Renew Your Mind
Dr. John K. Mathew
According to an October 29, 1994, story from the Reuters news agency, a Chinese woman named Zhang Meihua began to suffer mysterious symptoms when she turned twenty. She was losing the ability to nimbly move her legs and arms. Doctors could not find the cause and the symptom continued. Two decades passed, and Zhang began to also suffer from chronic headaches. Again she sought help from the doctors. This time a CAT scan and an X-ray found the source of the woman's mysterious symptoms. A rusty pin was lodged in her head. The head of the pin was outside the skull, and the shaft penetrated into the brain. Doctors performed surgery and successfully extracted the pin. The Xinjua news agency reported the doctors amazement that the woman could "live for so long a time with a rusty pin in her brain". After noting the position of the pin in her skull, they speculated that the pin had entered her skull sometime soon after birth and before her skull had hardened. Zhang now fully recovered, said she, "had no memory of being pierced by a pin in the head".
Like the rusty pin in that woman's brain, Satan has lodged the pin of sin in the mind and spirit of all human beings. The best way to remove this is surgery by the Chief Physician, our Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark chapter 5 we see such a story. It reads, "They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain"(1-3). We see in this scene three different forces at work - satan, society, and the Savior. These same forces are still at work in our world, trying to control the lives of people.
First, we see what satan can do to people. Satan is a thief whose ultimate purpose is to destroy. The second force at work on this man was society, but society was not able to accomplish very much. About all that society can do for problem people is to isolate them, put them under guard and, if necessary, bind them. But there is a more powerful force at work, the transforming power of the Savior. What did Jesus Christ do for that man?
To begin with, He graciously came to him in love. He spoke to him and permitted him to speak to Him. Jesus, by the power of His Word, cast out the demons and set the man free. If Jesus sets us free we will be free indeed. The only hope of a corrupted mind is the Word of Jesus Christ. Let his name be glorified.
