Sunday, September 11, 2011

All Aboard!


Acts 5:38-39
"Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."

Gamaliel, a Pharisee in the council gathered to question the teaching of The Way by the apostles, realizes that time and energy need not be spent in persecution and interrogation. His advice is impeccable: This is a matter for God to resolve in His own good time. The success or failure of the apostles' spread of the gospel are in His hands alone. And, who in their right mind wants to discover, to their utter dismay, they are opposing the will of God? Those are most certainly shoes Gamaliel does not want to fit him!

How many times has life happened when you were busy making other plans? What did you learn when you were stopped unexpectedly at that railroad crossing in your life, waiting impatiently for the train to pass by before you could move forward? I have made plenty of mistakes in my life, believe me, and most, if not all, occurred because I didn't pray to God to conduct my decisions, but plunged full throttle like a run-away freight train into something I thought I could handle on my own. Wrong! Inevitably, He would show me the futility of fighting His will, of making plans without including Him in them, and gently, but firmly, get me back on the right track. When we fail to lean on Him, to seek His desire for our lives, we are train wrecks waiting to happen.

Are you on board with God?

Readings
Psalms 24, 29 or 8, 84
1 Kings 19:8-21
Acts 5:34-42
John 11:45-57

3 comments:

  1. I think I rarely try to oppose God's plans, but I sometimes catch myself trying to hedge my bets like Jacob with the rods and livestock -- haha!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for stopping by, Linda! It never avails us anything to oppose God; thank goodness He forgives us when we do mess up!

    Blessings!

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  3. Martha, the first part of this post reminds me of how my own moments of persecution. Maybe we’ve all been there. Maybe we’ve all met a few Pharisees along the way. Maybe we’ve been those Pharisees ourselves?

    http://www.christiandropout.com/2011/09/guest-post-i-felt-like-hester-prynne-from-the-scarlet-letter.html?utm

    ReplyDelete

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