Foment is momentum

When you get a scraped knee, what do you do? You pour some hydrogen peroxide on it and it foams and stings at the site of the wound. The fomentation is a signal that cleansing is taking place. When a wound heals, it expels pus, also a good sign, however icky it might be.

Likewise, when Christ began his public ministry, espcially as recorded in the Gospel of Mark, each time he set forth, he cast out demons. It was such a commonplace activity that the Gospel writer stopped mentioning it or seems to toss it in with other healings, almost with a nonchalance, as though that's just an average day in the life of a Messiah.

Think about that for a minute. Wherever Christ went, what announces his arrival in many cases is the screaming anguish of a possessed individual as the demons flee. There were some dramatic scenarios in which the person foamed at the mouth, yet in every instance, the demons cowered before the God-Man, acknowledging His power over them.

It had to have been quite a spectacle, not unlike what some of us have witnesed at 320 Fulton. People screaming, confrontations, all signals that healing work is being done. As the Body of Christ, we should come forward expecting these kind of results. It's what happens when Christ steps into a place of sin and woundedness. He heals, He casts out demons, and there may be fomentation, but that precedes the miracle of healing that follows.

The dispossessed in Mark's Gospel not only were restored in their body, they were now cleansed, free to move about society once again, restored to personhood, with dignity. They could stand whole and hale once more.

We yearn for this outcome at 320 Fulton- do we dare question God's ways when our prayers are clearly being answered? Healing will come. The restoration of dignity and personhood will come. The demons will be driven away and their wrath will be powerless. Let us continue to invite the Prince of Peace, who no power on earth could overcome, to restore 320 and the souls therein. May His will be done! AMEN! Peace be with you~