Steven Garofalo
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WHAT IS YOUR GOD MISSION? Don’t Forget God or the Word
By Steven Garofalo, January 8, 2024 (Copyright 2024)
January 08, 2024

It’s easy to be blessed and then forget about what someone or even what God did for us. Today I am going to show you that as newly saved babes in Christ (no matter what age) new and old Christians alike tend to forget what God actually did for us. As new believers in Christ, we as humans tend to immerse ourselves deeply in a Christ-community which is wise and necessary. But sometimes we withdraw from the world and never go back to visit. In today’s passage we will see Jesus’ response to how we are to live as redeemed Christians in a lost world. Once saved, we are to be in Christian community but must also equally get out of the community to share our faith with the unsaved world.

While many Christians get deeply immersed into Christian culture and retreat from the world, Jesus make clear that once God saves you that there is work to be done. In today’s passage we see that God calls us to, at some point and possibly immediately, “go home to your friends (and family) and TELL THEM how much the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19)

In Luke 17, we find the story of Jesus casting out the Legion of demons from a man so demon possessed that he broke out of and destroyed the iron shackles the authorities continually put on his body to restrain him. While this may seem like a lot of power, the power of God through Christ is stronger.

Before we start into today’s devotional-article, I would ask that you keep in mind the different responses from the different characters in the parable. The Jewish pig owners were scared because they feared loosing more revenue from more dead pigs. The man with many demons called “Legion” (unlike nine out of the ten lepers Jesus healed in (Luke 17:11-19) came back with a grateful heart. We can see different responses from people who saw and experienced the same event. While the man with the demons experienced the miracle directly, others saw it in real time. Let’s pick up today’s less in post-Jesus casting the demons out of the demon possessed man in verses 18-21 to lay a foundation for today’s lesson.

“As he (Jesus) was getting into the bad the man who had been posed with the demons begged him that he might be with him. And he (Jesus) did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and TELL THEM how much the Lord has done for you, and how much he had mercy on you. And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled”

It’s so easy to look over this short passage without seeing all that God is telling telling us as to why Jesus wouldn’t allow the man healed of a Legion of demons to join Him as one of His disciples. Let’s break this down into three simple points.

FIRST: (THE REQUEST) The man just freed from a legion of demons (called Legion) BEGGED Jesus that he might be with (join) him and his disciples (Vs.18) but Jesus denied him. A legion in the Roman army was between 3000-6000 strong, indicating that many demons possessed this man (see Matthew 12:45 and Luke 8:2). The point is that we often make requests of God in supplication asking for things in prayer that the Lord seems to deny or not to answer. God does not do this out of a mean heart but out of love and His having a much greater plan for us. His plans are not ours. Isaiah 55:8-9 makes clear, “My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my plans than your plans”.  Simply put, God has something ever better and greater than we ask for in many cases. We as finite creatures often cannot see the big picture and God has so much more for us than we can see in the moment of our requests. We may pray for a spouse, a job, ministry, or even or other things-but God often gives us something very different than what we ask for. And He does so in part in not whole to fulfill His purpose and mission for our life.

SECOND: (THE MISSION-COMMISSION). Jesus denied the request of newly demon-freed man for TWO specific reasons. In the words of Scriptures: “And he (Jesus) did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and TELL THEM how much the Lord has done for you, and how much he (God) had mercy on you” (vs. 19).

Jesus didn’t just deny this newly saved man or abruptly leave him. Instead, Jesus called him to mission and life purpose in that he was to go home in mission to his friends and do a a few very specific things. FIRST, this man was to TELL THEM (his home region of 10 cities!) how much the Lord had done for him and he was to show the people of those cities that God is a merciful God as was demonstrated in the Jesus’ healing and freeing him from the many demons. When God calls us to mission and purpose in life, it always comes with some level of specifics and focus. Not that it can’t also be broad in scope; only that God calls us to specific mission and purpose in our life. What is the mission(s) God called you to?

THIRD: Is (THE RESPONSE): “And he (the man) went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled” (Vs. 20). What’s so important about Jesus sending him home? Jesus obviously knew where his home was and that home was a place was a very important place called Decapolis.  Decapolis is the region south-east of the Sea of Galilee where (at that time) were 10 cities (the number varied over history). During the time of Jesus, the ten cities of Decapolis and the surrounding region were inhabited mostly by Gentiles, not Jews. Did Jesus send him home to retire and chill out, enjoy life and go to Church, never to return to the PTSD of being possessed by many demons? NO. God called him to mission. And God calls you and I to mission as well.

I think it safe to say that Jesus had a mission-purpose for this man who was so THANKFUL and GRATEFUL for being freed from legion of demons that he was on figurative fire for the Lord. This man met the God of the universe and simply wanted to share that with the part of the world God called him to. That was this man’s specific mission. And it was an important mission field.  Decapolis had a strong Greek influence meaning they served many false gods through “polytheism” (worship of many gods) using idols. Jesus gave this guy a pretty large mission field of ten unsaved cities!

CONCLUSION AND TAKEAWAY:I want to wrap up with verse 20 tells us, “And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled”. While the man wanted to go with Jesus and become a disciple, the greatest need for this man (and his mission calling and life purpose) was to return to his home and report “WHAT GREAT THINGS” God had done fort him. He could now return home to his estranged family with a testimony of God’s work in his life. And Scriptures tells us that he did in fact become a great testimony for Jesus in the region of the Decapolis. And look what happened. He faithfully proclaimed his testimony and “EVERYONE WAS AMAZED”! WOW, this man wanted one thing and was denied by God. And look at the special mission God had for him. That blessing would have been lost  if it were possible to talk Jesus (God) into granting his request. It’s easy to be blessed and then forget about what someone or even what God did for us. Let’s be careful not to withdraw from the world and never go back to visit. Instead, let’s accept the exciting mission God calls us to and live as redeemed Christians in a lost world. Once saved, we are to be in Christian community but must also equally get out of the community to share our faith with the unsaved world.

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GOD’S LIGHT IS FOR YOU!

God’s Light IS A WONDERFUL GIFT for you and I as we start the new week!

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Zach and I had a great long day one meeting with the pastor and a fellow believer…I got up this morning to go over my talk for the men’s conference which starts tonight into tomorrow and will go over my sermon for Sunday…I preach both services. The men’s conference far exceeded expectations so the even is looking to be packed with me. Seeking God’s will and calling for their life! Please keep us in your prayers. Much love and appreciation.-Steven

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GOD IS LIGHT AND LIGHT IS “GOOD”

1) God IS Light. “5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (John 1:5).

2) God Created Physical Light and called It GOOD. WHY? Because the light we see reflects God’s Goodness, Love, Warmth, and Provision. Hos essence.

“3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:3-4)

Welcome to the start of a short new week. God is reflecting His Light upon you this fresh new morning as His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). And great is His faithfulness! I pray these beautiful words of God encourage you today!-Steven

UPCOMNG ADDITIONAL AUDIO COMING TO THE COMMINITY!

I am breaking out the old audio recorder and wireless mic to record my ALG Sunday school talks twice a month and will be posting them for you all. This is mostly all Bible teaching and I hope it blesses you. I am always trying to give more, bless more, equip and teach more and love more… have a wonderful Day of the LORD!

I FIGURED OUT OUT WHATS’S GOING IN WITH FRIENDSHIPS!

I have a couple of friends from old that have gone radio silent over the past years. This has baffled me because I cherish history and friendship like family. On the flip side, I have a couple of other friends that I didn’t spend nearly as much time with back from the 80’s- and we speak weekly. WHY?

I figured it out in that the two friends who call me weekly are growing daily in their biblical faith while the other two are growing away from Christ in their daily life. It’s as simple as that. It’s not an issue of friendship as much as it is about faith. I love my two distant friends and miss them dearly, but God always provides and I’m really cherishing my newer friends of old. THANK YOU GOD FOR YOUR PROVISION OF FRIENDSHIPS. I am greatly blessed in riches of authentic faith in Christ and friends of faith…remember what Jesus said about who are-Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

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Not Serpents of Skin, but From The Falsehood Of Sin: Uncoiling The Ending of Mark’s Gospel
By Del Potter, M.A.A. (Copyright 2025)

Not Serpents of Skin, but From The Falsehood Of Sin: Uncoiling The Ending of Mark’s Gospel

By Del Potter, M.A.A. August 27, 2025

Opening Remarks

From the outset, this article is NOT contending whether or not the ending of Mark 16 should be included. Although, it is in my humble opinion that some of the strange language in the ending of Mark actually affirms the truthfulness of the events inserted into the ending of Mark. There are several striking words in Mark's longer ending (Mark 16:17–18):

“These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them...”

As a first impression, the imagery suggests a miraculous ability to resist snakes and poison. It is nevertheless important to note that serpents and poison consistently function within Jewish, Biblical, and early Christian thought as symbols of false teaching and spiritual corruption, not simply physical danger.


Serpents in Scripture: Symbols of Deception

From the beginning of Genesis through Revelation, the serpent is never merely zoological—it is the archetype of deceit. In Genesis 3, the serpent slithers into the Garden not to bite with fangs, but to inject Eve with poisonous doubt about God’s word. Later Jewish wisdom literature follows this thread:

  • Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 21:2: “Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent: for if thou comest too near it, it will bite thee.”
  • Psalm 140:3: “They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers.”

This same imagery flows into the New Testament:

  • Matthew 23:33: Jesus calls the Pharisees a “brood of vipers,” not because of biology, but because of false teaching.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:3: Paul warns that, just as the serpent deceived Eve, so false teachers corrupt the simplicity of Christ.
  • Revelation 12:9: John describes Satan as a serpent “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Therefore, when Mark refers to "serpents" and "deadly poison," his Jewish-Christian readers would have recognized the metaphor: heresy slithering into the church among the people with its false doctrine poisoning the entire church (2 Peter 2:1).


The Poison Of Heresy: A Dangerous Drink

The early Church frequently described heretical teaching as venom or poison. Ignatius of Antioch warned the Trallians:

“I therefore, yet not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, entreat you that ye use Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a different kind; I mean heresy. For those [that are given to this] mix up Jesus Christ with their own poison, speaking things which are unworthy of credit, like those who administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, which he who is ignorant of does greedily take, with a fatal pleasure leading to his own death.” (Letter to the Trallians 107 A.D.).

This language reflects the very pattern of Mark 16—poisonous teaching disguised as nourishment. The faithful, however, are promised preservation: “it will not harm them.” The believer, rooted in Christ, can discern and resist corruption.

No early Christian expressed this more vividly than Tertullian of Carthage (c. 200 AD). In his treatise Scorpiace, he likens heresy to venomous creatures:

  • Heresy “creeps into the church like a scorpion,” injecting spiritual poison.
  • The faithful must resist with the antidote of Scripture, wielded like the staff of Moses against the serpents of Egypt.

Tertullian believed that the danger was not from reptiles in the marketplace, but rather from false teachers within the church. Similarly, heresy pierces the souls of believers in a quiet and lethal manner, just as the scorpion stings unseen. As a result, he viewed Christ's promise in Mark not as a test of reckless physical stunts, but as a promise that the faithful will not suffer from the venom of falsehood if armed with the truth. As Paul rightly reminds his audience:

 "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil (i.e. snakes & poisons)." - Ephesians 6:11


Mark’s Ending and the beginning of the Early Church

NT writers wrote within a culture steeped in metaphor. The early church never staged snake-handling rituals to “prove” faith. Instead, they testified by enduring persecution, refuting heresy, and preserving sound doctrine.

The apologetic force of Mark 16 is not spectacle—it is survival. The church would face vipers in pulpits, scorpions in councils, and poison in doctrine. Yet Christ promises: “These things will not harm you.”

Just as in the first century, serpents and scorpions creep into the church today—not in the form of reptiles, but in the form of false witnesses, compromised truth, and distorted gospels. The call of Mark 16 is not to chase miracles, but to guard against lies.

In a world full of theological poison, the believer’s protection is not daredevil faith, but faithful discernment: Scripture, the Spirit, and the witness of the saints.

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers [i.e. snakes] among you, who will secretly introduce destructive [i.e. poison] heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” - 2 Peter 2:1


Closing Remarks

The ending of Mark’s Gospel, far from a literal dare, is a prophetic warning and promise:

  • Serpents = false teachers.
  • Poison = heretical doctrines.
  • The promise = Christ’s people, if grounded in truth, will not be overcome.

Tertullian’s scorpions, Ignatius’ poison, Paul’s vipers, and Jesus’ own words unite: the greatest danger to the church is not fangs and venom in the field, but lies and venom in the pulpit.

In Christ, the Church endures—immune not to biology, but to blasphemy.

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MAN'S PROBLEM-"HIDDENESS"
By Del Potter, M.A.A., August 16, 2025

The Problem Is With Man's Hiddenness Toward God, Not Vice-Versa

Why Doesn’t God Make His Existence Unmistakably Clear to Everyone?

One of the most common objections to faith is: “If God is real, why doesn’t He just show Himself beyond all doubt?” Skeptics ask why God doesn’t write His name in the sky or make His presence undeniable. But Scripture, reason, and the earliest witnesses of the Church tell us a different story: God has already made Himself known, yet it is humanity that hides.

God’s Self-Revelation in Creation

Scripture consistently teaches that God’s fingerprints are everywhere. The Apostle Paul writes:

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

Psalm 19:1 echoes this truth: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

Job reminds us that creation itself—beasts, birds, earth, and sea—all testify to the Creator:

“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” (Job 12:7–10)

God’s existence, then, is not hidden. It is written into the very structure of reality. As St. Athanasius later argued, creation itself acts as a universal witness, speaking of God’s power to every culture and language without need for words.

Why Does God Seem Hidden?

The real issue is not divine silence but human resistance. Moses records God saying:

“I will surely hide My face in that day, because of all the evil which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.” (Deuteronomy 31:18)

This is not a statement about God being unknowable but about mankind turning its back to Him. God’s “hiddenness” is a moral and relational reality, not an intellectual one. As Isaiah wrote:

“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.” (Isa. 59:2)

Early Christians echoed this. Justin Martyr argued that those who live according to reason (logos) recognize the true God through creation and conscience. Clement of Alexandria explained that ignorance of God is not due to His absence, but due to the blindness of the soul enslaved to passions.

The Attributes of God are Revealed According To His Nature.

If God were to force belief by overwhelming proof, He would violate the very nature of faith and love. Love cannot be compelled; it requires freedom. Blaise Pascal later captured this well: “There is enough light for those who desire to see, and enough darkness for those who do not.”

The early Church understood that God provides evidence sufficient for faith, but not coercion. Origen taught that God “gives signs to those who are willing to see, but hides from those who shut their eyes.” This allows space for genuine seeking, humility, and love—rather than forced acknowledgment.

God Is Not Hidden—We Are

When people ask, “Why doesn’t God make Himself clear?” the biblical answer is: He already has. The problem is not with God’s silence but with our ears. The witness of creation, conscience, Scripture, and Christ Himself leaves us without excuse.

It is not God who hides, but man who hides from God—just as Adam and Eve once hid in the Garden. And yet, even then, God sought them, calling out: “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9).

The same God still calls today through the beauty of creation, the testimony of Scripture, and the living Christ. The question is not whether God is clear enough but whether we are willing to see Him more clearly!

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:12

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INFALLIBILITY IS GREATER THAN INERRANCY
By Del Potter M.A.A.
 
God's truth (Infallibility) is greater than man's inability to write down or transmit His word (Inerrancy) perfectly. God's truth remains true regardless if man regards or disregards it to be true.
 
Allow me to explain more in-depth. Inerrancy, is defined as the belief that Scripture contains no errors in its original manuscripts, so obviously inerrancy struggles with textual variants like John 8:1–11. The story is missing from the oldest Greek manuscripts (e.g., Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) and its stylistic differences raise red flags for many textual critics. But if our faith rests solely on inerrant transmission, what happens when that transmission wavers? Are such passages now less inspired? We are warned from scripture itself that errant transmission could and can occur. God through Moses warns the Israelites that "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I am commanding you" (Deuteronomy 4:2).
 
Jesus seems to place an exclamation point on this line of thinking and says “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15) clarifying further that if you love God you will not tamper with His word. God places a capstone on this discussion by warning His readers at the close of Revelation "and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book" (22:19). My point? We are warned through scripture itself there is and would be a problem with those that would add or even take away from God's infallible word thus making it errant and not inerrant. This is where the strength of infallibility steps in.
 
Infallible simply means “incapable of error.” The difference is God is incapable of error and is against His nature to error. "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless" (Psalm 18:30:). Inerrancy is like a flawless earthly mirror. Crack it, and it’s compromised. However, Infallibility is like the sun: Even if seen through a foggy lens, it still gives light and heat because its origin is not of the earth.
 
Psalm 119:89 reminds us that truth originates not in human manuscripts, but in the eternal counsel of God. Combined with John 21:25 - "Jesus did many other things... if all of them had been written down, the world itself would be unable to contain the volumes" We are confronted with a key theological insight: not all truth has been written, but all truth is known. In Scripture, it is clarified that omission from man's history does not imply absence from God's history. So, even when the earthly record is incomplete, the heavenly record has been completed.
 
Again, it is true that manuscripts such as Codex Sinaiticus omit stories like the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53–8:11), leading some to question its authenticity. Yet, early Christians like Didymus the Blind (pre-Nicene era) affirmed the passage’s existence in "certain Gospels." Augustine later wrote that some scribes intentionally excluded the story out of fear it could be misused to justify sin using the story of the Pericope Adulterae.
 
“Certain persons of little faith... removed from their manuscripts the Lord's act of forgiveness toward the adulteress.” (Augustine 'De Adulterinis Coniugiis' - 419 A.D.)
 
This demonstrates that the story may have been removed due to fear, politics, or human discretion, but not by divine silence. In light of Psalm 119:89, we must remember that God's word is "SETTLED" [Greek: Natsab = stationed/established] in heaven before it’s written on earth.
 
This challenges an empirical view of truth. If divine revelation is only accepted when it aligns with surviving manuscripts, the church’s oral tradition, apostolic memory, and lived theology are undermined. The early church did not rely solely on manuscripts, but on witnesses, oral, and Spirit-led preservation. As Tertullian wrote in the 2nd century:
 
“We do not need curiosity after Christ Jesus, nor inquiry after the gospel. When we believe, we desire to believe nothing more. For this we believe, that there is nothing else which we ought to believe.” - Prescription Against Heretics, Ch. 7–8.
 
Scripture acknowledges its own incompleteness—yet affirms the completeness of God's eternal counsel.
 
The failure to accept any truth that has not been recorded in early papyri amounts to ignoring the 'heavenly library' where truth is established. There is a consensus among Scripture, tradition, and theology that the absence of paper does not imply the absence of preservation. Despite the fact that earth has not penned it, that does not mean heaven has not done so. As Christians, we believe that the eternal Word, who is Jesus Christ, the Logos (John 1:1-14), has embodied and preserved all truth, some written, some spoken, and some remembered in the heart of the Church. The Word of God cannot fail - even if manuscripts do. That is the beauty and greatness of infallibility over inerrancy.
 
"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25).
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