I have no idea where the time goes and when I write on here where most people don't read it, I wonder if its worth it at all!
But seriously, I like the blog because it's mine, I'm able to edit it, I can add to it at my own convenience and they (Google) are adding new features to it as I write. Apparently there is now auto-save on here. And I am not talking car insurance!
Some family news...
Our church family had a great breakfast yesterday (Sunday) at church, with a good number of children out numbering the adults by far. It was the Pentecost celebration or birthday of the church and this was accompanied by good friendship, good worship, good food and a birthday cake too!
Richard continues at Jones Motoring and seems to be enjoying it.
Michael has been promoted and now works organising people at the Southern Cross Hotel.
Andrew continues at the Rushcutters Subaru franchise in Sydney.
Jamie is working at Meadowbank Dairy and enjoys her work.
Kathy continues at Southern Community Labs but now has had to transfer to the 3rd floor of the Dunedin Public Hospital.
I am working at St Mark's but have had no University work this year and market research dried up last year. I do have a tenant in my house and we have one at our flat in the city too.
All in all we are very happy.
Biggest latest news is that Kathy has bought a piano and it sits behind me in my study. It is beautiful and sounds beautiful as Kathy plings out the songs!
I better get ready for the prayer meeting so I will see you all later...Have a great week, month, day...or whatever time you manage to lose if you are anything like me..! God bless!
Oh, and the last sermon appears below...
Servants of the Most High God
And publish abroad His wonderful name
His name all victorious of Jesus extol
His kingdom is glorious and rules over all. (WOV 144)
She was young and enslaved, possessed and abused…and used…for profit.
They were going to prayer. Going to the synagogue in
They are met by a strange girl, an annoying girl.
Not Britney or Avril or Bjork; not Paris, but…a poor slave girl.
When the two met there was a clash of spiritual power.
The Spirit of God was taking the Apostles in one direction and the devil was taking the slave girl in the opposite way.
If you came across such a person...
How would you deal with such a person?
It is easy for us to despise such people. It is easy for us to put them in the “too-hard basket” and call them mad.
In his commentary on Acts, F. F. Bruce describes this girl as “an unfortunate demon-possessed slave-girl whose owners exploited her infirmity for their material profit.” (F.F. Bruce, Com; p. 332)
The Bible text tells us she was “possessed with a spirit of divination…”(16)
What is a spirit of divination? Being able to tell the future from omens or events that are said to align with the circumstances in life. This spirit was said to come from the Greek/Roman god Apollo.
Fortune telling: What is it?
Telling people their future according to mystical and supposedly predictive guessing…for money.
It is technically speaking, use of the occult.
Occult means hidden, so occult teaching has something to hide.
It is often the hidden things that deceive us and when uncovered are shown for what they really are, and then we dismiss them and get back on the right track.
Fortune telling (and the like) plays with people’s desire to know what is going to happen to them, by manipulating their emotions and toying with their basic needs. This is done for money.
As we saw, two weeks ago, money is a root of all kinds of evil.
16:17 “This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.’
She was able to say this because of her involvement with ‘the gods.’
Eduard Lohse, a Lutheran bishop and theologian says: “At certain shrines (of these gods) one could address questions to the deity (god) and learn from the oracle that was then issued what the divine will might be.” (Eduard Lohse, ‘The New Testament Environment,’ Xpress Reprints 1994, (SCM Press Ltd, 1976) p.225)
The Greek god Apollos, or his priestess Pythia, at a place called
Lohse again: “Many people sought information about personal concerns – help in time of illness or counsel in managing difficulties within the household and family…Before laws were promulgated (put into effect) the carefully weighed judgment from Delphi was often sought, in order to ensure acting in accordance with the will of the god.” (Lohse; Op.Cit. p.226)
If you asked this slave-girl who was possessed by a spirit of this god, you would always get an answer. Since most could not go to
So she was much in demand by people who wished to have their fortunes told. She could speak without having to think about what she said, because the words came from the god.
She was seen as a source of secrets and spiritual wisdom which was otherwise unattainable.
16:18 “And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And he came out that very hour.”
Modern fortune tellers portray their services as being harmless fun. They do not say where they get their abilities from. Some of their abilities are trickery to be sure…
While some are more suspect in my opinion. Some encourage you to take their false spirituality seriously and wish to mislead you.
This includes those safe looking, fun looking newspaper and magazine fortune tellers in the ‘YOUR STARS’ columns all around the country. Such columns help to sell magazines.
Modern Christian missionaries tell us that they have come across people like the slave girl in Acts. It is not an uncommon thing oversees. Whole societies get their guidance this way. In Papua New Guinea and in some Indonesian jungle societies people will not go to work in the morning if a certain black bird flies across their path on the way there.
Pretty frustrating for the boss and bad for the economy of the village!
The Apostles, in their day, did not appreciate the girl’s unasked for testimonials. (Bruce, p. 333)
Whether we sophisticated 21st century Christians recognise the power of spirits or not, these spirits recognised Jesus!
They recognised the superior power of Jesus Christ and left the girl.
The Reaction of the Slave-owners
16:19 “But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.”
Men were making money out of this poor young girl.
Isn’t that a modern story? These men were her masters; they were owners of her as a slave.
How is that different from prostitution? They would have told her she was useless and that the only thing she could do was to keep selling her ‘so called’ ‘wisdom’ and keep doing that until she was of no more use to them.
Because they were making money, they were furious to discover that their goose was no longer able to lay golden eggs.
16:20 “And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, ‘These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city;
16:21 and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.’ ”
The Apostles, Paul and Silas, were beaten for doing good. They took them and they arrested them because they were the leaders.
It seems to be a motto of those who oppose Christians to say: “If anything happens, take the leaders.”
Where nothing is happening in a church or Christian organisation, it is not attacked. It is already doing its job. Where it is actively preaching the gospel with good results, the leaders are attacked.
This is exactly what is happening in
http://www.worthynews.com/christian-news.php
In a world not so morally different from our own, where divination and fortune telling guides peoples lives, Paul and Silas were called bad when they were in fact good men.
16:22 “Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their
clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
16:23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.
16:24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”
It is as though they took punishment so that the girl could go free!
It was, in fact, Jesus who took the punishment and who died so that the girl could go free!
“He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb 2:14-15)
Through the word of Paul, speaking on behalf of Jesus, she was sprung from her slavery to men and bondage to evil spirits. (18)
The Reaction of the Apostles
16:25 “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”
Some may ask who wrote this stuff? Well, it was Luke the evangelist, the Gospel writer.
How do we know this?
When we read v. 16, the word ‘we’ is used as the writer introduces himself.
But in these last verses it is Paul and Silas who alone had been arrested and put in the stocks deep within the prison at
Their reaction is divinely inspired. Their praise was not forced. They had no hymn books or OHP’s or Powerpoint, they had no vast congregation in a TV show!
They out of the good that was in them praised God and lifted the name of Jesus high in the prison so much so that they attracted the attention of GOD.
16:26 “Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed.
Our prayers may never get God to respond with an earthquake to get us out of prison , but it makes us aware once again of the effectiveness of prayer. Keep praising and praying to God and He will answer your requests.
The Reaction of the Jailer
16:27 “And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.
16:28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.’
16:29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
16:30 And he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’
16:31 So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ ”
The Gospel message is able to be proclaimed to some one who is ready to hear it, because God caused the circumstances to be right. Let us pray and act for such circumstances.
16:32 “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.
16:34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
Then we read how Paul used his Roman citizenship to get Silas and himself released. God had them sent back to
16:35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, ‘Let those men go.’
16:36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, ‘The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.’
16:37 But Paul said to them, ‘They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.’
16:38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.
16:39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city.
16:40 “So they went out of the prison and entered the house of
The Reaction of You
What is your reaction?
Well, that’s up to you.
If God has spoken to you today will you give up what you are trusting for happiness and let God have full sway in your life?
The promise is as true today as it was then.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved! Amen.
Notes:
* Python in Wikepedia: “In Greek mythology Python was the earth-dragon of Delphi, always represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent. Pytho was the chthonicApollo, who slew her and remade her former home his own oracle, the most famous in Classical Greece. (But see also Dodona.) There are various versions of Python's birth and death at the hands of Apollo. In the earliest, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, little detail is given about Apollo's combat with the serpent or her parentage. The version related by Hyginus[1] holds that when Zeus lay with the goddess Leto, and she was to deliver Artemis and Apollo, Hera sent Python to pursue her throughout the lands, so that she could not be delivered wherever the sun shone. Thus when the infant was grown he pursued the python, making his way straight for Mount Parnassus where the serpent dwelled, and chased it to the oracle of Gaia at Delphi, and dared to penetrate the sacred precinct and kill her with his arrows beside the rock cleft where the priestess sat on her tripod. Robert Graves, who habitually read into primitive myths a retelling of archaic political and social turmoil, saw in this the capturing by Hellenes of a pre-Hellenic shrine. "To placate local opinion at
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