“Which Way Did He Go, George? Which Way Did He Go?”
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
….with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
….may I never forget the good things he does for me. Psalm 103:1-2 NLT
Acts 16:6-10(<<click here to read the passage)
One of my joys growing up was cartoons. I enjoyed the old Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies. Of course, who of that time could forget Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and all of their companions? As a read through today’s passage, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the phrase “Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?”
Now I remembered the phrase and remembered the voice but couldn’t remember what character said it. I discovered that the character was the unwitting Willoughby the Dog (voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc!) and he was speaking with the notorious George the Fox. Willoughby was looking for the fox but was always tricked by the fox, inevitably leaping over a fence off a cliff.
Now you may be wondering why that phrase would remind me of today’s passage. In my mind, I changed it up to say, “Which way do I go, Lord? Which way do I go?”
Now the great thing about it is that God would never lead us astray. The Holy Spirit’s goal is to guide us. And part of that guidance isn’t just a matter of showing us what to do and where to go. Oftentimes, it is just as important to be shown what not to do and where not to go.
The New Living Translation says that Paul and Silas were prevented…from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. v6
In the very next verse, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. v7
Paul and Silas’ only desire was to be obedient to God’s direction. We aren’t really told how they knew they weren’t to go to those areas, but they did. In essence, they were crying out “Which way do I go, Lord? Which way do I go?” And the whole time He was steering them in the direction of His choosing.
Finally, Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” v9
God had shown them the way to go.
In our lives, there are multitudes of ways we can go and do. Our goal is to be attuned to the Holy Spirit’s leading.
My Life Application Study Bible gives some great advice.
To know God’s will does not mean we must hear his voice. He leads in different ways. When you are seeking God’s will, (1) make sure your plan is in harmony with God’s Word; (2) ask mature Christians for their advice; (3) check your own motives to see if you are seeking to do what you want or what you think God wants; (4) pray for God to open and close the doors as he desires.
May we clearly understand the direction we must go and once we know may we do so with all of our hearts. Amen.
May 22nd, 2022, Sun, 7:28 pm
Going Beyond the Call of Duty
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
….go into his courts with praise.
….Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good.
….His unfailing love continues forever,
….and his faithfulness continues to each generation. Psalm 100:4-5 NLT
Acts 16:1-6(<<click here to read the passage)
I was a little tentative at first, but I’ve been delving into TikTok. Like all social media platforms, you have to be careful what you watch, because whatever you linger over, its algorithms will then send you more of similar nature.
I’ve been getting lots of music-oriented videos (surprised?) and quite a few faith-based videos – no surprise there either! I even archived a few because I really appreciated the thoughts shared.
One that I watched today featured a speaker who had ministered to Christian leaders in China. I have a general idea of what can happen to believers in China but in this short clip he shared quite a few things.
He opened by asking the 22 gathered to hear him speak, “If we get caught what will happen to me?” They replied, “Oh, you’ll get deported in 24 hours and we’ll go to prison for 3 years.” He was surprised and asked how many have been in prison for their faith. Out of 22, 18 raised their hands. He then asked them how many people total they oversaw in their underground small groups from all over the Hunan Province. After a bit of figuring, the number they gave him was astounding – a little over 20 million!
He shared a lot more but at the end he asked how he could pray for them. Because they are unable to worship openly with one another for fear of persecution they asked that he pray that they could be like those in America – “…pray that we can be just like you.” His reply, “I will not do that.” Big incredulous eyes looked at him and they asked, “But why?” He answered, “Because you guys rode a train for 13 hours to get here. In my country if you gotta drive for more than an hour, people don’t come. You sat on a wooden floor for three days. In my country if people have to sit more than forty minutes, they leave… In my country we have an average of 2 Bibles per family, we don’t read any of them. You hardly have any Bibles, and you memorize them from pieces of paper. I will not pray that you become like us, but I will pray that we become just like you.”
Very humbling, huh? Far too often we follow Jesus but only when it’s convenient, when it comfortably fits into our lives.
As I read today’s passage Timothy a young convert to the Way of Jesus, who happened to have a Jewish mother and a Greek father (we learn that from Paul’s epistles), did what many would have thought unthinkable. Church leadership had even said it wasn’t necessary. But Timothy agreed to undergo circumcision. “…he voluntarily did this to overcome any barriers to his witness for Christ. Sometimes we have to go beyond the call of duty in order to further the Kingdom of God.” *
Timothy did what needed to be done. Chinese believers do what needs to be done. What about us?
* Life Application Study Bible
May 19th, 2022, Thurs, 12:35 pm
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.
********
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