Acts of Mercy Right Before My Eyes
What a pleasure today, Father, to transport some elementary multi-handicapped students for a fun getaway! May Your blessings be on them and their families. Amen.
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A portion of my prayer during our services recently has been about expressing gratitude to God for all the many times He has intervened in our lives without us even knowing it. How many tragedies have we missed because we left a little later than we intended? How much pain have we sidestepped because something kept us from participating in something that we had intended on attending? We will probably never know.
On the other hand, how many times have God’s acts of mercy flashed right before your eyes? As the event passes, you can see with the utmost clarity that if things had gone just a little differently the results would have been catastrophic!
Well, that happened to me today!
I was on my high school / middle school run and was heading to my next stop. Ahead there was a curve with a line of trees bordering that partially obscured my line of sight. I caught a glimpse of flashing lights and immediately began to slow my bus down, thinking there was an emergency vehicle of some sort heading my way. Keep in mind that this is not a state highway but a county road. There is room to pass but not a whole lot of room for error.
As I continued to slow down a car came flying around the curve, the driver barely keeping it under control with two police vehicles in hot pursuit! By the time they flew by me, I was at a dead stop! The remaining students were like, “Whoa!” and they all jumped up to see the vehicles zoom over the hill behind us!
If I had been just a couple of seconds faster, I could almost guarantee that the white car, and probably the patrol vehicles, would have hit me head on.
If I had been a couple of minutes slower, they could easily have hit me before, during, or after the turnaround I had just done in a driveway over the hill that they zoomed over.
God was in charge! I have no doubts whatsoever! His hand was surely upon us all. I’m not sure they got him but, on my end, God miraculously intervened!
A couple of verses confirming God’s protection!
Though I am surrounded by troubles,
….you will protect me from the anger of my enemies.
You reach out your hand,
….and the power of your right hand saves me. Psalm 138:7 NLT
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
….Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
….I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10 NLT
May 18th, 2022, Wed, 7:39 pm
Disagreement
It’s always good to have a productive day! Thank You, Father, for enabling me to keep on task. May I hear Your word clearly tonight and may I share what You want the world to see. Amen.
Acts 15:36-41(<<click here to read the passage)
Disagreements. We may disagree on how disagreements should take place, but we would all probably agree that disagreements are inevitable. On pretty much any level of life, disagreements are going to happen. Even if we say certain relationships don’t have disagreements, it’s probably more that one of the parties is so compliant that any disagreements they might have always fall in favor of the stronger personality of the two.
One interesting thing about Luke’s writing is that he doesn’t give his collection of history a spit polish shine that glosses over the ugly. Whatever happened, he told it like it was.
In today’s passage, controversy in an otherwise harmonious relationship comes to a head. The impactful ministry team of Barnabas and Paul comes to an impasse. It’s time for a “round two” of ministry and though they’ve worked together so well for years – literally – Barnabas is firm on bringing his cousin John Mark along for the journey, while Paul is equally as firm on not bringing him along.
I’m sure that Barnabas, always the encourager, felt that John Mark would make an excellent addition to their work spreading the Gospel. But Paul, and I’d say he was most definitely a man with a pragmatic mindset, felt that John Mark had deserted them once before and probably just felt that they needed someone more dependable.
There was a disagreement. And the only compromise they came to was for both of them to stand their ground. Neither yielded, but both stuck to their guns.
Verses 39-41 say,
Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. Paul chose Silas, and…traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches there. NLT
So how do we handle disagreements? Sometimes there just isn’t room on either side for giving in, so it may be necessary to part ways, each doing our own thing.
Were they in the wrong for handling things the way they did? Well, if God’s blessing on their efforts shows us how God felt about their separation, He just blessed both of them. The results of Paul’s continued ministry are visible throughout the majority of the New Testament. Barnabas’ results are less visible, but we can see by Paul’s reception of John Mark many years down the pike, that no grudges were held, and it seems though separated that they still held great respect for one another.
Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very helpful to me for the ministry. 2 Timothy 4:11 AMP
Sometimes in our humanity, things happen. But despite our brokenness, God works in and through us for His glory. May it always be so in our lives. Amen!
May 17th, 2022, Tues, 7:18 pm
Be Careful in WHAT We Say but Also in HOW We Say It
Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
….He made us, and we are his.
….We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3 NLT
Acts 15:22-35(<<click here to read the passage)
Communication is of the utmost importance in all of our lives. We can communicate in many different ways. We can communicate face-to-face or on the phone or via text and email. They all can accomplish what needs to be accomplished.
Some means communicate words but communicating tones or attitudes gets a bit trickier. For example, texting. It’s great for basic information but more subtle nuances of language are much more difficult to get across unless you’re good at putting those kinds of things into words. If we’re not careful things may be easily misconstrued by the recipient and then we have a whole new set of problems.
I’ve used email to communicate in serious conversations before. In one situation it worked well in that I didn’t have to verbalize on the fly. Doing that is not my strong suit. The way my brain works, I can’t process everything coming in and then provide a solid rebuttal for what I’m trying to put out. With email, I was able to think things through and reword where necessary to clearly get my point across before sending it out.
As we continue in Acts 15, a conclusion was reached, and a letter was sent to communicate the outcome. My Life Application Study Bible says, regarding the letter: Beautifully written, it appeals to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and explains what is to be done as though the readers already knew it.
The letter communicated the facts of the situation, but it also did so in such a way that the spirit of love, unity, compassion, and understanding was clearly communicated as well.
What drew my attention in the study notes was this statement.
Believers should be careful not only in what they say but also in how they say it. We may be correct in our content, but we can lose our audience by our tone of voice or by our attitude. (Emphasis mine)
Overall, that is applicable in many areas of our lives but especially in communicating our relationship with Christ and the way it impacts us and should impact others. The ends most certainly do not justify the means.
It’s important to get out the truth but if we do it in ways that exclude love, unity, compassion, and understanding, then we’re fighting a losing battle. Instead of drawing others to Christ, we end up driving them away.
Lord Jesus, help us to not run headlong with confrontational mindsets. May we continue to remember that You always exuded love in Your interactions with “sinners.” There was never condescension or a despising attitude when You communicated with them. You loved them, regardless of who they were or what they had done…and it showed – there was no missing it! May we think like You and act like You and may we be careful not only in what we say but also in how we say it. Amen.
May 16th, 2022, Mon, 5:11 pm
Of Red-winged Blackbirds and Hawks
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
….Worship the Lord with gladness.
….Come before him, singing with joy. Psalm 100:1-2 NLT
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One thing I frequently see, this time of year, in particular, is red-winged blackbirds chasing hawks or crows. They fly right over them and are often pecking at their heads. I looked it up and found out that they’re not really hurting the other bird but are driving home (literally with their beaks!) the message of “Keep your distance! This is our territory, and your presence is explicitly not welcome! Get lost!”
As I am known to do, I thought about that and came up with an analogy but with a bit of a twist. I assigned one of the birds to be the enemy of our souls, the devil, and the other bird to be us. What worked best was to make the devil the red-winged blackbird. We will make us, the hawk.
Like the hawk, we are flying along doing what God created us to do – we excel in being the very best hawk we can possibly be. As we are doing that, it draws us closer to God. Well of course the devil doesn’t like that one little bit, so he lashes out, diverting us from our goal of drawing closer to God.
He calls, “Keep your distance! We’ve claimed this area for darkness and light may not enter- it is our territory. Your presence is explicitly not welcome! Get lost!”
It is far too easy for us to be daunted. We become discouraged from moving toward God and instead are distracted into changing course or possibly even turning back. It’s a bad move but the thing is, it’s not like it is totally our fault…in a way. Who likes putting themselves into situations where we are harassed? Who likes being humiliated? I mean seriously we are a mighty hawk, and this little pipsqueak red-winged blackbird is wailing on us! What are we supposed to do?
It can be easy to lose our focus but with prayer and practice and much more prayer, we can stand firm against the distraction, and, where the red-winged blackbird might win the battle, the devil cannot stand against us. He must yield, for, in Christ, we are the victors!
So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you. James 4:7 AMP
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 NIV
…let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith… Hebrews 2:1b-2a NASB
Hang in there with Jesus by your side, you got this!
May 15th, 2022, Sun, 6:21 pm
Do We Measure Others by OUR Yardstick?
Father, today I am grateful for another day. Yes, it is full of blessings, for which I am grateful, as well. But none of us are guaranteed another day, yet You grant them to us over and over again. May I use it well. Amen.
Acts 15:1-21(<<click here to read the passage)
It is interesting how God so often layers things in our lives. As I usually do, I’ve been prepping for this Sunday’s service. A concept with which I will begin the sermon, using the key text, has to do with prophecies of the Old Testament coming to fruition in the New Testament. The same thing happens in today’s blog passage.
As we come to this particular passage, we are at a major point of decision. Many occurrences in the lives of Peter, then Paul and Barnabas, have made it very clear what God’s intentions are, but as we in our humanity are want to do, we get stuck on points that we think are of utmost importance. Since we are dealing with the things of God, we think that that is good enough to make whatever we think to be important.
The crossroad they found themselves at had to do with what was to be expected of new believers who were Gentiles and not Jewish. Some Jewish believers had been affiliated with the Pharisees so of course, they insisted, “The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.”
First, I want to make it clear that I don’t feel they were being malicious. They just felt very strongly about it. It was important to them, for obvious reasons. We all have beliefs (some of them fervent), we all have experiences, and our tendency is to want to measure others by our yardstick. It is common for believers to think that their experiences, their convictions, are true and should be the norm. Different ideas are thought to be inferior or invalid. (emphasis mine)
…to measure others by our yardstick. Aren’t we guilty of that more often than we would care to admit?
My Life Application Study Bible also stresses that, yes, Peter, Barnabas, and Paul all had very compelling experiences to put a great emphasis on their point. But despite that, James – the brother of Jesus and leader of the Jerusalem church – didn’t just jump on the bandwagon with them. Wisely, he turned to God’s Word as the ultimate test of truth.
And we must do the same. Ultimately…what matters is what God’s Word says. The more we know God’s Word, the more we read it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on it, the better we will be able to discern what is right and best in times of controversy or doctrinal disagreement.
As part of his response, James quotes from the book of Amos and Isaiah. He says,
‘Afterward I will return
….and restore the fallen house of David.
I will rebuild its ruins
….and restore it,
so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord,
….including the Gentiles—
….all those I have called to be mine.
The Lord has spoken—
….he who made these things known so long ago.’ vs16-18
So, in the end, they didn’t burden them with the entirety of the Law – including circumcision – but instead encouraged them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood. v20
May God and His Word serve as our sole guide. May we all measure ourselves by His yardstick Amen.
May 12th, 2022, Thurs, 12:52 pm