Expecting the Unexpected
Acts 19:11-12 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that when the handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.
Have you ever watched one of those tele-evangelists in action on television or on the internet? I should talk, right?!
Anyhow, there’s this one guy in particular, that leaves me really cold. I don’t know I really struggle with this guy, all the sensationalism that he goes on with on the stage. And not to mention the incredibly affluent lifestyle he leads, with his jets and Rolls Royce’s and the big mansion.
Look, it’s not my job to judge him, anymore than it’s your job to judge me. But we do, we look at that sort of thing and there’s an incongruence, a disconnect between this Jesus who hung on that Cross for you and me, not even owning the shirt on his back, and someone who behaves like that, who lives like that.
Many years ago when I was a student at a Bible college one of my fellow students asked a rather wise and experienced lecturer – Do you think that God uses this guy in peoples’ lives? I mean given all that he carries on with and the lifestyle that he leads, despite all of that, does God use him to heal people anyway?
Now I thought that was a really good question. The wise, old lecturer sat and thought for a while, and then a smile came across his face.
“I have two parts to my answer,” he said. “The first part is – yes. I do think that God has used him in powerful ways. But if I were God would I use him? Not on your life!”
Not bad.
Look, we do need to be discerning, absolutely. There are people out there who want to lead us astray from the simple, wonderful, powerful, life-changing, life-saving truth, that Jesus died to pay for our sin, and that He that rose again to give us a new life, an eternal life.
That’s the main thing. Through the love that God poured out through Jesus His Son to you and me, we have forgiveness, we have peace, we have joy, we have power and we have life eternal.
But at the same time it’s easy to be judgemental. Even the Apostle Paul did some really strange things.
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that when the handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. (Acts 19:11-12)
Sometimes God works in ways that we don’t expect. So we do need to be prepared for the unexpected.
But Jesus came to us, we’re told in John 1:14, full of grace and truth. And it’s that grace, that truth, that good fruit that you and I need to be looking for in others, lest we be led astray.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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