Josh1Eight

From the very onset of His ministry, Jesus was a tad unorthodox. He wasn't very old (only about 30) and He had no formal religious training. Although Jesus was in many ways very ordinary, He had a very extraordinary walk with God. In one of His very first sermons at the local Synagogue Jesus gets interrupted by a guy in the back row who is ranting and screaming like a madman. Come to find out the guy was demon-possessed. Awesome. But instead of allowing this distraction to totally derail the service, Jesus does something incredible. He commands the demon to get the "hell" out of there (literally). But hang on now. What was the devil doing at church in the first place? Doesn't he hate being in the presence of God? Who invited this demon into God's house? Not only that, this was a spiritual gathering of God's holy people who had come to worship. What's crazy is that this is one of the very first things Jesus does in this gospel to start His ministry....

(Disclaimer: this is a bizarre illustration that I don't take credit for and not necessarily one I would have picked, but then again I wasn't asked to be part of the Bible Writing Team and therefore all ideas expressed in this note are all originally God's, which are hilarious). God basically tells the prophet Jeremiah, "Hey, go buy some new underwear [boxers or briefs are not specified]" and then put them on, but don't wash them." (Jeremiah 13:1-2). God then directs Jeremiah to take off the dirty drawers and take them down to the river, dig a hole, and bury them. Pausing to comment, that's pretty weird. Imagine hearing God's instructions for you to take off your dirty underwear and go bury it in a very public place. Just a little embarrassing? Probably very. Jeremiah walks away from that experience shaking his head and thanking God for humbling him AGAIN and making him the laughing stock of the town. Oh but it gets better, God comes to Jeremiah...