Sunday's Conversation

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Mobs, plots, murder, and miracles--welcome to the normal life of those devoted to the early Church and to becoming disciples of Jesus. This past Sunday we continued our conversation of the book of Acts with chapter 14. How incredible it is to see the progression of God's invitation and pursuit of the Gentiles (non-Jews)! In Lystra, God heals a man crippled from birth through Paul and Barnabas but the people hail these men as the gods Zeus and Mercury. After grieving the missed message, the two journeyers explain that they are mere men who come to tell the people about the Living God! Almost immediately it seems, Paul is stoned and drug outside the city for death. But death was not what God had planned--seemingly by the work of a miracle, Paul springs to his feet and goes back inside the city--the city from which he was just drug out of! Funny how the nature of the mob can change so quickly. One second they want to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas as gods, and the next...murder.

Am I so fickle in my own relationship with God? Am I merely tossed to and frow by the wind? Is my mind so easily poisoned by bitter and cynical people as those residents of Lystra? Am I sometimes a bitter and cynical poisoner of minds??? Am I willing to face death and then walk right back in to serve my aggressors? These and more are some tough questions I've been pondering since Sunday.

One thing I'm sure of, just as Paul and Barnabas revealed God's visual testimonies of His faithfullness throughout history, during this season of fall I am constantly aware of God's prescence as I am awe struck by the colors of His changing creation.