Lydia's Leadings

"The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message."

The Lord opened her heart, he didn't respond for her. It was still Lydia's decision to make, she was still the one who had to take action. She still had to choose. She still had to move, to act.

I'm guessing that most people have been there. They've been in a situation where they gain some understanding or some insight. They feel called or know they should respond, yet when it is time for them to do their part, they sit and wait for the moment to pass.

How many times has God opened my heart to respond and I've failed to act?

How many opportunities has God presented that I've ignored (willingly or because I wasn't paying attention or because I had other things to do or because I was embarrassed or because...).

God hates Asians

Okay, not really. Just feeling a bit sensationalistic this morning.

It does make me curious why Paul was "kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia."

Were they gonna kill him?

Was there a more pressing need somewhere else?

Was someone else already tasked with that job?

People Pleasing

Paul meets Timothy and says, "Hey, we should mentor this guy."

What's the first thing they do? They circumcise him. Huh? I thought the whole circumcision thing was old-covenant and no longer necessary. I thought Paul threw a fit over people saying gentiles had to be circumcised. What is going on?

Paul is choosing his battles. He knows that they will face opposition from the Jews in the places they will go. He knows Timothy will need access to Jews and their places of worship in the future. He knows that this is not the place for that fight.

Circumcision was not necessary, but it didn't do any harm. (So to speak.)

If being circumcised would make Timothy's job easier, why not? Paul's goal was not to correct thinking about circumcision, it was to preach the gospel to the gentiles. If having circumcised compatriots made this easier, then so be it.

Our job is to make disciples. We should be doing whatever it takes to make that happen.

If that means circumcision, so be it.

If that means wearing a tie, so be it.

If that means never wearing a tie, so be it.

If that means loving people you don't feel like loving, you should be doing that anyway.

If that means hanging out in a coffee shop when you don't drink coffee, so be it.

If that means talking to strangers, so be it.

If that means babysitting Jr. High Know Sweat Kids, so be it.

If that means...

What else do you have to add?

4 simple rules

"You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things."

This is James' decision as to what the gentile converts should follow from the Law of Moses.

There are three that deal with food.

No food sacrificed to idols (although Paul later says this isn't a sin)

No Blood (this just seems gross)

No meat from strangled animals (???)

And the last one:

No sexual immorality.

As I look through the commandments, these probably aren't the ones I would choose. Granted, food sacrificed to idols would be very hard to come by today. But, I think that lying and stealing were just as prominent then as now. Why didn't they make the cut?

Were these four laws just highlights? Were they the laws that were toughest to follow? Were these the ones that were the major differences between standard gentile life and Jewish life? Were these the laws that the average gentile would assume were okay, but really were not?

If we wrote 4 rules (maybe not simply rules, maybe ideals) today that the average non-believer would think are okay, but that are contrary to God's will what would they be?

My quick list (I reserve the right to change this at any time):

No sexual immorality (physical or otherwise)

No me-first (or me-only)

No apathy

No withholding grace

The Power of Struggle

I've always thought that Paul's missionary journeys were unique. I thought he went out preaching the word and no one could refute what he said. I thought that those he discipled got it and never doubted (they may have gotten a little confused - prompting him to write a letter now and again). I thought that he was head and shoulders above his contemporaries and those who would come after him.

Turns out, things didn't always go so well. In Iconium he did convince a great number of Jews and Gentiles to believe. But at the same time, the Jews who didn't believe "poisoned the minds" of those people against Paul and his compatriots, undoing all that he had done.

Paul persisted and cranked things up a couple notches - more preaching, more time and some miracles. Yet still the city was divided. The persecution got worse and turned to violence and Paul left.

This doesn't sound like a tremendous triumph to me. Instead, it sounds like a struggle - much like the struggle we face today.

Could God have changed people's hearts en masse? Could he have forced a complete revival where there was no opposition? Sure. But where would be the lesson for us? What could we learn from Paul if that was the example he set? How would we live up to that standard? What would that teach us about perseverance and dealing with adversity?

Denial

My last post talked about the amazing offer that Paul extended to the Gentiles, the same offer that Christians offer to others today.

But Paul and the Gentiles were not the only players in that story. There is another piece to the puzzle, another stance that Christians today can take. It is the same stance that the Prodigal's older brother took.

While Paul was out front embracing the Gentiles and extending God's grace to them, the Jews were in the back, cringing at his every word. "When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying."

There are a couple of reasons for this, and they were both probably true.

The Jews could have been jealous of Paul for the response he was getting. When was the last time that a Jewish teacher had drawn such huge crowds? The answer was probably outside of their memory. He must be doing something wrong.

The Jews could have been jealous of the Gentiles for the offer they had been given. Yahweh had been the God of the Jews for thousands of years. He was theirs. Now, suddenly these dirty Gentiles were given the same benefits that they were. It wasn't fair.

We as Christians do the same things today. We are jealous when we see success in others. The church that explodes in attendance or recognition must be doing something wrong. They are selling cheap grace or not being hard enough on sin or skipping some important step. We create every excuse we can to explain away their success (or our lack thereof).

We are jealous when we see someone who has led a life of sin receive unconditional love. They have done terrible things and we're just supposed to forget that? We are supposed to pretend they haven't hurt people, they have done disgusting things, they haven't soiled their soul while we were faithful? It isn't fair.

Loving messed-up people is work. Accepting people who are glaringly imperfect is hard (those who are better at hiding imperfection are both easier and harder to accept). Dealing with sin is heart and soul wrenchingly painful.

It is taking up your cross.

It is dying to self.

It is loving your neighbor.

It is loving God.

It is our mission.

Acceptance

Paul and Barnabas are sent out (after a word from the Lord) and begin their missionary work. In Psidian Antioch, they meet at the Jewish synagogues to preach the good news. In doing so, Paul recounts the history of Israel, starting with "God chose our forefathers..."

Put yourself in the place of the Gentiles at the meeting. There were those there who feared God, but were simply born into the wrong race. They were excluded from the promise. They were outsiders, outcasts who for years had heard that God loved someone else. Put yourself in their place, your heart sinking as Paul recounts the history of his people, but not yours. Paul tells about his savior, but not yours. You would feel dirty, neglected, left out and unappreciated.

Fast forward 2000 years. You've heard about Jesus, but you've also seen the way that Christians respond to those who mess up or struggle with certain issues. They label them, tell jokes about them, look down on them or simply ignore them. They scoff at those who have yet to hear and believe or who struggle with changing their life. Not all Christians do this, but the loud ones do. The ones in the news do. The ones you hear about outside of church do.

Paul repeats God's words to the people:

"I have made you a light for the Gentiles (sinners), that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."

Look at their reaction:

"When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord..."

A few verses later:

"And the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit."

Imagine the weight lifting from the shoulders and spirits of the Gentiles when they heard this message. Salvation could be theirs, despite who their fathers were. Forgiveness could be theirs, despite what they had done. God's loving embrace could be theirs, despite what they had been told in the past.

We have the same message to offer sinners that Paul offered to Gentiles. But, in order to offer it, we have to mean it and live it.