Category: Bible (Page 66 of 355)

Sometimes a situation gets so annoying I have to deal with it. Like a dripping faucet or an aching tooth. Paul experienced a person so annoying he finally took action. Luke recorded the story:

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

Finally breaking, Paul called on the Lord and sent the demonic spirit flying. But then the owners of the girl got mad, having lost their source of easy money. They whipped up a crowd, beat Paul and his buddy Silas and threw them in prison. That night the Lord sent an earthquake and all the prison doors flew open. Distraught, the jailer grabbed his sword to run himself through, thinking the prisoners had escaped.

So much annoyance following one act of goodness. Missionaries beaten, slave owners enraged, customers missing their clairvoyant, townspeople riled up, and a jailer committing harakiri. I assume the demon left annoyed as well.

In the midst of all this swirl stood one young slave girl. Where did she go from there? She was still a slave, and now without any special powers. Her life situation may have actually gotten worse. However, no longer lost to oppression she saw the world clearly, and could choose for herself to embrace the way of Jesus.

The Lord goes to great lengths to bring one lost person to himself, and he doesn’t care who he annoys along the way.

Acts 16 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos

In high school I joined the Caving Club. Caves riddle the limestone topography of the Ozarks, and our science teacher led a group once a month or so to visit a different cave. Dodging bats in the ceiling, wiggling through tight passages, and emerging as muddy explorers all made for a rollicking good time. I enjoyed spelunking, but never desired to live in a cave. A few hours in a dark hole pushed all of us to yearn for the light of day.

David spent a lot of time in caves hiding from King Saul, and in the darkness putting pen to papyrus. He wrote:

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.

From his refuge in a cave David recognized the refuge of the Lord.

But while a cave makes for a good hide-out, it’s no place to spend your life. David wearied of the cave and prayed, I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint, before him I tell my trouble...set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.

You and I find ourselves stuck in caves, some of our own choosing and some by life’s circumstances. Regardless, we don’t have to stay there. We too can pray for God’s mercy, asking him to pull us from our dark places. Like with David, the Lord is also our rescuer. He hears our complaints and sets us free.

Psalm 57 & 142 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Justin Zhu

David took off running. Fellow Israelis revealed his hiding place to King Saul and David barely escaped. Saul tightened the noose, but at the last minute a crisis called him away. A close call brought on by the treachery of David’s once trusted neighbors.

David never forgot his betrayers. Even though they were of his own tribe, he called them strangers, ruthless, people without regard for God. David prayed, Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.

There’s a boomerang effect to sin. What goes around comes around. David prayed for such action on those who double-crossed him and his men.

It’s an appropriate prayer today. Let the corruption of people who promote evil bubble up and burn them, may their wickedness blow back into their faces. I think of the vicious and profane King Herod who because he did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

What goes around comes around. We should pray for our enemies, that those who commit evil would find Jesus and repent. But following the example of David, we can also pray that they would reap the results of their dishonorable acts and experience the recoil of their evil.

Psalm 54 & Acts 12 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Dmitry Bukhantsov

Several years ago I traveled to New York City for a work trip. One evening a colleague gathered a group to visit a trendy restaurant. I joined the party, looking forward to the culinary excursion. We started our meal sharing a variety of appetizers. My friend ordered one featuring beets, long forgotten but once again in vogue.

As a kid I hated beets. I thought they tasted like dirt. Now after many years, I spooned a few on my plate. I thought, Why not? I’m a grown man and enjoys lots of different foods, so maybe beets aren’t so bad. One bite brought me back. Same grainy mash of soil. I scraped the remaining beets onto my neighbor’s plate and reached for a chicken wing to kill the taste.

It’s easy to let a crowd pull you where you don’t want to go. At a restaurant it’s actually a lot of fun, but in life the wisdom of the crowd sometimes turns to madness.

Paul and Barnabus experienced such madness as they carried the good news of Jesus to a town named Lystra. Paul miraculously healed a man lame from birth, and when the crowd saw the man jumping around, they went wild. They shouted, The gods have come down to us in human form! Thinking Paul and Barnabus were Hermes and Zeus, they hung wreaths in their honor and wrangled cattle to sacrifice.

Paul responded: Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God.

The crowd roiled around them. Deprived of their gods, they eventually turned on the evangelists. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, leaving him for dead. Only by the good hand of the Lord did Paul survive.

In the chaos, the crowd lost the message of a Savior. One minute euphoria, the next minute dashed hopes morphing into rage. Hope lay trampled under the madness of the mob.

Paul and Barnabus moved on, leaving the people of Lystra with the empty myths of Hermes and Zeus. But amazingly, months later they returned. Not everyone missed out on their message of Jesus. Among the believers they met Timothy, who joined them on their missionary journey.

Gobs of people chase popularity. But behind the masses are folks quietly considering the truth. Worry less about appealing to the crowd and more about connecting with those seekers of the Way.

Acts 14 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Farhad Ibrahimzade