How enjoyable...

I Love the book of Acts.  This is one of my favorite passages.

"(13)When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16"What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name."

It was obvious that a miracle had happened.  The middle-aged healed guy was standing right there, and the crowd was praising God!  It was obvious that these "unschooled ordinary men" were exceptional, and the only explanation for either of these things was that "These men had been with Jesus".  It's interesting that even though no other explanation could be found, those in authority, instead of putting their faith in Jesus themselves, and calling out to him "to be saved", they instead schemed how they could continue to keep themselves in politcal power, and snuff out this other-worldly threat to their human hierarchy system.  The governments of the world, both religious and political, will do whatever they can to keep Jesus from wrecking the comfortable situation they have found themselves in.

In what ways do we resist Jesus call in order to keep ourselves in the comfortable situation we find ourselves in, even though we can offer no other explanation for Jesus work?  It would do us well to consider how we can fully respond with our whole lives to the person of Jesus Christ rather than effectively knowing who he is, what he's done, and ignoring the things he said that no one seems to take terribly seriously.  I realize this sounds like a very very general statement, but I have been so challenged by considering the personal cost TO ME of the things Christ said.  He said some really harsh stuff that really draws a line in the sand for the Christian to either walk over, or not.  Sorry if this ended up sounding like a lame devotional...but it just struck me that we resist The Christ sometimes as strongly as these government/religious guys in the Scriptures, and for many of the same reasons.  Mainly, to maintain control of our lives, rather than giving that to God, and going where He calls.  Thoughts???

Matthew 10:39


"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Jesus