Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. - Mark 5:1-10.

Just in time for Friday the 13^th is a story about a woman in Sweden who had an unwelcome visitor for a month. The visitor crept into their home and made itself welcome in an ear. Yes, it was a black spider the size of a thumbnail that a woman eventually washed out of her ear and watched as it crawled away. She had experienced some hearing loss in the ear and thought there might be wax building up. However, after that she could hear scratching sounds in her ear - how scary is that! That is when she went to a pharmacy and bought some cleanser to wash out her ear. The woman did remember seeing a spider on her bed 27 days before she was able to wash out the spider.

To have a spider in your ear or even to think that you have a spider in your ear is a frightening thought for most of us. But an even more terrifying thing would be to have an infestation of demons living in you. How terrible would that be? The man Jesus encountered in Gadara did not just have one demon but a legion of demons; thousands of demons were living inside of him.

Even though the man was possessed by demons, he did the right thing. He recognized the One who could help him. He ran and worshipped Jesus. However, when he spoke it was the words of the demons that are recorded. On one hand the man wanted to worship God, however, at the same time he had these demons that were causing him to do things he did not want to do.

Let us learn a lesson from the demon possessed man of Gadara. Whether it is a problem with an infestation of demons in our life or some other problem the thing to do, the first thing to do is to run to Jesus.

Have you asked Jesus to help you?