Friday, January 20, 2023

Of Colliding and Cooperating

Friday, January 20, 2023

Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too.  I went there because God revealed to me that I should go.  While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles.  I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing.  And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.  Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there—false ones, really—who were secretly brought in.  They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.  They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations.  But we refused to give in to them for a single moment.  We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you.  

Galatians 2:1-5

It is said that opposites attract.  My bride and I would tend to validate that thought.  Invariably we have different tastes, opinions, and ways of completing tasks.  That was certainly true of Peter and Paul.  Peter was driven by his heart, and working with his hands, rough-cut, decisive, and bold.  Paul was (excuse the irreverance) an egghead, the Harvard scholar-type, more prone to be the president of the chess club, more a quarterback than lineman.  Both apostles were more suited to what God had called and gifted them to be and do.  One trait they held in common was their hardliner devotion to Christ’s Kingdom.  Neither of them would back-off an inch on the issue of Jesus being Lord.  Of that, there could be zero-capitulation…end of story.

Among the few similarities of these Christ-servants was their willingness to accept God’s way of doing new things.  Peter, the Jewish believer understood God’s way would include the Gentiles, but it took an extraordinary vision to convince the fisherman.  Paul was also Jewish, and had to be knocked to his knees and blinded – then healed, to be convinced of God’s seriousness about God’s mercy being extended to every human being on earth.[1]  Both Peter and Paul tended towards inflexibility, but once that wall crumbled, they were not likely to rebuild it.  The egghead and the warrior had both been released from their sins and prejudicial ways, and they would not rest until that message was the theme of their lives.

John Wesley was a hybrid Peter and Paul.  He was more than educated, and a superb thinking-leader, committed to the faith, and leading the interested to become faithful.  But Wesley could also see the middle-way, not compromise, but meeting of minds.  He knew there could not be any progress, on any front, when a collision-course is chosen.  But, when hearts are willing to be open there can be cooperation.  Peter, Paul, and John…they all knew Jesus was Lord…they all became excellent models of what it means to serve Christ, and they all had their flaws.  And God used them in magnificent ways they never dreamed to bring about God’s purposes in their days, and God’s ways.

For You Today  

You and I are not Peter, Paul, nor John.  But this is our time, our days, and the Lord God is the same God of the Jews, Gentiles, and whomever else, to the uttermost ends of the universe.  Despite all our differences, God is looking for the high, low, and middle-ways kinds of people, with whom He will bless and proclaim his Good News.  Some ways will be the old ways; some new.  To be God’s servant means learning to cooperate with what He’s doing, not colliding with each other.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

The God of ALL Favorites  and  Hand-Wringing Methodists

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©  



[1] Read Acts 9-11 for both accounts

No comments:

Post a Comment