Today's reading is from Acts 24
This passage is one of those interesting, often unread passages in the Bible. Paul once again finds himself speaking before a group of people about faith in Jesus. I think its comical that most of the people Paul was defending himself to believed that they had Paul in their control, but in Paul's eyes, he was in the best possible place: in front of a captive audience who he could share about the hope of Christ with. One of the people who he finds himself in front of is Felix, a high ranking Roman official. Felix is intrigued with Paul's discussion of the Way, for he was already familiar with it. Felix continued to have Paul summoned and talked to him about faith in Jesus. We never here about the end result of these sessions they shared together, but we know that God both ordained the encounters and worked through them.
My take-aways from this passage: 1. our trials, tribulations, and rough circumstances may simply be opportunities for us to demonstrate or communicate our faith with others. 2. we don't always know the fruit of our sharing the hope of Christ, but God works through these encounters and peaks the curiosity of the listeners.
What about you? What stood out from this passage to you?
Excellent Thoughts Erik. Also, it seems that at times those who speak against us, are really confused about the Way and thus we can use those times of a captive audience to speak the Truth.
ReplyDeleteTime seems to be of little relevance here. As often is the case in the Bible. Today we are in such a hurry to get things accomplished. Notice the last verse " But after two years...." Maybe we need to learn that "time is on our side", because it is His timing.
Yeah E, I agree with what you said. We never know who will be listening and or watching. Paul looked at defending himself as a chance to share his story. At the end of the day sometimes all we really have to do is explain our stories of what He is doing.
ReplyDeleteWe don't always get to control our destinies, but we can control how we act within our circumstances. How many times have we waited and waited hoping someone we are witnessing to will finally change and come to know Christ? What happens more often is that they only want to hear about Jesus when they want to hear it.
ReplyDeletewe often get told by people we are witnessing to "When it is convenient I will send for you". That's how the world operates. But we can still keep coming every time they send for us. Keep witnessing, keep preaching, keep modeling Christ every time they send for us.
Just looking in today, but liked your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteTodd, you're comment that we don't control our destinys but we can control our actions in circumstances is very profound.
Waiting-so hard to do sometimes.Guess that's why Jesus likened it to fishing.You don't get a fish with every cast.