Faith Conversations at Home

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our devotional today titled Faith Conversations at Home was written by John Blaise. There's no place like home.

There's no place like home. Those unforgettable lines spoken by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz reveal a storytelling device found in an overwhelming number of our most enduring stories from the likes of Star Wars to The Lion King. It's known as the hero's journey. In brief, an ordinary person is living an ordinary life when an extraordinary adventure is presented. The character leaves home and travels to a different world where tests and trials await as well as mentors and villains. If she or he passes the tests and proves heroic, then the final stage is returning home with stories to tell and wisdom gained.

The last piece is crucial. The story of the demon-possessed man in Mark chapter 5 closely parallels the hero's journey. It's interesting that in the last scene, the man begged Jesus to let him go with him. Yet, Jesus told him, go home to your people. It was important in this man's journey to return home to the people who knew him best and to tell them his amazing story. God calls each of us in different ways and to different scenarios. But for some of us, it can be crucial for our faith journey to go home and tell our story to those who know us best.

For some of us, the call is, there's no place like home. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from the Gospel of Mark chapter 5 verses 11 through 20. Jesus ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him but said, Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him.

And all the people were amazed. Now let's pray. Lord Jesus, would you give us the courage to tell of your wonderful works, and not just to strangers, but also to those who know us best, and especially those at home. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Wes Ward, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.