It's been a little while since I've posted here.

Over the last week, there has been some discussion, and some rather heated debate, about the issue of demon possession. Yeah, it's a heavy topic that a lot of people don't like to think about much (I'm probably included in that category) but it's something that is relevant to our church at the moment. One person who has attended our church for a while has received deliverance prayers because it is the opinion of some of our prayer team that this particular person has demons, due to their deep involvement with Hindu spirituality in the past. I don't want to speculate one way or the other whether this person is demon possessed, but I am really wanting to shape my view first from the Bible rather than what I am experiencing or seeing. I believe that the Bible is the standard by which I can interpret the experiental.

Demon possession is mentioned in Scripture. Throughout his ministry on earth, Jesus healed people who were sick and delivered people who were possessed by demons (eg. Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 17:14-23). I'm not sure how common demon possession is, but I can see from the Bible that it is possible for people who aren't Christian. Where I disagree with the guest preacher who visited my church last week, is that I don't believe a Christian can be possessed by demons. By 'Christian' I mean someone who trusts in Jesus' death and resurrection, and therefore has received the Holy Spirit, not just someone who goes to church. Every Christian still struggles with sin, and needs to keep putting the old self to death. Christians can definitely be tempted by the devil, or by demons. I do not believe, though, that a demon can dwell in the same place as the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, the presence of God was symbolised by the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and later the Temple. When sinful people tried to enter into the presence of God, they died. Evil cannot dwell in the same place as God's holiness. Corinthians 6:19 says that the physical body of a Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit. As the presence of the Lord dwelt within the Tabernacle or the Temple in the Old Testament, the presence of the Lord dwells within Christians through the Holy Spirit.

I'm still thinking about this issue and talking about it with people. Most of the people at church I've talked to tend to agree with me, but a few don't. This is just a quick presentation on what is a really complicated topic.

Praise for answered prayers

Just a little example of how God is faithful and how he answers prayer. Yesterday was the first day of Sunday School for the new term. Sunday School generally runs smoothly but there are a few difficulties that occasionally arise. The first one is that there is hardly anyone in the girls' class, and often no-one to teach them when the girls actually do turn up. The second one is that the boys, who are in my class, can get really rowdy and distracted, and two of them in particular can get aggressive towards eachother. High energy and noise in Sunday School is fine...it's just when they're so distracted they don't actually learn anything then it's a problem.

So, it's always really important to pray before a lesson. I prayed that God would bring the kids in my class to church, and that they would be settled and able to learn. I also prayed that there would be some girls, and that the girls' teacher would turn up (she'd been very busy over the last few days with family commitments so I wasn't sure). The service started and there were very few kids. During the time of worship and singing at the start of the service, they arrived: about five boys (this is almost all the regulars) and one girl. The girls' teacher arrived about five minutes before Sunday School started! Praise the Lord for this answer to prayer!

The boys in my class were lovely, and were very attentive. We played some games to get them running around, but then when it was time for the lesson, they paid attention and showed they were actually learning the main concept. Of course there was some noise and some silliness but nothing that got out of control. We're looking at the book of Ephesians over the next few weeks, so yesterday the kids looked at the idea that God has adopted us as his children. The kids can now pronounce the word 'Ephesians' which is more than they could do at the beginning of the lesson! I am so thankful to God for how he answers our prayers in so many different ways.