Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.
This man was one of the few who wanted to follow Jesus for the right reason. Jesus saw that his faith was big enough and perhaps more importantly, his reliance on God was strong enough, that Jesus gave him the assignment to simply go home and be a witness to his fellow countrymen. Legion was his name and he did what he was told in such an inspiring way that the Gospel writer Mark to give him a big acclamation.
In the year 2012, the story of Legion still rings true. I live in Luxembourg, a small country wedged between France, Germany and Belgium, with a population of about half a million. I made a decision this year that began to set myself and family on fresh new start. I grew tired of looking at the problems in my life and trying to do something to change them (generally on my own strength). I tried for many years to get my family in a better church situation, where we would have at least a few other families around us who believed and put the Bible into practice. As far as I know, we are the only family in this country that has a relationship with the International Churches of Christ. Our closest fellowship is situated a little over an hour away in Ramstein, Germany. Apart from our church situation, I also wanted to better my career path and so I asked God many times to intervene and help change our situation. But weeks, months, and years went by and God simply said no.
In January of this year we held a combined fellowship retreat with Luxembourg and Ramstein. Instead of starting the year in frustration as I had done in the past I repented and chose to approach this retreat with a different heart. CJ Wakefield (evangelist for Glasgow Scotland) and his wife Sheree taught some great lessons throughout the weekend. We followed up their visit with several weeks of invitation for an apologetics seminar that ended with a church invitational service. Great things have begun to happen and now the Bible is being taught here in Luxembourg and the message is getting out.
Following this great start of the year, I looked at a map of Luxembourg; it is not a big country in terms of area, only a little over half the size of Rhode Island. Then I printed out a list of all the towns of the country with a population of at least 1000: there were 79.
With help from the Ramstein Church and the Brussels Church, we had already invited people from several of the big cities early in the year, but I realized that there still remained some 70 towns and villages where we had not yet gone. Most of the town were clustered in the south of the country with a few in the more remote north, in the hills of Ardennes. This is the same region where the great Battle of the Bulge was fought some 67 years ago.
A sobering thought occurred to me: none of us knows how much time we have on this earth before we are asked by God to move on. So during a week in August I decided to do something I had never done. My family was abroad and I had a bit of free time in the evenings and wanted to imitate Legion in the way he shared how Jesus had changed his life.
In biblical times even the most influential churches generally did not have a congregation representing more than a thousandth of its respective city population. I decided to pray that as I shared my faith in each town with a population of at least 1000 I would share with the most open person in that town. As each day of work ended, I headed out to about 10 towns and invited at least one person. As I drove between towns, I used this time to listen to recorded messages and lessons from teachers, evangelists and others, mostly on themes of reaching out to people and just being hospitable. Overall, I must have listened to some two dozen messages. During that entire week, I prayed, listened, and simply looked into the eyes of those whom I met; some were young and some were old. As it was August and vacation time, some villages were nearly deserted. Sometimes I spent a half an hour just praying and waiting for a single person to show up, but the late sunsets of summer allowed me to invite up through about 9pm.
On Saturday, the last day of this encouraging week, and also the day before I would leave and join my family, there were still 26 cities and towns left. These were mostly in the remote north of the country. I geared up with messages, songs and a full tank of gas, then headed north at 9am. When the day was over, the mission was accomplished and the clock struck 9pm; every city and town in Luxembourg, with a population of at least 1000 had at least one invitation.
It was a start. I fully realised that this might not have been the most productive way to reach out to people, but there were several very interested folks, some sharing their telephone number with me for a later rendezvous. I also learned a few other lessons from the week. Many of us who have been doing this for some time may already know this but I found it was the foreigners, the poor and seemingly downhearted that were the most interested and at least took the time to listen to me. It appears not much has changed since the day when Jesus met Legion.
One day, perhaps there will be at least one person, hopefully many more, from each of these cities and towns that will make a solid decision, as an adult, to follow the Bible fully, repent, be baptised and subsequently help his or her town to know God better.
There was another aspect of this week that tempted me to write what I am now writing. Some might think that this was a huge act of evangelism. Frankly, I was a bit intimidated as the week began, but it really was not that hard; quite sincerely, it was more encouraging to me than I ever would have expected. The more towns I visited, the more I was refreshed. The more I looked into the eyes of the people, the more I hurt for this country, a very rich country, yet almost completely void of biblical spirituality. I knew full well that some of the bankers, farmers, young couples and elderly whom I met during this week would not have another chance like this to know God. Fortunately, God is also much bigger than me and he could intervene and connect any open person that I probably missed and allow them to know God, much as he did for me for me so many years ago. I was also humbled to know just how much I could be used as a representative for an entire nation. I wish I could say I had the same loving and desperate heart Legion had as he spontaneous went to the 10 cities to declare his miraculous cure and his moment with Jesus. But be that as it may, this was a victory for me and I wanted to share this with you.
Each of us disciples could, without too much trouble, do just what was done by Legion. Why not, in your free evenings take another disciple and go out to each town in your region, and let people know about God. Perhaps pray and listen to messages in the car. If you can, why not do this on a bike with a friend, get some good exercise and help save the environment. If we each did this, even now with the numbers we have, we could, invited at least one person in every town and village around us. I would even dare to say, that we could, perhaps in a year or so, accomplish pretty much the first step in helping others become disciples around the entire globe. We would be connecting what Legion and other disciples did in the first century and we would be reminded just how wonderful it is to have a relationship with God. Perhaps most of all, this could help us actually cherish the responsibility to beckon the entire world back to knowing Jesus. We would be one step closer to appreciating the Great Commission, and by so doing, we would hasten Jesus’ return.
Matt 28: 18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”