about who can be oppressed or possessed by demons and who can't be, but I really think a lot of it comes down to a personal choice. If you are one hundred percent committed to God, there will be no room for demons in your life. They can't be in his presence.

Blessings

Fr. Luis+