PERSISTENT EVEN IN PERSECUTION

-

Acts 21:31-32

As they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul.


Paul had gotten to Jerusalem, some Jews who saw his ministry in Asia, grabbed him and stirred the people in the city against him.


Acts  21:27-28

The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple and roused a mob against him. They grabbed him,

yelling, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who preaches against our people everywhere and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the Temple—and even defiles this holy place by bringing in Gentiles.”


There was an uproar, they began to beat him, with intention of killing him.


Acts 21:30-31

The whole city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him.

As they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.


They continued beating him and only stopped when the commander of a regiment came with his troops:


Acts 21:32

He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul.


PAUSE!


Hello, have you been beaten by someone before, by two people, three or ten, can you imagine it? BEING BEATEN BY ALMOST A WHOLE CITY!


Listen men of God, ministers, pope, bishop, evangelist, prophet or whatever your title is: you sit in your comfort zone threatening fire and brimstone to anyone who corrects you or criticizes you, you don't even want a speck of dust on you, then you tell me you are sacrificing for Christ, that you are doing the work of the Lord. What!


Please before you claim this or that, I ask again, what have you sacrificed? What exactly is the Lord going to reward you for?


I said during devotion last night, that many have no reward with the Heavenly Father because they have already eaten it up here on earth. For they serve themselves, their ego, flesh and opinion of men.


Hmm


After the terrible maltreatment, what was Paul concerned with?


Acts 21:40

The commander agreed, so Paul stood on the stairs and motioned to the people to be quiet. Soon a deep silence enveloped the crowd, and he addressed them in their own language, Aramaic.


TO PREACH THE GOSPEL!


Come-on, let us be serious.


I ask again, whose examples are we following, who are our role models? Christ and His apostles or . . .?


Help us Good Lord.


He calls us blessed.


Love

@the watcher

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DO YOU STILL SEE?

-
Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry. It may have been easy when we first believed, to visualize the promises. We reach out with zeal, loving God, seeking to do exploits. That was when we first believed, just as Jesus said: John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." When we become born again we see God's kingdom, our spirit man is reborn and we count the flesh as nothing. Then time passes by, we are in the world, all its distractions, temptations, responsibilities, challenges and so on begin to reveal themselves. The question then is: * Can we still see heaven? John 3:3 * Are we still zealous? John 2:17 * Are we continuing in those things? Acts 2:42 * Are we walking in love? 1John 4:7 or Has the cares and worries of life and service ta
Read more

DO UNTO OTHERS . . .

-
Matthew 7:12 "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. It is hypocritical of us to expect people to stand with us when we are experiencing challenges yet when we see others face their own challenges, we begin to imagine what they must have done wrong or maybe they annoyed God or did one evil or the other instead of reaching out to help as we would desire others to do for us. The same thing goes for prosperity, when the Lord opens a door for us and we have abundance of wealth or a breakthrough we expect others to rejoice with us, more so, some would even find it hard to give to others. What is our reaction when someone else gets this breakthrough, do we get suddenly suspicious without reason. Do we expect the person to reach out to us? It is better to stay on the side of encouragement than to sit as a judge or prosecutor. Jesus said, Matthew 7:2 "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same
Read more

MY YEAR OF FULFILMENT

-
Psalms 57:2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. We just finished the book of 1Samuel, in this book we see the cry of Israel for a king and how God raised Saul to rule them. We also saw how Saul disobeyed God and lost kingship for himself and his generation. He did not stop there, he went on to seek for the death of David, whom he saw as the next heir of the throne. In chapter 31, the last chapter, we see how Saul and all his sons and men were killed, it was tragic, however it was as a sign of relief for David. We could go on counting all the struggles and difficulties we faced in the past year. No, we should not, we should begin to look at all the positives, remembering all the good things God has done for us. If He promised it, He will do it and that is what we hold onto as we go through this year. Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. This is the year of fulfilment, and
Read more