Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

The devotional for today was written by James Banks, and he titled it From Mess to Message.

Daryl was a baseball legend who nearly destroyed his life with drugs, but Jesus set him free,

and he's been clean for years. Today, he helps others struggling with addiction and points

them to faith. Looking back, he affirms that God turned his mess into a message. Nothing is too hard for God.

When Jesus came ashore near a cemetery after a stormy night on the Sea of Galilee with his disciples,

a man possessed by darkness immediately approached him. Jesus spoke to the demons inside him, drove them away, and set him free.

When Jesus left, the man begged to go along. But Jesus didn't allow it because he had work for him to do,

telling the man in Mark V, go home to your own people, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.

We never see the man again, but Scripture shows us something intriguing.

The people of that region had fearfully pleaded with Jesus to leave, but the next time he returned

there, a large crowd gathered. Could the crowd have resulted from Jesus sending the man? Could it be that

he, once dominated by darkness, became one of the first missionaries, effectively communicating

Jesus' power to save? We'll never know this side of heaven, but this much is clear. When God sets us free to serve him,

he can turn even a messy past into a message of hope and love.

Now let's turn our eyes upon Jesus.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Mark, chapter 5, verses 1 through 20.

They went across the lake to the region of the Jerocines.

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.

For he had often been chained, hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet.

No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among

...