Acts 16 - The Strange Call Of God To Prison

Acts 16 has to be the chapter for those who feel called to something/somewhere yet nothing seems to be going as planned. While the whole chapter takes place over a matter of days, - and not years as some experience the frustration of feeling called yet "not yet" - they must have been rollercoaster days.

All starts so well, - Paul picks up Timothy and they go around strengthening the churches, and the Lord added to their number. They stay in close fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and know that He doesn't want them in Asia so after Paul receives a vision they head to Macedonia, "concluding they had been called to preach the Gospel there" (Acts 16: 10)

So they set sail to Macedonia, arrive there and proceed to spend several apparently fruitless days there. No stories of amazing speeches, no crowds turning to Christ, no synagogue to debate in. Eventually on the Sabbath they have to leave the city in order to find some people to talk to or worship with. Note that in verse 13 Luke admits they weren't even sure they would find people there.

A momentary highlight as Lydia and her household have their hearts opened by the Lord and are saved. Yet the numbers aren't stunning. You begin to wonder why the Holy Spirit said they were not to go to Asia. The next few days are also seemingly eventless, apart from a slave girl so deeply possessed that she could testify to the truth and still be being controlled by Satan. Luke says Paul was "greatly annoyed" by her, yet what must it have been like to have to come to terms with the most vocal "supporter" of their cause in Macedonia was satanically possessed?

The usual follows, they get arrested, stripped by the magistrates, flogged severely, are thrown into prison and there have their feet set in stocks, - presumably making much needed sleep even harder to come by.

And then verse 25 they sing hymns and pray. Why!?!? The big question sitting over this passage is why Paul and Silas have traipsed around a city for a week, seen few people get saved, had to deal with a particularly distressing case of demonic possession, have been mocked, beaten and emprisoned, and at midnight are neither sleeping or grumbling at God, but singing and praying. They aren't even primarily evangelising, - they're singing praises, lost in love for their God.

Why?

I think there are three things they had, which I want more of.
(In chronological order)
1) They had Acts 1: 8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" This is the key to understanding the entire book of Acts. Not abnormal men, but normal men like you and me, - with one unchanging, empowering, enabling, missional, glorious God.

2) They had such a grip and sense of the majesty of the Gospel that they knew life wasn't about them. They were owned by Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit had set them ablaze with a passion for the glory of the Gospel; and as such they live Acts 20: 24 shaped lives. "But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

3) They knew they were called. Acts 16: 10 sealed the deal. They were called and their calling was not in vain. How long was it, I wonder, before they noticed that people were listening to them pray and sing. (Acts 16:25) God didn't call them primarily for those in the city, He called them for a business woman and a collection of social outcasts; the prisoners. Their singing must have made a bold impression on the prisoners too - their bonds were loosened but they didn't try to escape.

Acts 16 is a call to trust in the God who doesn't order things the way we would, He does it better. Acts 16 is a reminder that God is passionate about revealing His Son to the lost. Acts 16 is a reminder that nothing is as everything seems. Acts 16 is a call to live by faith and not by sight.

The Pearl To Be

I'm back from my blogging holiday, and thought I'd start off with a poem I wrote a few days ago to a friend. I have lightly edited it, - I wrote this at 1-2am so it has a few faults, - and removed the friend's name. (The last two lines are as they are for a reason, and not for cheesy sentimentality)

The Pearl To Be

"For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison"

(2 Cor 4:17)

“oh God, oh God” sobbed her broken cry,

The divine response seemed a slow reply.

But soft and true the whisper came,

Gracefully kneeling by her broken frame.

“My child if only you could know

What precious fruit your trial shall one day show”

Quiet and alone she in the chair

Her thoughts stretched out over a soul so bare

Chill of winter come seeps her soul of spiritual sight

Casting heavy shadows on Gospel light.

Alone but not alone is she,

In the stillness come voices, unholy.

Their rage is loud,

“Deserted” they stamp on her brow.

Uncontent with their sinful toil

They add and add to her heart’s poisoned soil.

Thus when to the cross she wearily looks

Still she feels there from God forsook.

Louder, louder the voices roar,

What this girl would give, on wings of grace to soar.

Slowly the tears slip down her face,

Now painful tear of heart; one day a pearl of grace.

Imprisoned, condemned and worthless

On and on taunt hell’s attacks so merciless

For naught could be to one so cruel

As to blind eye and deafen ear to hope’s fuel

That at the sight of mercy free,

Struck by unbelief is she.

The lies once again arise

Upon the King on a tree, - how dare she set her eyes?

Slowly the tears slip down her face,

Now painful tear of heart; one day a pearl of grace.

Nothing is as everything seems,

Nor has God left her to Satan’s schemes.

What is to her as sinking sand,

Is none other of Almighty Christ the Hand (Isaiah 41: 10)

She isn’t alone to face Satan’s dart

For deep within Christ lives in her heart.

Nor is He unable to save to the last,

For one day Satan will He to Hell cast.

On that day, with dawn of glory in splendour come,

You, with immortal eyes, shall see the Son.

Slowly the tears slip down her face,

Now painful tear of heart; one day a pearl of grace.

Take heart Sis, take heart in the cross

For there shall you see your tale turn from loss

In the Trinity eternally sufficient,

Jesus headed to Calvary to pay for you, deficient.

Perfect Lamb of God, forever praised,

Crushed by God that you alive to Him may be raised.

Look to His wounds, His bloodied side,

Here He calls you to linger and bide.

He was pierced for all your crime,

To bear your guilt and cleanse you from sin’s grime.

To you, dear Sister, Himself He freely gives

That you in Him may always live.

Slowly the tears slip down her face,

Now painful tear of heart; one day a pearl of grace.

I do not know all the reasons why,

You seem to hear the empty echo of your cry.

Yet what you think your life will waste

Will be in heaven a glorious taste of grace.

You have begged and pleaded

God for the sign so dearly needed.

God in turn now to you does say,

"Look once more, by the cross is light’s first ray.

My daughter, you I dearly adore,

This I would have you know so much more.

Do not let the clouds hide My loving face,

To you dear child I am only mercy, love and grace.

Though this is all to your distaste,

Know I broke My Son, that you I might embrace.

Whilst divine aid may seem to tarry,

Help is on its way, for now I send you Larry."

The River Will Reach The Ocean

"A river continually fed by a living fountain may as soon end its streams before it come to the ocean, as a stop be put to the course and progress of grace before it issue in glory; for

"the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day," Prov 4:18.

So is their path wherein they are led and conducted by the Holy Spirit, even as the morning light; which after it once appears, though it may be sometimes clouded, yet fails not until it arrive unto its perfection."

John Owen, The Holy Spirit.

Holiday

Taking a little break from blogging. Back sometime in July.

Naked As From The Earth We Came (By Isaac Watt)

Hymn 5 - Naked as from the earth we came,
Submission to afflictive providences.

(Job 1:21.)

"Naked as from the earth we came,
And crept to life at first,
We to the earth return again,
And mingle with our dust.

The dear delights we here enjoy,
And fondly call our own,
Are but short favors borrowed now,
To be repaid anon.

'Tis God that lifts our comforts high,
Or sinks them in the grave;
He gives, and, blessed be his name!
He takes but what he gave.

Peace, all our angry passions, then;
Let each rebellious sigh
Be silent at his sovereign will,
And every murmur die.

If smiling mercy crown our lives,
Its praises shall be spread;
And we'll adore the justice too
That strikes our comforts dead."

(from Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Noah; An Ordinary Man Kept By Extra Ordinary Grace

In many ways Noah is really the story of an ordinary Christian. Of course the circumstances of the flood are unique - there will never be another one, - yet in so many ways Noah comes across as one of the Joe Bloggs style Christians. Saved from a generation of extreme wickedness (Gen 6: 5, 8) he isn't portrayed as having sought God in any way at all, but simply having found "favour in God's eyes."

Having been given a job to do by God - (Gen 6: 13-22) - he set about building the ark which would have taken tens of years. For decades he worked and preached about God's righteousness (2 Pet 2: 5) and seemingly all was in vain. He would have seen little point in his work at times, saw little fruit in evangelism. (Just 7 members of his family went on the ark with him, the rest of his city perished)

And yet all alone the sovereign and good plan of God is preparing and controlling everything, and so the flood comes. Noah is preserved in the ark in one of the brightest pictures of the Gospel of grace in the OT. Noah gets really close to God. God even rearranges nature that there should be a sign for Noah and his family. (Gen 9: 12-13)

Yet just like us, we have these amazing, so-called, mountain top experiences with Jesus, and the very next second we blow it big time. Noah like us is kept by grace, how could he not be when he continues to live after he sins in Gen 9 and gets drunk, bringing shame on himself.

He gets to see the very hand of God working in the earth to preserve and save him in an unbelievably dramatic way, yet this alone doesn't save him. Noah is the very personification of the point that being a church member, doing good things for God, even being baptised doesn't keep you from falling prey to sin.

The shock of the story of Noah is that Noah is not saved by a boat. He is saved by grace; despite His neglect of God and woeful drunkenness what is said to the equally woeful church of Corinth was true of Noah from the very moment he found grace in God's sight to the end of his 900+ years on earth.

It's all about "Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor 1: 7-8) Fighting (and falling) to sin till the end, yet sustained and guiltless. Noah ends as a story of sustaining grace.

More on Noah at the proGnosis, Very Random Thoughts, the Bluefish Project and Saintbeagle.