Tag Archives: the book of Acts

July 30
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“After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.  When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”  (Acts 16:23-25, NIV)

D. L. Moody (1837-1899), the noted 19th Century evangelist, said: “Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.”

His words are as true today as when Moody spoke them more than 100 years ago; or as they were nearly 2,000 years ago when Paul and Silas were thrown — bloody and sore from a severe beating — into prison, and their feet were put into the stocks. Theirs was a utterly miserable and hopeless situation, but Silas and Paul did not allow an adverse situation to provoke from them an adverse response.  They responded by praying and singing hymns to God!

Then, as now, the world watches the Christian in his or her adversity.  Will he curse or will he bless?  Will she complain or will she encourage?

As Moody said, only one person in 100 will have read the God’s word.  When the other 99 read you — the representative of God nearest to them — what do they learn?  – Luther

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July 27
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“Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.”  (Acts 7:25, NIV)

It surprises us — as it did Moses — that others do not realize our status as God’s rescue agent.  From “the outside looking in,” we see situations differently than those in the crisis.

At such moments — when we are filled with enthusiasm, energy, and ardor — we need to guard against the temptation to become “tactical”; that is, to become more concerned about a particular, single battle than we are the entire war.  Armies have lost wars despite having won most of the battles.  They key is to fight — and to win — the right battles.

Above all, it is crucially important that we keep our ego in check.  The recognition and praise of others is a poor barometer (as we saw with Jesus on Palm Sunday when he entered Jerusalem to the praise of the people, only to hear many of those same voices call for His crucifixion a few days later).

Instead, work assiduously for the honor and the glory of our heavenly Father.  – Luther

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July 26
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“And it came to pass in our going on to prayer, a certain maid, having a spirit of Python, did meet us, who brought much employment to her masters by soothsaying, she having followed Paul and us, was crying, saying, `These men are servants of the Most High God, who declare to us a way of salvation;’ and this she was doing for many days, but Paul having been grieved, and having turned, said to the spirit, `I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come forth from her;’ and it came forth the same hour.”  (Acts 16:16-18, Young’s Literal Translation)

A single word can, sometimes, make a world of difference.

The young girl in today’s scripture passage “dogged” Paul and his companions as they proclaimed the Good News, saying: “These men are servants of the Most High God (TRUE), who declare to us a way of salvation (FALSE).”

Here, it can get confusing because except for a literal, word-for-word, translation of the Greek New Testament one will probably find the word “the” instead of the word “a” in other New Testament translations to English of the girl’s characterization of the disciple’s message.

Paul and the others were not announcing one way of many ways; they lived to proclaim the way of salvation.  It was this mis-characterization of their message that annoyed Paul and provoked him to “call out” the demon within the girl that was the true source of the half-truths.

As disciples of Jesus, our message today is the same as the message of Paul and the other disciples in the Acts: “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12, New Living Translation)

If we believe that to be true, like Paul, we should also be annoyed at any attempt to mis-characterize or to alter the whole truth of God’s word — and do what we can to keep the whole truth of God’s word in the conversation.  Words do matter.  – Luther

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