The gospel for a day of prayer for the protection of children is taken from Mark 3rd, chapter 22, 30th verse. The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said to Jesus, he is possessed by Beelzebul and by the prince of demons. He drives out demons. Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables. How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. That is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property. Unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can plunder the house. Amen.

I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin. For they had said, he has an unclean spirit. The power we have over evil is a gift. It is not within us. And the gift comes through a person, through the words, the actions, the life of a man, God named Jesus.

If we separate ourselves from him, if we are divided against him, if we choose not to allow him to do anything for us, we. We cannot claim that we have the gift of freedom from sin. We’ll be caught in the sin. For when we deny the source of forgiveness and say we refuse to accept it, of course we are still then without forgiveness, to say no to this gift is insane. And evil is insane. Foreign Closing prayer Father, all you ask is our openness to receive the gifts that you offer us that you won at a great price.

Help us never to resist these gifts, never to deny who you are in us, lest we fall into a place of darkness. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.