Anyway, as I prayerfully contemplated in my heart and mind what my status should be today, the Lord brought this song into my mind:
‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus / Louisa M.R. Stead / William J. Kirkpatrick
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Thee!
How I’ve proved Thee o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Thee more!
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Acts 9:19-31:
Saul in Damascus and Jerusalem
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.
23 After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, 24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. 25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. 30 When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.
My Understanding: I was glancing through the news headlines when this news article jumped out at me: The day part of the Internet died: Egypt goes dark - http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EGYPT_PROTEST_INTERNET_OUTAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-01-28-07-29-24. I read in the article that the internet was entirely shut down in Egypt to try to silence dissent against the government. The article said that "The Internet went dead… The entire country was disconnected in an apparently coordinated effort... It's as if the entire country disappeared... the country can control where the outages are targeted... So its military facilities, for example, can stay online while the Internet vanishes for everybody else."
I think sometimes we take our freedoms for granted until they are taken away and they "disappear" like my wall posts just vanished and disappeared from site from Facebook, and like the Internet in Egypt just disappeared and vanished for the people as a means of controlling the people. And, the article discussed if this could happen in America and the supposed fact that the idea of a single "kill switch" has seduced some American lawmakers, "who have pushed for the power to shutter the Internet in a national emergency." So, these "very weird" happenings on Facebook may just be "glitches" or they may be controlled tests to see how well the government can target whoever or whatever they choose. Time will tell.
As I prayerfully contemplated this news article, this song, and this scripture, I believe the Lord revealed to me that he is using all three of them today in coordination with one other, and that God allowed that “disappearance” of my posts on my wall on Facebook today as an illustration to show me the message he had for me today.
Saul, turned Paul, when confronted with Jesus Christ and the truth of the gospel, and when he experienced God’s healing power in his body, mind and soul, and the transformation of his heart, mission and purpose on this earth, spent several days with the disciples. This is where I left off in my reading yesterday. Today begins “At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.” That phrase, “At once,” is what really jumped out at me. He didn’t waste time. God had miraculously changed his heart and life and had turned him from a persecutor of Jesus to a follower of Jesus, and he wanted to tell as many people as possible the good news about Jesus. And, the Jews conspired to kill him. He didn’t know if he had tomorrow. He knew it was urgent that he get the message out to as many as possible while he still had today. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow or even a minute from now. It could all be gone – vanished – disappeared in an instant!
Saul/Paul was not immediately accepted. The people were thinking that this was the man who persecuted believers in Jesus and had come to arrest them, so they were suspicious of his motives. He even tried to join the other disciples, but they were afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. Paul didn’t fit the formula that man had decided God should work from. He didn’t fit the mold. He was outside the box. He was radical. He didn’t fit anywhere – not with the Jews and not with the believers, either. He was on fire for Jesus. He spoke boldly in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. He had a bad reputation that preceded him and people were already predisposed to reject him. He wasn’t a “team player.” He didn’t sit quietly and do nothing while he waited for acceptance. “At once he began to preach.” His preaching was solid, it was Biblical, it was of God, and it was powerful. He proved Jesus was the Christ, and I don’t believe he did this by intellectual argument alone, either. He proved it by his life transformation and through the power of the Holy Spirit speaking in and through him. Yet, the Jews wanted to kill him and the Christians didn’t trust him and they were afraid of him. He had a rough start! Some of us may identify with Saul/Paul in some respects in our own experiences in following the Lord Jesus.
When the Jews tried to kill him, his followers rescued him so that he could escape death. When he came to Jerusalem and the other disciples rejected him, Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and explained to them Paul’s testimony of conversion. Again, the Jews tried to kill him, and the brothers rescued him. So, in this very beginning of his life with Christ and his testimony and witness for Jesus he was opposed three times and two times was sought after to be killed. Yet, he was rescued each time. I thought here of the many times the Jews wanted to kill Jesus but how he escaped because his time had not yet come, and when it had, he went with them willingly. We, too, as followers of Jesus and as his bold witnesses, will face opposition and persecution from the world, from other religious people, and even from our own Christian brothers and sisters in Christ. The reasons will vary, but some of them will be the same as what Saul/Paul experienced – other people’s fear of the unknown, distrust, unsure of our motives, a bad reputation preceded us, they don’t like the message, the truth hurts, we don’t fit the mold, and we don’t fit preconceived notions as to how God is supposed to work, etc. And, some may even try to “kill” the message through rejecting us, snubbing us, unfriending us, belittling and mocking us, as well as inviting us out of their groups, etc. Yet, God will keep those doors open for us to keep sharing the truth of the gospel until our time comes, too, for our “death.”
Saul/Paul, even though he faced death as a real possibility and even though he faced rejection, persecution, misunderstanding, etc., and even at the hands of those who should have loved and accepted him as a brother, preached the word of God fearlessly and spoke boldly in the name of Jesus, and he moved about freely in the power of the Holy Spirit at work within him and through him. How many of us give up at the first sign of defeat? How many of us run and hide when people reject us and the message? How many of us feel as though man has the power to stop the work of God? We need to be so in love with Jesus and so convinced that people truly need Jesus in their lives to save them and of the urgency to get the message out while we still have today, that we will, like Paul, speak boldly and fearlessly in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Spirit working in and through us without fear of the potential of being “Unliked” or “Defriended” or asked to leave or to even have the message killed or even ourselves killed, because God is all powerful and he is more powerful than any man, and in fact, no man has power but what God allows it and God can remove man and his power whenever he chooses to do so. Nothing can happen to us until God’s timing for it to happen to us, so we need to keep on keeping on while it is still day.
Going back to this news article, our “temple courts” of today where Jesus and his disciples often declared the gospel in public is often now on the Internet. If the U.S. government declared a national state of emergency, it is highly possible that what happened in Egypt could happen in America, too. Right now we have open access to the Internet and are free to share whatever God puts upon our hearts to share. Not all sites will accept us, and we could be booted off a site or group, but for now, we in America have the freedom to speak whatever God gives us to speak on the Internet, and to do it with great boldness. We don’t know how long that freedom will last. So, seize the moment while you still have it. The Internet is a great mission field and a great medium for getting out the gospel to the entire world. Don’t take that for granted! Like Saul, we should “At Once” preach the gospel and tell people the truth about Jesus Christ and His Word and to invite them into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ so that they, too, can have the kind of radical transformation of life and heart and mission as did Saul to where we will prove Jesus is the Christ by our very lives and our witness for Him daily.
I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Will be with me to the end.
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