From Acts 16
(NIV) 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of
Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The
Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 16 Once when we were going
to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which
she predicted the future. 18 She kept this up for
many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the
spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that
moment the spirit left her. 22 The crowd joined in the
attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped
and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely
flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard
them carefully. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were
praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to
them. 26 Suddenly there was
such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At
once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the
prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he
thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But
Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in
and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He
then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord
Jesus, and you will be saved —you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to
him and to all the others in his house. 33 At
that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately
he and all his household were baptized.
Have you had the
experience of trying to tell someone something you knew as true but they would
not listen? Do you know the frustration? Paul was frustrated in his effort to
serve God and do the right thing. Do you know that frustration? His first
missionary journey was less than a shining success. Paul set out to set the
world on fire for Jesus Christ but at best he simply started a few brush fires.
Everywhere Paul went he experienced frustration, until Philippi,
until Lydia. In Philippi we see a snapshots of the power of the Holy Spirit
opening Lydia’s heart to trust the good news of Jesus, driving out a superstitious
spirit from a girl, and freeing the jailer from the life of superstitious hopes
in the gods, self-sufficiency, and trust in the Roman government.
These are snapshots of God’s power at work in strange and
unexpected ways. When we prepare for the journey of trusting in the power of
the Holy Spirit, everything is under our control. But, once launched on the
journey we enter a place where we are not in control. Once launched on the
journey we live by faith. We trust even though we never foresee how or when God
will choose to intervene and touch our life. We do not know which roads God
will call us to travel. We do not know how God will exercise God’s power and at
any moment break out in such a thing as we never imagined. It is this spirit of
expectancy, of not knowing but trusting, waiting, and following God’s will as
best we know it, this spirit of wondering what God will do next that
distinguishes a living faith from a dead religion.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 27, 2001
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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