Mar. 10th, 2010
Acts 28:10 [ i]As a result we were showered with honors, and when the time came to sail, people supplied us with everything we would need for the trip. This seemingly mundane detail ought not be missed in this last chapter of Acts. In response to Paul’s healing of all the island’s sick, the grateful people resupply the ship and its crew for the remainder of their journey. Note, how in previous chapters, in an attempt to save the ship and crew from the storms; the ships crew chief had instructed all non-essential stuff be thrown overboard. I suspect that might have been a bit of stuff! And here these grateful people step to the plate and replenish all that is needed for the trip to resume and continue.
Isn’t it amazing how God works? It’s not very profound, but I was struck today by how God supplies. From sources we might never imagine, God supplies what we need, when we need it. We are so often so insistent that God answer our prayers (demands) and that God answer them in this specific time frame, and even more, that God answer them in this specific way! I’m afraid we often miss God working behind the scenes, because we’ve demanded He work in a way that seems right or safe, or sensible to us. Just goes to show that God always makes a way to accomplish His will, even when we don’t understand how, why, when, or the means He chooses.
I wish that today I could see some of the ways God is at work accomplishing His greater, grander purpose in my life, in my church, and in our world. Wouldn’t it be surprising if God used this current economic crisis to call America back to Himself? Wouldn’t it be interesting if God used the current health care debate, and the subsequent political wrangling to actually extend healing to someone who really needs it? Wouldn’t it be great if from this gray fog in which we’ve been living, God has been working some miraculous way to relieve flood weary residents another round of fighting water? Wouldn’t it be great if the attitude I choose to embrace and share today, might be used to touch some stranger to me, that God knows needs something from God? It is all possible.

Mar. 9th, 2010
Acts 28:3-6 As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, “a murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.” But Paul shook the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn’t harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god. An interesting, even humorous story opens this final chapter of Acts. Certainly there is more spiritual stuff in this chapter but this scene captured me today. Paul survives the rough seas, and makes his way to shore with the rest of the crew. They are greeted by the locals who make a fire. Being the good ‘servant leader’ he was, Paul chips in with the wood gathering. (no pun intended) He’s bitten by a poisonous snake, and immediately as the snake hangs from his hand, the people declare him a murderer! He must be being punished for killing someone.
I just find it interesting how these people (and others) so easily and quickly determine (judge) his state and status by observing these natural occurrences. Maybe he wasn’t being judged by God, maybe he didn’t kill anyone, maybe he just got his hand to close to the snake and it bit him.
I share some frustration from this story with some in my life and our world who so easily claim that the “signs” of nature point to “judgment”. Like the idiots in the Kansas Baptist “cult” that somehow equate a soldiers tragic death with God’s judgment on America, because we have embraced homosexuality to a level beyond their ability to tolerate it. Or supposed religious leaders claiming that this or that natural weather tragedy (like hurricane Katrina being a judgment on sinful New Orleans; or the Haitian earthquake being a judgment on their witchcraft religion) is a sign God is judging people.
I have no doubt God can use whatever tool(s) He deems necessary to judge His people; but I have some disgust at those who think they speak for God announcing that this or that event equals this or that judgment! Notice how this passage ends. They wait for Paul to swell up and die – but when he doesn’t – they then declare that he must be a god! Sometimes it is a short trip from “murderer to god” in people’s minds. I know I’ve been accused of being/doing the work of the devil by some, while being vaulted and praised for courageous leadership by others. The interesting thing is…both parties were observing the same action or event. Yes, it’s sometimes a short distance between ‘murderer and god’.

Mar. 8th, 2010
Acts 27:22 But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’ So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said. But we will be ship-wrecked on an island.” This is an unusual chapter; a recitation of the minutest details about the ship journey from Jerusalem to Rome for Paul’s trial. The ship encounters rough weather, and there is concern for life and safety. The details are what fascinate me, and make me wonder what spiritual place they have in scripture. What purpose does it serve in the grand eternal scheme of life, to be reminded how many anchors they dropped, and how they cut the lines and left them in the bottom of the ocean. Maybe the anchors are still there, and if found, then scripture would be proven to be true, Paul would be believed as an apostle of God, and the whole world would come to believe in Jesus…all because of 4 anchors. Ok, probably not.
I wrote the passage above as the one that spoke to me, partly because it is one of the only “spiritual” references in the chapter. But it does have meaning for me; especially verse 23: . I think that this simple testimony of Paul reminds and For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me compels me to be and do in the service of God. The God to whom I belong…I am not fatherless, though my dad has been dead 32 years. I am not an orphan, I am not abandoned or alone, I am not a nobody…I belong to God. And I have a job. The God to whom I belong is the God I’m honored to serve. Sometimes some people fall in love with belonging to God, and fail to complete the second part – serving the God to whom we belong.
So Lord, thanks for choosing me – I’m glad to belong to You. And thanks for gifting me – I’m honored to be able to serve You. Help me clearly see you in the minutia of my day; and serve you with all I am.

Mar. 5th, 2010
Acts 26:28 Agrippa interrupted him. “Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly?” Paul finally gets his audience with King Agrippa, Festus is there too. Paul makes his defense again, and it sounds vaguely familiar – virtually the same testimony he uttered in chapter 22 before the Jerusalem council. There is probably a message there; when given opportunity to make our ‘defense’, we probably ought simply to go back to the beginning…how have we come to know Jesus. People may argue and disagree over many things; the authority of the Bible, the right or wrong theology, the authenticity of this or that church; but people are defenseless before a person’s personal testimony. Hard for anyone to argue with what happened to me! They may not like it or agree with it, but they cannot deny what I KNOW has happened to me. Instead of attempting to make glamorous, humorous, or theologically astute defenses; maybe I ought to just give my testimony.
That being said, Agrippa pulls off the second excuse…he certainly can’t be expected to give his life to Christ with so little information, so little background, so little time! I’ve used that excuse many times – mostly when someone asks me to do something I don’t want to do, or don’t think I can do! I’ve heard the excuse from many people who put off accepting Jesus, for a hundred different reasons.
The message for me today is; don’t put off what needs to be done, thinking I’m not qualified, intelligent enough, or able to be used by God. There is no time like the present! Whether accepting Jesus for the first time, or saying yes to teaching Sunday School. Whether visiting a lonely neighbor, or calling a far-away friend. Whether writing the reluctant check or giving more time than I have…Lord help me become the Christian you need/want me to be…quickly, yes quickly!

Mar. 4th, 2010
Acts 25:19 Instead, it was something about their religion and a dead man named Jesus, who Paul insists is alive.
Paul’s trial has shifted from Felix to Festus (sounds like a Gunsmoke episode, and plays out like one too!). Festus is meeting with King Agrippa and filling him in on the details of Paul’s unusual case. He is recounting the charges the Jewish leaders are making against Paul and instead of finding anything of substance; he recounts the words from this verse: Instead, it was something about their religion and a dead man named Jesus, who Paul insists is alive.
I’ve believed for a long time that this injunction is a fairly accurate description of how many “yet-to-be-believers” view Jesus: a dead man, whom ‘His followers’ insist is alive. How is it that so many in this world refuse to believe in Jesus, when there is more historical data in existence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus than there is for the life and death of the great King Caesar. No intelligent person refuses to believe that Julius Caesar was a real person, but so many choose not to believe Jesus was. Maybe it’s not that they don’t believe He existed, but they refuse to believe He was who he said he was; God.
I understand the value of having people in my life and circle of influence who don’t yet know or believe in Jesus; I just hope I’m fit for the task of being a good representative; insisting He is alive. I hope that by the way I live, and the values I hold, and the service I render that people will come to see that Jesus is not only a real person, not only the Son of God; but also is alive TODAY! My life is not just about following some lifeless religious rituals, and some dead man named Jesus, that I and others “claim” to be alive. My life is about Jesus, who is as alive today as the day he walked on water, the day he healed the blind man, the day he fed 5000, the day he saved my soul from hell, and the day he saved me from wasting one more day of my life. I INSIST that He is alive…help me live this truth!