Tag Archives: prison

ROMANS…PLANS – 26a

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“But now I have finished my work in these regions, and after all these long years of waiting, I am eager to visit you. I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I have enjoyed your fellowship for a little while, you can provide for my journey.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul had plans! Rome was in his sights. For many years he had laboured in Asia Minor, moving on to Europe but always with his eye on Rome, the capital city and hub of the Roman Empire. Why Rome? 

Rome was where everything started and ended…the imperial city, the seat of government…power and control. If Paul could preach the gospel in Rome, especially as close to the seat of power as possible, perhaps the influence of the gospel in high places could change the way God’s people were being treated. The message of Jesus would spread out from Rome in all directions, carried by His followers to every city and town in the empire. 

Of course, Paul had no idea that God also has plans for Rome…not the way that Paul anticipated but through his imprisonment in the very precincts of the emperor himself. Paul’s longing to go to Rome would be fully satisfied and even the means to travel there, not supplied by the church in Rome as he thought, but at government expense! Not only would he get free passage to Rome but he would be housed in the palace itself, albeit imprisoned and chained to a Roman guard…a captive audience if ever there was one!

Paul was incorrigible. Even in his darkest moments, he found joy in what God was doing through his pain. He saw light in the darkness. Every trial was God’s opportunity to further the spread of the good news of salvation through Jesus. Paul was dispensable for the sake of the gospel…and he rejoiced in being the vessel God used to pour out His love on a broken world. 

“And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear. It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives…But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬-‭15‬, ‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul acknowledged, in his  last letter to Timothy, that he would never escape from the clutches of the emperor. His time was up…but he was prepared. 

“As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near.”

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul anticipated his death with joy. Death held no terror for him…but only the prospect of meeting his Lord face-to-face and receiving from Him his reward…and for those who served Him faithfully. 

“For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.”

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

With an attitude like that, how can anyone lose? 

Paul’s circumstances, uncomfortable as they were…could not dampen his joy. His letter to the Philippians,  written from a Roman prison to one of his favourite churches, was the most joyful of all his letters…full of gratitude for the people who loved, prayed, and served him faithfully, and for the place where God had planted him to shine in the darkness. 

Despite Paul’s discomfort and the prospect of execution, he didn’t flinch. He turned his suffering into celebration. Yes, he had experienced his portion of hardships…physical, financial, and even spiritual. Yes, he had even pleaded with God for release from his struggles…but…instead of becoming bitter and resentful, he had learned…what?

“Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on hardly anything or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

With Jesus at the core of his being, giving him the power to overcome, Paul has learned to treat his circumstances as irrelevant. Not that he didn’t experience difficulties and trials, but that they made no difference to his inner life. The three most important and significant attributes of Jesus, lost to the human race at the Fall, but bequeathed and restored to His disciples on the eve of His death…His love, His joy, and His peace…held him steady and immovable. 

A story on YouTube deeply moved me. An African American woman gave this testimony…after her husband and two sons were shot dead at the bus stop, waiting for the school bus, her response was…“Let’s have church!”

Can we, like Paul, express our trust in Jesus with such conviction that we can say, in the darkest times of suffering…”Let’s have church!”?…and really mean it?

Pain and sorrow are real but…Jesus’ joy can carry us through, if we see Him…above and beyond our earthly suffering…as always with us and always working, in all things, for our good and for His glory. 

To be continued

BAPTISING

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BAPTISING

“After this, Jesus and His disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where He spent some time with them, and baptised. Now John was also baptising at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptised, (This was before John was put in prison).” John 3:22-24.

What was all this baptising about? Who were Jesus and John baptising and why? Were they sprinkling water on people’s heads or were they dunking them under the water?

Baptism, or ritual washing, was an ancient and common practice in Israel. It was carried out in obedience to the Law of Moses for many different reasons. It was also the way of ritual cleansing and initiation into an office e.g., the priesthood, or a movement.

John was a rabbi who had a following of disciples and a “yoke”, an interpretation of the Torah and a lifestyle that he adhered to and placed upon his followers as did Jesus. As he taught about the Messiah, preparing the way for His coming, people wanted to show that they accepted and identified with what John was teaching and the way to do it publicly was through ritual washing.

It would seem that Jesus was initiating His own disciples into Himself and His teaching as well, so that they would become different people while John was baptising people who were willing to change their minds and accept what John was teaching them about the Messiah. The act of washing in running water was symbolic of washing away who they were and giving them a new beginning in a new understanding and way of life according to what their rabbi had taught them. 

Were John and Jesus in competition, each drawing a following and initiating their disciples into their teaching and way of life? For a while they were both teaching and baptising, but John in no way acted like a rival. In fact, John, the author of this gospel, records John the Baptist’s purpose, more than once, of pointing people to Jesus. He did not object when some of his disciples left him to follow Jesus.

“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God.’ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.” John 1:35-37.

When his disciples questioned John about Jesus’ popularity, he responded that he was only the friend of the bridegroom, not the bridegroom. His job was to attend to bridegroom and announce His arrival. He concluded, “He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:30.

God had a drastic and unusual way of solving this problem. John did not disappear back into the wilderness. He was forcefully removed by Herod who had him thrown in prison at the instigation of his unscrupulous wife, Herodias. Why did God allow that to happen?

I cannot presume to understand all God’s ways, but it seems to me that John’s work was done. It was his task to prepare the way for Messiah, to announce His arrival and to point out who He was to those who heard him. Did he fulfil his calling? Yes, he did. There was no reason for him to continue because he would actually be in Jesus’ way.

His removal seems cruel but we have to ask, “Would it have been better for him to languish in a dungeon for years, never seeing the light of day and living in a hope that was never fulfilled?” It was through God’s mercy that he was taken out suddenly and drastically, leaving Jesus to fulfil His mission without a rival. The people no longer needed John’s message or John’s baptism because the Messiah was among them. John’s work was preparatory and complete.

We cannot always discern the wisdom and ways of the Lord. We know that He is good and always does what is best for us. His ways, Paul said, are “past finding out”. He asks us to trust Him when we cannot see the way ahead.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

MARK’S GOSPEL – GOD IS HERE!

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GOD IS HERE!

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Jesus Calls His First Disciples Mark 1:12-1

How could Jesus be so sure of His message, “God is here?” He had seen it, felt it, heard it, tasted it, experienced it in the worst possible environment. He has been cushioned and cocooned in the Father’s presence for forty days; heat, cold, hunger, thirst, rocks, cliffs, scorpions, snakes, spiders, prowling wild beasts – any one of these could have taken Him out – and He had to trust, lean on, hold on to the Father until He was perfectly at peace in the midst of all this. He had to move from enduring to embracing and enjoying His wilderness experience because it meant total reliance on the Father.

This was Jesus’ first “Gethsemane” experience and it prepared Him to run the gauntlet of life out there in the jungle of humanity. He had to learn to recognise and rebuff every alien voice until only the Father’s voice was clearly recognisable. “Although He was a son, He learned obedience from what He suffered…” (Hebrews 5:8).

Jesus was not proclaiming a theory: He was declaring a personal, powerful, practical reality. “God is here!” He was offering to His people the renewal of the experience as a “here and now” God. For 400 years they thought He had left them. Jesus wasn’t saying, “God is back.” He was saying, “God is here.” He was rekindling the awareness in them that God was always there, with them; but they had lost that awareness.

How can I offer that same awareness to people out there? And more so, to God’s people who struggle in their own “wilderness” experiences? First – I have to know it for myself, not just an intellectual assent to what is written in the Word, but a knowing that comes from leaning and listening to the one who is closer than my breath, the one who envelops me, surrounds me, saturates me and undergirds me until I am more sure and more secure in Him that in my own environment. I need my own wilderness. 6

THE BOOK OF ACTS – ATTITUDE DETERMINES OUTCOME

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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! 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.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – FAITH AND UNBELIEF

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FAITH AND UNBELIEF

“Still shaking his head, he went to Mary’s house, the Mary who was John Mark’s mother. The house was packed with praying friends. When he knocked on the door to the courtyard, a young woman named Rhoda came to see who it was. But when she recognised his voice — Peter’s voice — she was so excited and eager to tell everyone Peter was there that she forgot to open the door and left him standing in the street.” Acts 12:12-14 (The Message).

Peter was free but vulnerable. How long would it take for the Roman guards to rouse from their stupor and realise that Peter had disappeared? He had to get off the street and quickly. A lone man wandering around in the dark would be suspect, to be sure. Of course, there were no electric street lights and many dark corners, but daylight would soon reveal the fugitive when the soldiers were sent out to comb the neighbourhood, and they would be ruthless in their search.

Peter made a beeline for Mary’s house knowing he would be safe there for a short while. Although he did not know it then, many of his friends were assembled there, praying up a storm for his release. His urgent knocking was answered by a young servant girl who was obviously very much part of the praying.

Luke adds a human touch and a little humour to his story. Rhoda recognised Peter’s voice and was so ecstatic about the miraculous answer to their prayers that she left him outside and rushed into the prayer meeting with the news that Peter was free. Unlike the “holy books” of other religions, little incidents like these link us to the sheer humanness of the story. This is God’s story, but it is about people just like us.

“But they wouldn’t believe her, dismissing her, dismissing her report. ’You’re crazy,’ they said. She stuck by her story, insisting. They still wouldn’t believe her and said, ‘It must be his angel.’ All this time poor Peter was standing out in the street knocking away.” Acts 12:15-16a (The Message).

It seems strange that the believers were praying for Peter’s release but, when it happened, they could not take it in. One wonders what they were expecting to happen. Perhaps they had some prescribed notion of how it would happen instead of letting God do it His way.

Aren’t we just like that? Instead of letting God be God, we tell Him what to do and how to do it and then we put our faith in our expectation instead of in God to do what He wants to do His way. So much of our disappointment with God is tied to our expectations of what He will do and the way He will do it instead of putting our trust in Him and His wisdom and love. How often I hear this statement: “I’m trusting God for….” instead of “I’m trusting God,” period

Somehow we have the capacity to turn faith into unbelief when we limit God to our way of thinking and our way of doing things. What if, instead, our heartfelt confidence in the will of God frees Him to act when, how and where He chooses so that our insignificant concerns become a part of the bigger picture of His kingdom?

“Finally they opened up and saw him — and went wild! Peter put up his hands and calmed them down. He described how the Master had gotten him out of jail, then said, ‘Tell James and the brothers what happened.’ He left them and went to another place.” Acts 12:16b-17 (The Message).

Having told his story and concluded their mission to pray him out of jail, Peter left Jerusalem, putting distance between himself and the murderous intentions of Herod. From here on, Luke turned his attention to Paul and his commission to take the gospel to the whole Roman Empire. Peter appears briefly in Acts 15, but for the rest, Paul and his companions are the focus of the missionary enterprise.

If we take a step back for a moment and take in the ebb and flow of the infant church, it’s a story of vulnerable human beings caught up in the cosmic war between God and His arch-enemy, the devil, with human beings the prize. There is suffering and victory, death and life, pain and joy, but all the while the church inches her way across the empire, person by person, city by city, through the courageous witness of men and women who were not afraid to pay the price for their faith in a living Saviour.