Monthly Archives: July 2013

Attitude Determines Outcome

Christian Life, , ,

ATTITUDE DETERMINES OUTCOME

“Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn’t believe their ears. Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose.

“Startled from sleep, the jailer saw all the doors swinging loose on their hinges. Assuming that all the prisoners had escaped, he pulled out his sword and was about to do himself in, figuring he was as good as dead anyway, when Paul stopped him: ‘Don’t do that! We’re all still here. Nobody’s run away.'” Acts 16:25-28 (The Message).

Paul and Silas had every reason to be angry. They had been falsely accused, unjustly treated, brutally beaten without a trial, thrown into a maximum security cell and shackled in leg irons like criminals, and that for releasing a slave girl, a nobody, from demonic oppression! Where was the justice in that?

They could have been just as mad at God. They were serving Jesus. They had given up everything for Him, hadn’t they? They were deserving of better treatment than that. Why did He allow it to happen to them? Why didn’t He protect them?

Can you hear your own voice mouthing these objections? The voices of your family, your friends? ‘Why me? What have I done to deserve this? Where was God in all this?’

Paul and Silas couldn’t sleep. Their backs were torn and bleeding; their legs were fastened in heavy iron shackles; the floor was cold and hard; the air was dank and smelly. They had two options — stoke the fires of anger and bitterness or pray and sing away the hours until daylight. It all depended on their attitude.

They knew that suffering was included in the package and they were also aware that, no matter how tough it was for them, Jesus suffered more. They could be angry with God, but that wouldn’t get them anywhere. The Israelites got mad when things were tough, and the consequences were not what they bargained for; God was angry and they felt it! Paul and Silas weren’t about to follow their example.

These men were steeped in the Word of God as devout Jews. It was as much part of them as their breath. They prayed it, they sang it, they lived it, every day. How natural for them, then, to fill the long, cold hours with the word that was so precious to them! To where would they turn in their distress? To the psalms which so accurately expressed how they were feeling right then.

Others before them had suffered and trusted God, and written, prayed and sang about it for their own comfort and for the comfort of those who followed them. These two men unashamedly proclaimed their trust through the words of men who had gone before them. And the other prisoners marvelled. It was not cursing and complaining that they were hearing but praise and confidence in a God they did not know.

God also heard — and responded with earth-shaking results! How could He leave His servants in that situation when He had opportunity to show the whole jailhouse what He could do for those who trusted in Him? Would He have done the same for them had they spent their time moaning about their plight? I think not.

It’s easy to trust in God when the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Real faith is only valid when the light goes out and we can see nothing. What’s inside is only revealed under the pressure of unbearable circumstances. Why does God allow things like this to happen? He wants us to know what’s inside.

Paul and Silas passed their test with flying colours! And God gave them their reward — more freedom and greater confidence in the God who proved Himself to be utterly trustworthy.

Deceitful And Beyond Cure

Christian Life, , ,

DECEITFUL AND BEYOND CURE

“When her owners saw that their lucrative little business was suddenly bankrupt, they went after Paul and Silas, roughed them up and dragged them into the market square. Then the police arrested them and pulled them into a court with this accusation, ‘These men are disturbing the peace — dangerous Jewish agitators subverting our law and order.’ By this time the crowd had turned into a restless mob out for blood.

“The judges went along with the mob, had Paul and Silas’s clothes ripped off and ordered a public beating. After beating them black and blue, they threw them into jail, telling the jail-keeper to put them under heavy guard so there would be no chance of escape. He did just that — threw them into the maximum security cell in the jail and clamped leg irons on them.” Acts 16:19-24 (The Message).

Wow! All that just because Paul set a girl free! Talk about injustice! Who were the agitators and who were the ones subverting law and order? Certainly not Paul and Silas.

What lay at the bottom of this furore? Money! These slave-owners were mercilessly exploiting another human being for the sake of money. They were turning her spiritual torment into an income for themselves with no regard for her dignity or humanity. It’s no wonder that the Holy Spirit acted quickly to release her from demonic oppression when Paul intervened!

Her owners could not come out with the real reason for their protest. What would it look like for them if they dragged Paul and Silas into court shouting, ‘These men have just set this girl free from demons and now we can’t make money out of her any more’? What an exposure of their own wicked hearts, exploiting the plight of the girl and the gullibility of the public!

What did they say instead? “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to practise.” Acts 16:21 (NIV). How true was that? Who was throwing the city into an uproar? They were. Where and to whom were Paul and Silas speaking? They were speaking to the women outside the city at the place of prayer near the river. So who was deceiving whom?

This is our story. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Jeremiah wrote this damning diagnosis of the condition of the human heart:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV).

So intent are we on protecting our name, our image, and even our motives that we lie to ourselves and to the ones who are closest to us. The results are alienation and broken relationships, anger, bitterness and resentment because we are unwilling to take responsibility for what we do and say.

What would have happened had the slave-owners resolved to tell the truth? Would they have resorted to the action they took against Paul and Silas? If they were honest, might they not have admitted that their treatment of the girl was wrong and perhaps even set her free because they had been unfair to her?

The miracle of the gospel of Jesus is that it changes our hearts. It enables us to see things from another perspective; truth replaces deception and teaches us to be humble enough to be real with ourselves and others. Only God’s grace can set us free from our inborn lying natures and embrace who we really are — people created in the image of God who are being transformed from our old corrupt selves into the character of Jesus.

Freed From The Tormentor

Bible Study, , ,

FREED FROM THE TORMENTOR

“One day, on our way to the place of prayer, a slave girl ran into us. She was a psychic and, with her fortune-telling, made a lot of money for the people who owned her. She started following Paul around, calling everyone’s attention to us by yelling out, ‘These men are working for the Most High God. They’re laying out the road of salvation for you.’ She did this for a number of days until Paul, finally fed up with her, turned and commanded the spirit that possessed her, ‘Out! In the name of Jesus Christ, get out of her!’ And it was gone, just like that.” Acts 16:16-18 (The Message).

So what was the problem? Didn’t this girl give Paul just the sort of publicity he needed to get his message across? Wasn’t she helping him in his ministry?

At face value it seems that his reaction was a bit harsh. He interfered with this girl’s owners’ source of income and he cut short the publicity she gave him by her psychic “insight” into who he was and what he was doing.

Let’s look at the issues a little more closely.

First of all, Jesus had the same problems with demon-possessed people. The demons in them had no option but to acknowledge who He was but that did not mean that they did it by their own free will. They were enemies of Jesus, aligned with the devil, and knew very well who the real Master was. Jesus refused to accept testimony from them.

Only people who freely and willingly submitted to Him as Lord had reason to testify. Even then, He would not allow then to speak until His work on the cross was complete. Publicity for the wrong reasons hindered rather than helped his ministry.

Paul, likewise, would not accept publicity from someone who did not bow to Jesus as Lord. This girl’s babbling was not a testimony to the salvation she experienced. She was mouthing words she was forced to speak from the “squatters” who dominated her.

Secondly, the girl was not only owned by unscrupulous masters; she was possessed by an even more unscrupulous spirit who controlled her thoughts and actions. She was a slave in every sense of the word, exploited by her human masters for money and by a demonic spirit who drove her to do his bidding day and night. She was doing to Paul what the demon did to her, tormenting him with her words.

Why he did not act immediately is not clear. Perhaps he was preoccupied with the ministry he was engaged in. Perhaps it took him a while to become irritated by the girl’s tailing him and shouting. Perhaps he was reluctant to fall foul of her owners because he was already in enough trouble with antagonistic Jews.

Finally her condition got to him. In the name of Jesus he evicted the squatter and released her from her so-called “gift” which was nothing but a chain around her spirit. We have no idea what happened to her. No doubt her masters took it out on her as well as on Paul and Silas. They could not control the owners’ treatment of the girl, but at least she was free from the inner torment that had enslaved her spirit. Did she perhaps respond in faith to the Most High God she had so mindlessly proclaimed? We would love to think that she did.

Paul was a man who knew who he was in Christ. He was not afraid to engage the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to win the battle already won on the cross but to take the spoils of war which belonged to the winner. No wonder the demons said to the sons of Sceva who were trying to drive them out, “We know Jesus and we know Paul, but who are you?” and beat them up until they fled!

Roadblocks

Bible Study, , ,

ROADBLOCKS

“They went to Phrygia, and then on through the region of Galatia. Their plan was to turn west into Asia Province, but the Holy Spirit blocked that route. So they went to Mysia and tried to go north to Bythinia, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let them go there either. Proceeding on through Mysia, they went down to the seaport of Troas.

“That night Paul had a dream. A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news to the Europeans.” Acts 16:6-10 (The Message).

What a lovely lesson on guidance! The Spirit of Jesus had a plan for them and He corralled them into going where He wanted them to go; no Google map of their lives but a step-by-step unfolding of the way as they obeyed the previous pointers.

Don’t you love God’s way of doing things? He didn’t guide them like robots, mindlessly following verbal instructions, but having intelligently to discern the mind of the Spirit and following His directives in a partnership that involved trust, submission and obedience in every step they took.

Luke did not elaborate on the way the Holy Spirit blocked their way. We can only surmise that Paul interpreted whatever obstacles He put in the way as from God and not from the devil! That’s not easy to do. How do we know when God is showing us to change direction and when Satan is hindering the work of God through us?

In Paul’s case, whatever was in the way of their going in the direction he had planned must have been insurmountable. Twice he was prevented from following his own plan. When he had got the message, “Not that way!” he was open to a positive call, “Come here and help us!” His immediate response was relief and assurance that God was opening the door to a whole new field of ministry in Europe.

Not only do we see in Paul’s response a spontaneous and willing obedience to the Holy Spirit’s leading, but also his ability to discern the mind of the Spirit. This tells us that God has both Paul’s mind and his heart. There was no self-will involved in this man’s commitment to doing the will of God. Paul called himself the “slave” of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was in circumstances like these that he showed just how much of a “slave” he was.

However, Paul’s slavery was his own choice because he wholeheartedly trusted Jesus to do the best for him and through him. This is our highest calling in life – to be one with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as they are one in a functional unity of essence, heart and purpose. There is no greater freedom than being a slave of Jesus because His way is secure and certain and takes us unerringly to the Father.

Paul had no idea of what lay ahead for him. Had he known, he might not have been so willing to go that way. He might easily have said, “No thank you!” and gone home. But, looking back over a life of trial and suffering, he could say with absolute assurance, “I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed…” 2 Timothy 1:12 (NIV).

We can only learn the love of God when we follow His leading along uncertain paths and sometimes painful ways. Even when we stubbornly choose our own way and have to face the consequences of our own foolishness, God is there to cradle us in His arms and lovingly redirect us in the right way.

How else can we learn the depth of His love than feeling it and experiencing it in the depth of our pain? Would Paul have ever wished his life to have been different, easy, uneventful, without trials? I think not! Looking back, we can say, “As tough as it was, I would not have missed for anything in the world.”

Joined To Christ

Bible Study, ,

JOINED TO CHRIST

“Putting out from the harbour at Troas, we made a straight run for Samothrace. The next day we tied up at New City and walked from there to Philippi, the main city in that part of Macedonia and, even more importantly, a Roman colony. We lingered there several days.

“On the Sabbath we left the city and went along the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting. We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them. One woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a God-fearing woman. As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the Master gave her a trusting heart — and she believed.” Acts 16:11-14 (The Message).

These were the moments that made it worth it all — all the persecution, all the suffering, all the weariness and hardship were irrelevancies when it came to the joy of leading a soul to Jesus. Lydia was their first convert on European soil. Unlike Jewish women who were by-and-large, nonentities, Lydia was wealthy and influential, a successful business woman and also a thinking woman.

She had turned from the irrational worship of Roman gods to the God of the Jews, one of those in the category of “God-fearers”, attached to, but not part of the Jewish religion. She had come to realise that the Jewish faith had something that attracted and satisfied her much more than the pantheon of gods that pandered to human wickedness.

It’s no wonder, then, that she was ripe for the picking when Paul and Silas sat down with the women to bring them the full revelation of God in His Son Jesus. All she needed to complete her faith was the good news of what the God of the Jews had done to rescue mankind from the plight it was in through rebellion and sin. It all made sense to her and, without hesitation, she put her faith in the One of whom Paul and Silas spoke.

“After she was baptized, along with everyone in her household, she said, in a surge of hospitality, ‘If you’re confident that I’m in this with you, and believe in the Master truly, come home with me and be my guests.’ We hesitated but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Acts 16:15 (The Message).

For the good news of Jesus to be authentic, it must produce something more than intellectual assent. You have to put your money where your mouth is. For Paul it meant burying old prejudices and setting aside old taboos. Both Paul and Silas, proud Jewish men, had to drop their attitude to women, and a Gentile woman at that. Lydia wanted to express her gratitude and generosity by opening her home to them.

These are the realities of the new life that Jesus offers to those who put their faith in Him. It’s not only about recognising that He is who He says He is, the One who has power and authority above all others, but it’s also about entrusting ourselves to Him so that He produces life changes in us so radical that we begin, more and more, to think and act like He does.

These are the fruit of His life and the evidence of our change of allegiance, from self to God, a paradigm shift so powerful that it actually alters the entire core and direction of our lives. No religion can do that. All religion can do is entrench more deeply what is already in us — every kind of self-driven effort, accomplishment and indulgence that cut us off from God’s grace.

Lydia was joined to Christ and, for her, a new life had begun.