March 8, 2012

“Take A Stand For Jesus”: Thoughts on Acts 12

I was reading in Acts 12 this morning and noticed something particularly “arresting,” if you’ll pardon the pun (this chapter shows Peter under arrest). Herod had just arrested James and had him gruesomely executed by sawing him in two. He arrested Peter likely with intentions to do the same. Peter was delivered miraculously; James was delivered ultimately.

The bottom line is that God ALWAYS delivers his children. For those who stand in a right relationship with God because of their faith in the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord (see 2 Corinthians 5:6-8). In the matter of our death–as in all matters related to our life–we must trust that “in all things, God is at work to bring about the highest good for those who love him (Romans 8:28) [SIDE NOTE:  I don’t believe the ESV (in my reference tagger) delivers the best rendering of Paul’s Greek in this verse; the inflection (grammatical tag) of the Greek word for “all things” is identical for its use as a subject or direct object of the sentence. Don’t turn me in to the humane society for “splitting hares,” but in my experience “things” don’t work for good naturally; But God works all things (even evil stuff) together for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His eternal plan. And to this I add a hearty “THANK YOU, LORD!”]

It was the American patriot Nathan Hale, who, in the face of his execution, uttered these life-impacting words : “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country!” Surely such devotion to country is laudable, but it pales in comparison to the value of our heavenly citizenship.

Jesus warned us not to fear those who have power to destroy ONLY our bodies (Matthew 10:28). Except perhaps by some special gift (for example, “word of knowledge”), not one of us knows when our work for God on this earth is finished (or, as Paul put it, when we have “finished our race”). But we do have the promise of His presence (see Psalm 23:4).

Followers of Christ throughout history and even at this very hour are giving their lives for the sake of the gospel. The further our country moves from Godly principles, the closer the time when many of us may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice for our Lord. May we TAKE A STAND FOR JESUS!


Comments

  1. Buford Purwin - March 13, 2012 at 2:08 am - Reply

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