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Opposition Can Be Good

November 14, 2009 by Irmgarde Brown

Acts 13:50b, 52
…They [the opposition] stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region…And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we mistake opposition for failure. After all, in this case, the opposition managed to expel both Paul and Barnabas from their city. And later, they even followed the two apostles to Lystra and stirred up that crowd so much that they stoned Paul and left him for dead. But none of these things deterred the apostles. They either “shook the dust from their feet” or waited on God to heal them and moved on.

How often do we cave to opposition in our own worlds? If I look back, I realize how many times I have given up my ideas or projects under opposition. I kept looking for a blessing, a success, as the signal that God wanted me to continue. If I wasn’t successful then I became too discouraged to continue. And so, there are plays unfinished, performances never executed, work undone, blogs left idle, ideas left hanging, people lost, children untouched, jobs never started.

Lord, forgive me for running from the opposition… the challenges of life, the struggles, the confidence in You. Give me courage to hold fast and move forward. May wisdom be my sister in all things.

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A Miracle Gone Wrong

November 13, 2009 by Irmgarde Brown

Acts 14:10b-11
…”Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

Miracles are tricky things. In Lystra, the people who witnessed a crippled man healed at the word of Paul, completely mistook this show of power and called both Paul and Barnabas gods (Hermes & Zeus respectively). They responded to that event, that miracle, within the context of their own culture.

We are no different. We often take what we don’t understand and integrate it into what we do understand. We do all we can to make sense of it. It is very difficult to absorb something so outside the norm and make it fit our world.

Jesus could have done many more miracles than he did. But how would people understand them? Even today, we try to attach formulas to miracle working: oil anointing, laying on of hands, prayer, fasting, and commands, just to name a few. We are trying to recreate the circumstances in which we hope healing can take place.

But here’s the truth: it’s not about the words, the actions, or even the faith. It’s the relationship we have with Jesus, with God, that sets the stage for miracles. It’s our ability to “hear” the Spirit… feel the Spirit… know the Spirit is ready for us to broker a miracle. God chooses. God says, indicates, reveals: this one but not this one is to be healed. This circumstance, but not this one, is to be changed. This mountain, but not this one, is to be moved.

Jesus knew that miracles could overshadow the message. He chose carefully. Each miracle had an intent and a message. This overshadowing was the case for Paul and Barnabas in Lystra. Paul knew the man could be healed… but perhaps Paul missed the timing or the method. Paul was not Jesus. Paul was fallible just as we are fallible.

We all want miracles in our lives. It might be for the healing of a loved one, ourselves, or a transformation of a situation. I pray each day that God would heal my daughter of fibromyalgia. It is a debilitating and chronic pain condition that is overwhelming for a teenager. And yet, I know, with each day that she is not given a miracle of healing, there will be another day, a moment, when that miracle will come for her… it may not look like the miracle that either of us expect, but it will come. Miracles cannot be dictated… not in their timing or their effects.

I have said before and will say again, miracles are not private. Miracles happen for the person, yes, but also for the witnesses and bystanders. As believers, we must trust God’s timing. And when the miracle comes, give praise and acknowledgment where it is due.

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Do you have an appointment?

November 11, 2009 by Irmgarde Brown

Acts 13:48b
“…all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”

My husband is totally annoyed by telephone marketers. We have put ourselves on all the “don’t call” lists and yet, every once in awhile, it still seems as though a few get through. If they do call and it’s Mike that answers the phone, he yanks their chain a bit and asks them, “do you have an appointment?” It really throws them off their game. And in the end, he tells them that he does no business on the telephone unless they have an appointment. I am waiting for the industrious sales person who actually writes Mike and requests an appointment.

When we lived in Atlanta, we had a friend who was very interested in Calvinism, Armenianism and predestination. I am not a good one to explain the nuances but I do know that there are many people who hold to the idea that only those who are “predetermined” or “chosen” will accept Christ. While others, believe that anyone can be saved. Some denominations are known to follow along these lines, Presbyterians are generally Calvinistic while Methodists are Armenian.

Certainly, this scripture fragment seems to imply that only those who were appointed for that time accepted the message that Paul and Barnabas preached.

But here’s my answer to all of this… an appointment can be for today or it can be for tomorrow. Just because someone’s appointed time is not today does not mean that he/she will not have another appointment with Christ in the future. It is not for us to judge. I believe I missed some of my appointments with the Lord and surely, my life would be different today had I accepted Christ in a meaningful way as a teenager or in college.

Now, I know that the Calvinists take it the next step and say that the appointment they are talking about is the “ultimate appointment.” In other words, everyone who is chosen by God in advance will eventually find God. Since God is sovereign, no one can really resist God. We have free will but, really, God can hit the override button at any time.

So, in the end, because I agree with that one key part, that God is sovereign, I believe God can override any destiny … any destiny. There are none who need to live out their lives separated from the grace, peace and love of God.

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Resurrection Starting Point

November 10, 2009 by Irmgarde Brown

Acts 13:30
But God raised him from the dead…

God raising Jesus from the dead is pretty much the starting point.

This miracle part of the Jesus story is essential to the faith. None of it quite works if this part didn’t happen. Otherwise, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

I mean, if he didn’t die at all and just pretended to be raised from the dead, that would pretty much go against everything else Jesus had ever taught or said. He would be a charlatan and we would all be fools.

If Jesus died and that was the end of the story, then that’s exactly what would have happened: the end of the story. The story lives because Messiah Jesus lives. And what about all those witnesses? They all lied? That doesn’t exactly go with the teaching either. What would be the point of promoting a lie so that you could teach people to love each other, share with one another and ultimately, not lie?

Nope, I’ve never had trouble with any of the miracles. Once I accepted the idea of God in Christ, then I figured anything could happen. If people can be raised from the dead, then people can be healed. If people can be raised from the dead, then a virgin can have a baby. If people can be raised from the dead, then blind people can see, deaf people can hear, and crippled people can walk. If people can be raised from the dead, then criminals can be forgiven and turn their lives around. If people can be raised from the dead, I can be whole.

If we start with the miracles, then our lives become a miracle as well.

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Really Full or Ready to Empty?

November 8, 2009 by Irmgarde Brown

Acts 13:9-10a
Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil…”

This incident happened on the initial leg of Paul’s first missionary journey in Cyprus. Apparently, it is on this journey that Saul changes his name to Paul, which historians surmise he did to be more accessible to the Greeks. And it is here that he and Barnabas encounter a sorcerer named Elymas who opposed them when they sought to speak to the proconsul that Elymas had been serving up until then.

But what is of greater interest to me is this phrase about Paul being “filled with the Holy Spirit.” As far as I can tell, this particular phrase, or ones similar to it, are only mentioned a dozen times in the New Testament. And yet, this is a phrase that many contemporary Christians (particularly Charismatics and Pentecostals) bandy about as a frequent experience marked with outward expressions like tongues, laughing, shaking, and the like. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying these expressions of the Spirit are not authentic, I’m just not sure they represent being “filled” as in filled to overflowing.

I think that true fullness would, by its very nature, pour out on others. Most of the “filled” examples in scripture are followed with a time of emptying by speaking and prophesying, literally speaking for God. Anything else is probably less than full. I just think we have diminished the impact of what it means to experience the Holy Spirit in this way.

I have used the phrase myself. But now, I think I have been merely touched by Holy Spirit. Whatever experience I had was just a breath of the Spirit compared to being filled. There is so much more. If a person is actually filled to overflowing, something happens… something changes. Power is exercised and by its very nature, it is according to the direction of God for the sake of another. Someone else is changed, not so much the person who is filled.

I am ashamed to say but I believe I have sought these “infillings” for myself and not for others at all. Oh, it sounds so pious, to seek the Holy Spirit and to go deeper into the things of God. But really, isn’t the whole point of my faith supposed to be to touch others?

So many traditional church folks are afraid of the “postmodern” movement because it is so inclusive and yet, there is one thing the emergents and postmoderns have over a lot of the other Christians… they “get” the “relationship” message. They are loving and serving others as a natural outpouring of their faith and their walk “in the way of Jesus.” They are living with and serving the poor and the unlovely. They are not trying to get more filled… they are trying to empty. They are pouring themselves out for others.

Clearly, I am still holding on too tightly to what I have. I am afraid to empty myself because I don’t really trust God to keep me filled. Forgive me.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

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Running from God

November 6, 2009 by Irmgarde Brown

Acts 12:23
Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

I think God was trying to reach Herod. First, God put it upon John the Baptist to declare against Herod and ultimately, to put himself in danger by discrediting Herod. John was put in Herod’s prison for some time and yet, the implication is that Herod spent time listening to John [Mark 6:20]. Something was stirring but Herod could not grab on to it.

Herod preferred making decisions and pontificating in a group. He enjoyed the adulation but I think he was a a type of chameleon who observed the people and adjusted himself accordingly. I think he was a fearful man who did not like being alone. He was wooed by the words and opinions of others. It was his fear of the people that ultimately led to the beheading of John.

Herod even met Jesus face to face… but again, in a group setting. I think Herod was afraid of Jesus but found strength in the mockeries of others. He had an opportunity to encounter the Christ … but he chose unwisely. He sent Jesus away.

I’m sure Herod knew that the miracle of Peter’s escape from the jail, was just that, a miracle. And so he ran from Judea and went to Caesarea, his father’s creation, a city to commemorate Caesar, a pagan city with “a deep sea harbor and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, temples to Rome and Augustus, and imposing public buildings. Every five years the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions.” [wikipedia]

Herod was more comfortable here. There were few, if any, reminders of his heritage or the constant knocking of God upon his heart.

In the end, Herod could not run anymore. Under the adoration of the people there and their proclamations that he spoke like a god and not like a man, this is what Herod really wanted: to be a god. And so the one true God finally took direct action against Herod and afflicted him with some kind of parasite and Herod died, probably in agony. He ran and ran until he could not run anymore.

I wonder what would have happened if anywhere along the way, Herod had stopped running and took hold of the altar horns, metaphorically speaking, and asked for God’s mercy. What then? But like Pharaoh of old in the time of Moses, his heart was hardened.

What is God speaking into my heart today? Have I closed off his voice? No more running Lord. Speak, your servant is listening.

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And the Guards were Executed

November 5, 2009 by Irmgarde Brown

Acts 12:18
After Herod had a thorough search made for him [Peter] and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.

These four guys were the extras. You know, as in one of those huge lavish movies, there are tons of extras. They are nameless and virtually faceless. They have some small task and that is all. They get their one minute of screen time and that’s it.

These four guards are no different. This was their time and in the end, they are memorialized … they are to be remembered that they lost their lives in exchange for Peter’s freedom.

If I allowed free reign to my imagination, I could create entire families and scenarios for these guys. They had lives that were lived outside the prison walls of Herod’s fortress. Perhaps one was older, whose children were grown or another was a new recruit, given a special assignment.

What happened when they discovered Peter was missing? There were two on each side of Peter and two outside the locked cell door. The angel of light came, opened Peter’s shackles, told him to rise and dress and they walked out the door What were the guards doing? Surely they were not asleep. Were they mesmerized? Were they put into an unnatural trance? It was not until morning that the alarm sounded. What were they doing? Did they know sooner? Did they know that there death would come the next day?

I can’t help but consider that these guards, like the guards at Golgotha, may have come to a realization. This was a miracle and it was worked on behalf of a follower of Christ. Perhaps they became believers and died, not as executed guards, but as martyrs. Who knows? Perhaps their testimony at the cross examination to the miracle of Peter’s release was Herod’s last opportunity to accept Christ. Herod did not change.

What role will we play when it is our time? Can we trust God with our last moments… with our lives… with our deaths?

These men had a testimony. And their stories probably flew through Herod’s soldiers and servants. These guards were good, reliable men. And all four were witnesses to a miracle. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, their deaths did make a difference.

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