Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Perhaps you have noticed, but to forgive is DIFFICULT. It is painful to change history and make offenses go away. They leave at a great price.

Paul says he has to TAKE PAINS to get to the forgiven place of a clear conscience. It requires commitment to practice this principle to the limit.  It requires guts and maybe even blood to apply this theory to some flesh.

It is difficult to do this regarding the offense we have done against God.  In fact, it is impossible within our selves.  We need a big savior for this.  By His wounds we are healed.  Agree with me, this is difficult and literally bloody.

Then, to get right with our fellow humans, it is also difficult.  We will definitely get it wrong if we forget the blood He shed.  Then,  it puts the hardness of our forgiving others into the right perspective.  It is a painful path for us, just as it was for Him.  Please share this podcast with a person who you are not at peace with.  

Subscribe so I can challenge you to something just as impossible tomorrow at bewithme.us or write at [email protected] and I can sign you up.

Everybody gets resurrected from the dead. everybody. The just and the unjust. Attila the Hun? resurrected. Abraham Lincoln? Resurrected. Marilyn Monroe? Resurrected. etc.

There is only one problem: from God's super-pure perspective, there are no just people.

Here is where it gets good. UNLESS, Jesus' "justness" covers us.  That is, we can ride His coattails of righteousness.  We can say, "I'm with Him." (Theologically, I suppose it is more accurate that it is JESUS who says, "He's with ME.")

Join me for 7 minutes today as Paul declares what his trial is really all about: The force of FAITH: what he believes; Who he worships; Who he hopes in and "What in the world are we going to do about the resurrection?" bewithme.us to have this come to you daily.

Today we meet FELIX who apparently was mastered BY his appetites rather than master OF his appetites.  Paul gives him a personal audience of preaching, and then another personal audience, and then another...FOR TWO YEARS.

Luke tells us what Paul talks about: Jesus, faith, judgement, righteousness and SELF-CONTROL. Being "master of what one wants." Being able to "say NO to one's body." Was it Alcohol, the tongue, naked people thoughts, anger, gambling or something else? We don't know specifically, but it was apparently enough of a target of his heart that when Paul preached to him that he was ALARMED and told him to come back another day.  Of note, Felix called for Paul OFTEN.  This lasted for TWO YEARS.  

Think of this: Paul's main "target" for evangelism for two years straight, was ONE GUY.  Felix. We get no indication that Felix is converted.  Apparently, he continued to be mastered BY his appetite rather than being master OF his appetite.  Listen 7 minutes for the story.  bewithme.us .  Did you know there is a purple PODCAST APP locked on to your screen if you have an iPhone?  Bewithme: 7 minutes of biblical wonder has a "show" there every day. You can access it here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/be-with-me-7-minutes-of-biblical-wonder/id1529182065?i=1000552798614  

Who knew? Paul had a sister.  Paul had a nephew.  He was young.  He was young enough that a big scary adult took him by the hand when moving to a private place.  He is the HERO of our story.  The kid carries the day and saves Uncle Paul's life by his bravery. So much is entrusted to the young in the book of Acts.

This is the young kid that Paul probably missed every birthday of his life.  Paul was out of town for 9.5 of the last 12 years.  That's why Paul has been sending Legos.

The situation is a conspiracy to trick the Tribune into sending Paul to the Jewish council.  He would be assassinated along the way by a bus load of conspirators.  Listen 7 minutes with me to hear this action packed story.  And come back tomorrow by subscribing at bewithme.us

Paul is charged with a PURPOSE (testify about Jesus)
amidst a PROMISE (that afflictions and trouble are here and ahead)
so use your POWER (your agency, energy, life, money, giftedness, authority)
while enjoying the PERSON(of Jesus, who stands with, indwells, makes His home with you)

I know many of you listening are facing a great battle.  For some it is relational, for others health, sickness, feeling ill; for others financial crush; for some the decay of aging. You are in great company.  Great things are accomplished amidst great difficulties.

Today is a real encouragement as we take the lessons from Paul to expect trouble. Use the Powers He's given me, to fulfill my PURPOSE. Most importantly, most comforting, most amazingly, is that all along, He gives me HIMSELF.  I'm going to try to ENJOY that the Lord STANDS WITH ME.  He is near.  Bewithme.us. Subscribe like, share, send, comment.

If you order the flogging of a Roman Citizen you'd probably lose your job and possibly your life.(Claudius Lysias) If you got flogged, you may lose your life, for it was often fatal. (Paul) It was so nasty that no Roman Citizen by law ever received it. Even putting a Roman in chains without trial wasn't allowed.

Paul is "STRETCHED OUT FOR THE WHIPS".  The position is known that elicits maximum effect. If you lied about being a Roman Citizen, the punishment was death. 

It is at this moment that Paul, "plays the citizenship card" and asks if this is legal to do to a Roman.  Everybody immediately stops what they are doing to re-assess their culpability.

Join me for 7 minutes of life or death drama in the book of Acts.  Please subscribe for a daily blast at bewithme.us or on Apple Podcast or Spotify. 

Paul runs into a crowd of ZEALOUS people.  They were so ZEALOUS, they were beating him to death.  A Few hundred Roman Soldiers intervene. Paul then begins to BEND their ZEAL toward the REVEAL of God.  That is, he begins to show them more accurately what they should be so enthusiastic about.  He starts to tell them the story of Jesus.  Like most good gospel witnesses, he begins with HIMSELF.

Paul recounts his Jewishness and background. Then he tells of how JESUS came into his life.  He recalls a challenge early on from the only Christian he knows: "WHY DO YOU WAIT?..."

Obey what you know. Then move on to the next obey-thing. Maybe it is to agree and believe. Maybe it is to say sorry and forgive. Maybe it is to be baptized; join a church; attend regularly and fellowship appropriately.  Let there be no gap between the stuff He's told us, and the stuff we obey.  DON'T Wait.  That is a start of bending the ZEAL in the right direction.

Paul still has a green light to go into the Temple 20+years after coming to Christ. He still feels the burden to bring the gospel to the gentiles AND the children of Israel.  When he does so in Jerusalem, he causes a riot.

The Roman Tribune, who is commander of 1000 soldiers wants no part of a riot in the city he's tasked with keeping quiet and arrests Paul.

I think the similarities of Christ's arrest were not lost on Paul.

• same city
• same Jewish mob mad at him
• same Roman conquerers in power
• same soldiers arresting and binding
• same Roman guy in charge trying to figure it out
• same fortress that he's brought into
• same cry from the crowd, "Away with him!"

I think Paul'd be HONORED in suffering similarly for Jesus' name

I could be wrong about today.  I state my conclusions humbly. We drop into a moment of church history where the specific issues of joining Gentiles and Jews into the new Body of Christ were being played out.  

Can I still dedicate myself in a special way; set myself apart for prayer; declare a fast; do some physical discipline to remind me to seek God; Support others as they do similar things; maybe even cut my hair as a special sign? Absolutely YES. (we could use a lot more of it in fact!)

Can I offer animal sacrifice? Can I pick another way out of sin besides Jesus? Can I judge Jesus' work to be inadequate and in need of boosting? Should I start specific or regular temple sacrifice.  Is there any blood necessary after Jesus? Absolutely NO.

Paul eventually says he never compromised his conscience, so I THINK he never crossed this line. If he is WRONG, he's in good company: David, Moses, Jonah, Job etc. The point for us is: Let's NOT be wrong.  Draw the line short of rejecting the finished, sufficient, wonderful work of Jesus.  Share with a friend or an enemy: bewithme.us

4 guys are in the middle of a vow to the Lord that is lengthy, expensive, complicated, and confusing.  They are wrestling with the big question of "What will you do about your SIN?" Less so, what is our relationship with the charges of the Old Testament, especially if we are of the Jewish people? 
New school: It is all about Jesus. Once. For All. For all time. 
Old school: substitutionary animal sacrifice.  This was to point everybody to the fact that it was temporary, inadequate and frustrating.  Never enough. As soon as you are done you need to start over. Not sufficient.  All of it is just a reminder that WE NEED A SAVIOR.  

So why does Paul seem to compromise, or at least endorse their efforts? Some possibilities:
1. It is his plea that we should go back on the hamster wheel of animal sacrifice and wholly reject the finished work of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.  If so, we should all be taking Nazarite vows every day for forever. NO. This isn't it. Galatians, 1 &2 Corinthians, and 1&2 Thessalonians and ROMANS has already been written, by Paul, clarifying his theology.
2. Paul is just in error.  He wouldn't be the first person, or congregation, or teacher, or disciple, or Apostle to be wrong just in the book of Acts. I don't think this is it either.
3. Paul is bending to the Jewish Christians a bit, to win them.  Or at least to keep winning them. Here is what he says in 1 Cor 9:20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  bewithme.us Google, Spotify, Deezer, apple podcasts.