Tuesday, January 9, 2018

When Your Dog Just Won't Hunt Anymore

Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Then Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I was brought up and educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel.  As his student, I was carefully trained in our Jewish laws and customs.  I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did, just like all of you today.  And I persecuted the followers of the Way, hounding some to death, arresting both men and women and throwing them in prison.  The high priest and the whole council of elders can testify that this is so.  For I received letters from them to our Jewish brothers in Damascus, authorizing me to bring the followers of the Way from there to Jerusalem, in chains, to be punished.  “As I was on the road, approaching Damascus about noon, a very bright light from heaven suddenly shone down around me.  I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’  “‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked.  “And the voice replied, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, the one you are persecuting.’  The people with me saw the light but didn’t understand the voice speaking to me.  “I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’  “And the Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.’  “I was blinded by the intense light and had to be led by the hand to Damascus by my companions.  A man named Ananias lived there. He was a godly man, deeply devoted to the law, and well regarded by all the Jews of Damascus.  He came and stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’  And that very moment I could see him!  “Then he told me, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak.  For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard.  What are you waiting for?  Get up and be baptized.  Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’  Acts 22:3-16(NLT)
Saul thought he had it all going in the right direction; he was wrong.  As the chief persecutor of Jesus’ followers he was simply following the established tradition of two thousand years of Abraham’s tribe.  Outsiders were only welcome if they worshipped like Saul had learned to do at the feet of Gamaliel.  You have to follow the rules!
But then Jesus appeared in a blinding light on the Damascus Road and sent Saul’s life spinning and crashing in a completely different direction.  Meeting God face to face will do that!  Saul got up from that meeting with a new name (Paul), and a new direction; the chief persecutor of Jesus became His most ardent and effective missionary.  Paul went from being a go-along, up-and-coming star in the ranks of the system, to a thorn in the side of the establishment.  In a few years Paul’s resume’ included turning the theological world on its ear:
Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are here disturbing our city, too.  Acts 17:6b(NLT)
It’s a somewhat easy life if you simply bow to tradition.  All the thinking has been done by smart people, and it’s in writing…all you have to do is follow that yellow brick road, and you’ll be safe.  The problem with that is God does not call us to live a safe, easy life; God calls for disciples who will be courageous, willing to die to self so the world will always be confronted with the difference between dying in a worldly established system and living victoriously in God’s Kingdom of Christ. 
And that’s the rub for me; I hate confrontation with a passion.  But that is exactly what Christ calls us to be for him, confronters of sin, hatred, greed, and wherever the oppression of evil rears its head.  To paraphrase Kermit the Frog who said it isn’t easy being green…frankly, it ain’t easy being His sometimes.

For You Today

If you hate confrontation as much as I do, but you love Christ and want to serve Him, buckle-up; it’s going to be a long, bumpy ride, because learning to serve a God who confronts evil will never happen in the schoolhouse of your comfort zone!  That dog never did hunt!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com

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