Pastor Fred continued the What’s Next Series by preaching from Acts 16:14-40. One of the very random facts that was shared was that the Romans did something to camel dung and used it as medication to treat epilepsy. I’m glad we have advanced in our medicine and how we treat ailments. Here are my observations.
My first observation is that this passage was about conversion. Whether it was Lydia, the person who was demon possessed and the jailer all had their lives changed when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. What makes it so interesting is that Paul and Silas were being obedient to the Holy Spirit. Often when we are obedient to the Holy Spirit, we are often led long distances and face uncomfortable situations. Whether it was the encounter with the demon possessed woman to being jailed and beaten for their faith. One of the things that I noticed in life is that’d when we are obedient, we have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. This is when we have the greatest impact for the kingdom because we have to rely on God and not our own talents. So what is preventing you from being uncomfortable?
My second observation is that things may happen to us, but it may not be for us. In essence, the world doesn’t revolve around us. As often we want to be Gods favorite child and we want everything to be roses. It often doesn’t work that way. God still loves us but He often allows us to experience hard things so at some point in life we can come along side someone so we can give them encouragement and a path to move forward. Now every situation is not the same, but there truths in those situations that is applicable to every situation. God has created us to be in community and one of those ways we live in community is by bearing each others burdens and sharing with others what we have learned. Also, it’s nice to know that someone else has been through something similar to what we are going through. When we share those experiences and Gods truth, it shows that there is hope and that we can get to the other side.
My final observation is that God often brings annoying people into our lives for a reason. Here is a cold hard truth, those annoying people often show us where we need to grow. I had a boss in college and he would intentionally push my buttons from time to time and it was usually to make a point and he used it as correction. Another hard truth is that we often aren’t that pleasant and we annoy others and often quite well. Sometimes it isn’t intentional that we rub people the wrong way, and it’s often due to our personality quarks that we have. Other times we are very intentional about being annoying and even snarky. I know I enjoy pushing buttons just to watch people burn from time to time. So here is my question, how deal with people who annoy us and get under our skin in a Godly manner? Also, how do we deal with our personality traits that annoy others outside of telling them to get over it?
To close out the blog, here is a quote from the legendary Detroit Tigers radio play by play guy Ernie Harwell (baseball on the radio is the best way to consume baseball) when a player struck out looking. Harwell often exclaimed “And the batter stood there like a house by the side of the road and watched the ball go by.” My final question is how often do we let life go by without attempting a swing? Sure life can be hard and it can even stink at times, but throwing our hands up in the air and giving up isn’t how God designed us to live.
Grave and Peace
Tom Boustead
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