When life is bigger

Have you ever been through something that totally overwhelmed you?  Something that was so beyond your own personal capacity to cope, that you knew it couldn't have come from you?  That's where God thrives - that really is why He created us.  To be dependent on Him, because we are doing things much bigger than ourselves.

That's where I am right now.  Living in Korea with a family with whom I cannot communicate, trying to stay in touch with friends from back home, attempting to forge new relationships with people here, amid the stress of also adapting to a new culture....it's exhausting.  And at times it's too much for me to handle.

But that's why I'm so glad I've got God in my court.  God is bigger than we are.  And no matter what we're going through, He can handle it.  That is, after all, why we were created - to lean on Him.  Ephesians 2:8 (paraphrased) says that He has given us the gift of faith, which allows us to believe in Him, which saves us and gives us life, instead of death.  But it all springs from God.  "Not by works, so that no one can boast."

But we CAN boast - we can boast in what God has done for us, in the favor that He gives us, in the love that He shows us.  So when life has got you down, when life is bigger than you can handle, just remember, God is bigger.  It doesn't matter how big your circumstance is....God is bigger.  And He wants to make you alive in Christ.

Ephesians 2:1-10

 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Mov'd to seeme religious

The 17th-century poet John Donne once said that "When we are mov'd to seeme religious only to vent wit, Lord deliver us."  The first thought that popped into my head after reading this was that of the pharisees of the Bible, against whom Jesus had such strong words of criticism.  From all outward appearances, the Pharisees had it all together.  They tithed, they prayed, they went to the synagogue, they gave atonement for their sins....from the looks of things, they were doing everything that they were "supposed" to do.

But God doesn't look at outward appearances.  He looks at the heart, at our motivation.  It's so easy to fall into the "church rut" - we pray, we go to church, we tithe, we don't cuss, don't drink, don't smoke....and we think that, as long as we have all the right things checked on our little checklist of "Christian" things to do, then we'll be ok. 

That, however, is not enough for God.  Anything can be wrong, if done for the wrong reasons.  Even something like this blog that I'm writing.  It's easy to think, "Oh, it's a daily devotional, how could it possibly be bad??"  But what God wants to know is, why am I writing it?  Am I writing it because I honestly want to get to know Him, legitimately want to spend time with Him?  Or do I simply want others to be impressed with my religiousness?  Am I simply "mov'd to seeme religious?"  Are you?  What's your motivation behind the things that you do?

Matthew 23:23-28

  ²³ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. ²⁴ You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
   ²⁵ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
   ²⁷ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

The little things

I got an email from my father recently.  And it got me thinking about all of the things he's done for me over the years.  He would dance with me standing on his feet, almost from before the time I could stand.  He never failed to give me a Valentine's day card every February 14 - I still have them all, safely tucked away in my dresser.  He was always my biggest fan at all of my dance and theater performances - the first bouquet of flowers that I ever got, in fact, were from him, and 10 years later, one of the blooms is still carefully dried and preserved in a place of honor in my bedroom.

He took me racing with him, he showed me how to hammer a nail and install trim and lay tile, and taught me how to do work that I could be proud of.  He has encouraged me and protected me and given me his wise, godly advice in so many areas of my life, on so many different occasions.  Of course we had our spats, but my overall impression of my father is that he did his best to make sure that I felt loved.

My dad had neither the financial means nor the time to do big, grandiose things for me.  But he made sure, in small, persistent ways, that I knew that I was loved.  It was not the big things, but the little things that he did for me that kept me going.  Our heavenly Father is no different.  Sure, He's got the whole world in His hands....but as the Psalmist points out, He's also the One who is always faithful, who's love endures through all times.  Praise the Lord!

Psalm 92

¹ It is good to praise the LORD
   and make music to your name, O Most High,
² proclaiming your love in the morning
   and your faithfulness at night,
³ to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
   and the melody of the harp.

 ⁴ For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD;
   I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
⁵ How great are your works, LORD,
   how profound your thoughts!
⁶ Senseless people do not know,
   fools do not understand,
⁷ that though the wicked spring up like grass
   and all evildoers flourish,
   they will be destroyed forever.

 ⁸ But you, LORD, are forever exalted.

 ⁹ For surely your enemies, LORD,
   surely your enemies will perish;
   all evildoers will be scattered.
¹⁰ You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox;
   fine oils have been poured on me.
¹¹ My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
   my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

 ¹² The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
   they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
¹³ planted in the house of the LORD,
   they will flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ They will still bear fruit in old age,
   they will stay fresh and green,
¹⁵ proclaiming, “The LORD is upright;
   he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

The road to recovery

I was listening to a political activist from the Republican party today ranting about the state that our country is in.  He went through this whole laundry list of problems that are afflicting our country, and at the end his basic summary was that the Democrats are to blame for it all.  It would have been laughable if he wasn't serious.  But even more disconcerting is that this kind of finger-pointing is not limited to Republicans.  Democrats do it, too.  Libertarians, Tea Party members, big businesses, small businesses, rich people, poor people, whites, blacks....we all have a habit of blaming our problems on someone else. 

Now I don't deny that this country is having problems.  Whatever your ideology, whatever your reasoning, it's hard to argue that there are major issues in our nation.  But the thing that can be argued is who is to blame for them.  Jesus said that we should remove the plank from our own eye, before we try to get the sawdust out of our neighbor's eye.  What did he mean by that?  I'm sure that most people, on hearing this, would have thought to themselves, "what's Jesus talking about?  I can see just fine."  


But Jesus was illustrating a simple, yet profound point about humanity.  We all have a tendency to pass the buck, to point the finger, to place judgement anywhere but on ourselves.  We all are, in essence, hypocrites.  A hypocrite is someone who expects something of someone else that they are unwilling to do themselves.  And instead of accepting the blame and working to fix the problem, we instead choose to pass the blame onto someone else.  

But that's a sign of immaturity.  Mature people don't look for someone to blame; they look for something to do.  Do you think there are problems in your family, your city, your country?  Then do something about it.  The road to recovery always begins with "me," not "you."  It begins with "we," not "they."  Take a stand for something that you believe in.  Can you imagine what would happen if an entire nation of Christians did the same?

Matthew 7:3-5

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Let freedom reign

I'm so grateful for the Christian accountability partners that I have in my life.  Last night I was approached by my host sister, saying that she wanted "to talk."  What she actually wanted to do was give me a huge laundry list of all of the things I'm doing wrong in my homestay.  Aside from the fact that it came completely out of the blue, so I was totally blindsided, it was also really frustrating because of the nature of the complaints that they brought against me.  Some of them were legitimate issues and I'm glad they brought them up....but some of them were just plain silly.  Things like I should eat my rice with a spoon instead of chopsticks, and I don't put my laundry in the laundry basket quickly enough, and I should say this greeting as opposed to that greeting.  I make enough legitimate mistakes as it is, that when they brought up all of these silly little things that quite frankly, don't matter, on top of everything else that I'm trying to remember that DOES matter, it was just really frustrating and disheartening.

My first instinct was to get defensive and lash back in anger.  But thank the Lord for my Christian family and friends, who reminded me that the only thing that would really fix the situation was prayer.  Prayer for patience for me, for understanding for them, and for mercy in the situation from God.  Prayer that I would be able to be the bigger person and turn the other cheek.

Don't get me wrong, turning the other cheek is the last thing in the world that I want to do at the moment.  But I've also learned that holding onto a grudge or harboring anger (even if it's passive-aggressive) never hurts anyone but yourself.  God has given us His guidelines for life, and even if they don't logically make sense to us, they are what''s best for us.  Perhaps it's the whole freedom thing that I talked about yesterday.  There is freedom in submitting to God, in letting go of anger, even if it's not causeless anger.

So let go of your anger, your pain, your frustration, your confusion.  Turn the other cheek, give them over to God, and let freedom reign in your life.

Matthew 5:38-48

  ³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’^[h] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. ⁴¹ If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. ⁴²Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Freedom

What is freedom?  All of my life I've heard these stories and passionate definitions about what freedom is - they all involve broken shackles, or liberated women and children, or incredible restorations of free choice....you get the idea.

But what if true freedom isn't an absence of constraint at all, but rather a submission to the proper authority?  What if true freedom requires direction and structure?  No one in their right minds would call living in a state of anarchy freedom.  And yet, anarchy really is the extreme form of what most people think of when they think of freedom - everyone accountable only to themselves, never having to give an account for anything that they do.

Similarly, most people would not call a rebel, who lives his whole life outside of the laws and restrictions of society, free.  On the contrary, actually, he has become enslaved by the very "freedom" he is working so hard to gain.  Ask any ex-smoker, and he will never say that the liberty he expressed to smoke his first pack of cigarettes made him a freer man.  Instead, the habit that once relaxed him has now trapped him...he is never more than a few minutes away from needing a smoke.

Jesus, referring to Himself, said that "We shall know the Truth, and the Truth will set us free."  So, that begs the question...is Christ free?  Could it be that He is the structure, the direction that we so desperately need?  Is it possible that He is the "proper authority," the one who gives definition to our free-formed lives, the one who's leadership can guide us to freedom in submission?  Are you brave enough to take the leap of faith and find out?

John 8:31-47

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
 ³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
 ³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. ³⁸ I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.^[b]”
 ³⁹ “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
   “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would^[c] do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. ⁴¹ You are doing the works of your own father.”
   “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
 ⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. ⁴³ Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. ⁴⁴ You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! ⁴⁶ Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Where do you live?

I've noticed an interesting dichotomy in my behavior as I travel to different parts of the world.  When I was in Spanish-speaking countries, such as Spain, I was shy and very hesitant to speak Spanish, regardless of the fact that I was nearly fluent and could communicate perfectly well.  You see, my mother is Hispanic, and so I look like a native Spanish speaker.  And so I feel (almost certainly erroneously) that actual native speakers expect me to talk like they do.  So I would get nervous whenever I spoke with them, despite the fact that I can talk about pretty much anything I want to with ease.

But here, in Korea, it's a different story.  My Korean skills are rudimentary at best - my accent is bad, grammar atrocious, and vocabulary tiny.  But in Korea, nobody expects me to talk like them.  As a foreigner in the most culturally homogenous country on earth, I stick out like a sore thumb.  Everyone instantly knows that I'm not Korean, and nobody expects me to be able to say anything at all to them - even a simple "Hello" from me in Korean elicits all sorts of delighted gasps and comments on how well I speak the language.

This knowledge that I will always stick out and be instantly noticed as different here in Korea has elicited a curious response from me.  Whereas in Spain, because I blended in, I didn't want to open my mouth lest I make myself look silly, here in Korea I don't care.  I know that I already stand out, they already don't expect much of me...so I have nothing to lose.  I try, I sound silly, I make mistakes, I put myself out there...it doesn't matter what I say or don't say.

As Christians, we are foreigners in this world, too.  But sometimes I wonder where we think we're living.  Are we in Korea, where everyone knows that we are different, and we are not afraid to speak out?  Or have we put our roots down in Spain, where it's easier to just keep quite and blend into our surroundings?

John 17:6-8, 25-26

⁶ “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
   ²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Just ask

I received a message from an atheist friend of mine last night that said, "I envy you, because you see God and I don't, even though I want to."  I didn't quite know what to say, but I instantly thought of a story in Mark, so this morning I went straight to Mark 9 to check it out.

This is a pretty famous story, in which Jesus casts a demon out of a little boy.  For our purposes, however, the cruz of the story can be found when Jesus is talking to the boy's father about belief.  The father, desperate for his son to be healed, cries out to Jesus, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (verse 24).

Human faith is never perfect, and belief and unbelief are often mixed together.  But what happens when your heart wants to believe Him, but your mind won't let you?  The great thing about the Lord is that He wants to know your failures as well as your successes.

In his Bible commentary, John Gill writes this about the boy's father:  "As soon as ever he found it was put upon his faith, and that the issue of things would be according to that, he expressed himself with much vehemency, being in great distress; partly with indignation at his unbelief, and partly through fear of missing a cure, by reason of it: repenting of his unbelief, and grieved at the present weakness of his faith; which he very ingenuously confesses, saying, 
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief;
not forward, but out of the way: he found in himself some small degree of faith in the power of Christ, but it was mixed with much unbelief, through the greatness of the child's disorder; and therefore desires it might be removed from him, and he might be helped against it: he saw it was not in his own power to believe; nor had he strength of himself to oppose his unbelief; but that both faith must be given him, and power against unbelief. The Syriac version renders it, "help", (ytwnmyh twryoxl) , "the defect of my faith": till up that which is lacking in it, it is very deficient, Lord, increase it; and the Arabic and Ethiopic translate thus, "help the weakness of my faith". He found his faith very weak, he desires it might be strengthened, that he might be strong in faith, and give glory to God; and in this way belief is helped, or men helped against it: every believer, more or less, at one time or another, finds himself in this man's case; and also that it is necessary to make use of the same petition; for faith is but imperfect in this life, and often very weak and defective in its exercise."

Wow.  Heavy stuff.  But Gill was spot-on when he said that even believers have found themselves in this man's situation before.  Everyone struggles to believe at one point or another.  Some people struggle longer than others.  But everyone can find the answers they are looking for.  Do you struggle with believing in God, believing in His promises?  The answer can be found at the foot of the cross.  Ask Him to help you in your disbelief.  I promise you, He will.  God is not only able to strengthen your belief, He wants to.  All you have to do is ask Him

Mark 9:14-29

 ¹⁴ When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. ¹⁵ As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
   ¹⁶ “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.
 ¹⁷ A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. ¹⁸ Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
   ¹⁹ “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
 ²⁰ So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
 ²¹ Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
   “From childhood,” he answered. ²² “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
   ²³ “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
 ²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
 ²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
 ²⁶ The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
 ²⁸ After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
 ²⁹ He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
 

Where's your faith?

I love people watching.  If you were to ask me what my favorite hobbies are, people watching always springs to mind.  I rarely actually say that, because "stalker" is not the impression of myself that I want to leave people with, but I really do enjoy just sitting silently back and watching people go about their day-to-day lives.

I see them scurrying to an appointment, or meandering lazily down the street; I see them with their headphones in their ears, or their journals in their hands; with their smart suits or their baggy pants.  And I can't help but wonder, what is their story?  What has brought them to this place at this time, so that our lives would intersect, even if for just the smallest moment?  What stories do they have to tell?

I enjoy learning about people as much or more as I enjoy learning about the world around me.  And I am certainly not alone.  One of the biggest arguments, in fact, that I hear against Christianity is that it is not a belief that educated people can believe in.  Once you learn enough about the world around you, you're guaranteed to not be able to simultaneously believe in God.

There is a point, however, when all of the education and wisdom in the world will not really benefit you in the long run. I disagree with the claim that Christianity is a religion for fools - the God who created logic would not house it within a religion of fallacies.  But there comes a time when you simply have to believe.  If we had all of the answers in the world, then there would be no reason to believe in God, no put in having faith in Him.  It's good to search and question and have a reason for what you've put your faith in.  But at the end of the day, you will still have to put faith - illogical, not based in science, just a decision to belief - in something.  What have you put your faith in?

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! ¹⁴ I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
 ¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened;
   what is lacking cannot be counted.
 ¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
 ¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
   the more knowledge, the more grief.

Remember their humanity

A few weeks ago, when I was visiting in Seoul with friends, we were approached on the subway by an apparent homeless man asking for money.  The always awkward encounter was exacerbated by the fact that I didn't speak the beggar's language, and thus could really not communicate with him at all.

But after the man left was when things got really unpleasant.  One of my friends started talking about how much he hates it when people ask him for money, and how he never gives them anything - they're just going to go spend it on some nefarious substance, anyway.  And we've all heard the stories about people who make their living - and a very good living, at that - by pretending to be destitute and taking advantage of the mercy of strangers.  So, on one hand, I couldn't really argue with my friend that the man was more than likely to spend any money we gave him on something other than food.

But every time I am approached by a person in need, I am reminded of an encounter I had in a Wal-mart parking lot a few years ago, when I was still in college.  I had just bought a few things for my dorm room, and was walking back to my car, when all of a sudden I was approached by a big burly man, who asked me for some money to buy toilet paper.  It was dark, the man was intimidating, and I was tired and didn't want to deal with him, but something told me to help this man, anyway.  I prefer not to give money to strangers if I can avoid it, however, so I offered to go back into the store with him and buy some toilet paper for him.

While we were walking back into the store, he apparently decided that I should know all about his life - so he told me.  He told me how his mother was sick and his father was dead, and so he was trying to take care of her.  He told me about his long-term girlfriend that he was trying to save up enough money to marry.  He told me about his recent release from prison, and how difficult it's been since then to try to get back on his feet, and about the welfare checks that for some reason the government had stopped sending.  It's possible that he was just a really good liar, but I think it's far more likely that he really needed help, and either way, ever since then it's been impossible for me to look upon someone in need with disdain.

It's so easy for us to shrug off the entreaties of others, assuming things like "they don't really need my help....someone else will help them....they'll just spend the money on drugs or alcohol, anyway."  Whatever the excuse may be, we have a tendency to group people together and make assumptions about them as a whole...it makes them seem less human, somehow, which makes it much easier to ignore their troubles.

But the only person who really has the ability to make a judgement on someone's past is Jesus...and He loves us anyway.  If He, knowing our pasts, knowing our flaws, loves us and cares for us anyway, then who are we to react any differently when people around us need our help?

John 4:1-26

¹ Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
 ⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
 ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
 ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])
 ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
 ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
 ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
 ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
 ¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
 ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.
   Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
 ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
   ²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
 ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
 ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Acknowledging Him with our lifestyles

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians...who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."                                                           ~Brennen Manning

This is one of my favorite quotes ever.  It is simultaneously one of my least favorite quotes ever.  I first heard it in a song, "What if I stumble" by dcTalk, and have since then looked up the original author of the quote.  But every time I hear it it gives me pause to stop and think.  

Jesus calls Himself the Light of the World; the Way, the Truth, and the Life; our Savior; He is all of these wonderful things that should bring people to their knees in awe at the mention of His name.  But many people, rather than feeling awe and adoration of Him, instead feel revulsion and disgust at the mention of His name.


Why is that?  How can it be that we have so soiled the name of Christ, that people won't even step foot into a church, lest they be associated with Him?  Being a Christian has become, to many, a list of rules and regulations, a checklist of things that must be done and believed, of which a failure to follow will result in swift human judgment and imminent divine condemnation.  


But Jesus is supposed to bring hope, not hostility; He offers peace, not pain; He wants to give us comfort, not condescension.  And as "little Christs," we are supposed to do the same.  How can we have screwed it up so badly?  Jesus said that it is better to be either hot OR cold for Him, than to be lukewarm.  Not matching your actions with your words is the worse kind of disbelief.  It's the kind that not only harms yourself, but also disillusions those around you.


So I challenge you today, to live what you say you believe.  Be the kind of Christian that makes people want to know Jesus.  Let your actions draw them to Him, like Zacchaeus was drawn to Jesus.  That's the kind of life that we were called to.  Don't be another cause of atheism.

Luke 19:1-10

 ¹ Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
 ⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
 ⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
 ⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
 ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Stand in awe

I think that so often, it's really easy to read stories in the Bible and put them characters in them on a pedestal.  "They were so much holier than I am," we think.  "Trusting in and following God must have been so easy, so simple for them."  That's why I like the book of Ecclesiastes.  It reminds me that the people in the Bible were just as human as I am.

The majority of the book of Ecclesiastes is a pretty depressing book.  The headlines in my Bible read something like this: Everything is meaningless....Wisdom is meaningless...pleasures are meaningless...wisdom and folly are meaningless...toil is meaningless...advancement is meaningless...riches are meaningless...oppression, toil, friendlessness....I think you see the common theme here.

The cool thing to me, though, is that this book is still in the Bible.  God doesn't want us to mask our feelings.  He wants to know how we really feel; He'd rather us be honest than pretend to think something that we really don't.  God doesn't want an army of little robots who are programmed to worship Him; He wants sincerity, both the good AND the bad emotions.

So then all of a sudden, after all of this depression, there is a break in the gloom.  It's as if the author has just woken up and realized Who his God really is.  He has stopped his morose philosophical ramblings just long enough to understand how big, how amazing, how purely awe-inspiring his God really is.

Does the thought of God provoke you to think more about the words that you utter, to consider more carefully the places that your feet take you, to focus your dreams on His goals rather than yours?  Does the thought of God make you stand in awe of Him?  I hope it does.  He is surely an awe-inspiring God.

Ecclesiastes 5:4-7

 ⁴ When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. ⁵ It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. ⁶ Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? ⁷ Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.

An eternal perspective

I gave my Bible away today.  Not the one that I read every day, with the wrinkled pages and highlighted passages and underlined words and notes scribbled in the margin.  This is one that I've never really even opened, but it was special to me, anyway.  It was a English-Korean parallel Bible, and was my going-away present from my mother and father, given to me the day before I left the country.

At first I really struggled with giving it away.  I'm hugely sentimental, and this particular Bible had a lot of sentimental value to me.  But the person I gave it to has been asking a lot of questions recently about God, and when they mentioned the other day that they wished they had a paper copy of the Bible to read, I couldn't in good conscience shrug off their comment, knowing full well that I had a brand-new, unused Bible sitting on my shelf at home, just waiting for someone to read it.

So I gave it to them...and then went and read Matthew 6.  As I see more cultures and meet more people and, most importantly, get to know God better and better, I'm starting to realize something.  At the end of my life, God isn't going to care how many sentimental trinkets, exotic curiosities, or unique souvenirs I've accumulated over the span of my life.  None of those things are going to come with me after I die, anyway.  What He will care about is the people I've helped, the lives I've touched, and the times that I've shown His love to someone else. 

It's time to get our perspective lined up with God's.  Do we care more about some silly little trinket, or being on time to a meeting, or saving face in front of our friends.....or do we care enough about the people around them to show them God's love?  Ask God today to give you an eternal perspective.  Once your perspective changes, it's amazing how your actions towards others will follow.

Matthew 6:19-21

  ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

Know Love first

As a child, I was fascinated by the story of Mara and Sheftu. It is a romance, true, but not one of those trashy romances that my friends and I are so fond of making fun of. The story of Mara and Sheftu is characterized by strong characters and an even stronger love that unites them. Mara was my introduction to self assured, intelligent female literary characters, at least so far as I can remember. And Sheftu...well, I have wanted to find my Sheftu even when I still thought that boys had cuties and drooled.

I am no longer a child. But I still dream of being a Mara; a confident, successful woman who doesn't need a man to be happy, and yet still ends up finding the man who complements her perfectly in every way. But I, like Mara, have much to learn about love.

I have learned that love has nothing to do with how I feel about someone, or what they do for me, or what they DON'T do for me. I have learned that love is a choice, a decision, an action, whether the gushy feelings are there or not. I have learned that I cannot love without knowing Love. And I have learned...that I am not ready to love another the way that I want to be loved.

Oh, amidst the plethora of peers and friends of mine who are engaged, married, or with child, how difficult that is to say! I put up a good front, but I truly desire that more than almost anything. And yet...God's timing is not ours. God's timing is not MINE. My competitive, impatient self finds that very difficult to accept. And yet, I thank God every day for giving me the gift of memory. For when I look back at my life, I can see how His timing is always so much better than mine.

Song of Solomon 3:1-5

 ¹ All night long on my bed
   I looked for the one my heart loves;
   I looked for him but did not find him.
² I will get up now and go about the city,
   through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
   So I looked for him but did not find him.
³ The watchmen found me
   as they made their rounds in the city.
   “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
⁴ Scarcely had I passed them
   when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
   till I had brought him to my mother’s house,
   to the room of the one who conceived me.
⁵ Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
   by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
   until it so desires.

Remember their stories

 Sometimes it's easy to think of the girls that I am teaching as small children, because their ability to communicate with me rivals that of a small child.  But they are not children; they have hopes and dreams and joys and sorrows, just like the rest of us.  They have a story to tell, too.
The first day of class, I had all my students make name cards for themselves, and then write a few facts about themselves  on the cards.  Sometimes when class gets frustrating, I go back and read those name cards.  They remind me of why I do what I do.  "I want to be a doctor."  "Yesterday was my birthday."  "I want to make people laugh."  "I wish that I was prettier."  These girls are real people with real problems, and a real need for love.

I wonder if Jesus ever had to be reminded about that.  Was He ever frustrated when people constantly came to Him for help?  Did He ever feel like He was just being used?  Underappreciated?  Overworked?  I would imagine that He did not struggle with that....but for a very simple, yet profound reason.  Jesus remembered their stories.  He remembered that these were not just huddled masses, not just a homogenous group with no individuality.  They were people.  They had hopes and ambitions, and plans for their futures.  They had aspirations for their lives.

Jesus had compassion on them because Jesus remembered that they were people, made in the image of God Himself, precious in God's sight, and valuable in their own right.  That's a lesson that we would all do well to remember.

Mark 5:21-32

 ²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.
   A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
 ³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
 ³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
 ³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

In spite of ourselves

I've often heard it said that God loves us for who we are.  But I don't think that's quite right.  Say what, you ask?  Isn't God supposed to love us no matter what?  Well, yes and no.  Saying that He loves us exactly as we are implies, to me, that there is no need for who we are to be changed.  But there is a need for us to be changed.  In fact, it's a life or death issue.  

God doesn't love us for who we are.  He loves us in spite of who we are.  He loves us so much that He refused to let us stay where we are.  Romans 5 says that God showed His love for us by sending  His Son to die for us while we were still sinners.  How many people do you know that would die for a bad person?  Most people would not die for anyone, although a few might be convinced to give their life for an incredible person like Mother Teresa or Ghandi.  But a bad person?  Who would willingly give their life to save someone who's already made a mess of their life?

That's how much God loves us.  Not for who we are.  In spite of who we are.  He loves us so much that he refuses to allow us to stay where we are.  He wants to take us from glory, to glory, to glory in Him.  I love the philosophical picture that Romans 5:10 paints for us.  "If God was able to do so much for us with the death of His Son," it says, "just imagine how much He can do with the life of His Son!"  Can you imagine?  I can't.  He's so much bigger than I, His love is so much more profound than mine, that I find it quite impossible to fathom.

If you're struggling with who you are, with how to approach God, don't worry about cleaning up yourself before you approach Him.  He offered us grace so that we could come to Him as we are.  So let Him love you.  Not for who you are.  But in spite of who you are. 

Romans 5:8-11

⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
 ⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Live the Scriptures

Having grown up in the church, I've had Bible passages read to me my entire life.  But outside of the church service, it's easy to forget that those same verses still apply.  The New Testament is chock-full of references to the Old Testament.  Take today's passage, for example.  

The margins of my Bible are crammed with study references to other Old Testament verses that are referenced in Matthew 21.  In verse 5 Jesus quotes Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9; just a few sentences later, in verse 9, He quotes Psalm 118:26, and then in verse 13, when He rids the temple of the money changers, Jesus again quoted the Old Testament, this time Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11.  The dramatic apex comes in verse 16, when Jesus, quoting Psalm 8:2, rebukes the Pharisees, asking them rather ironically if they had ever read the Scriptures.

Of course they had read the Scriptures.  Their entire lives revolved around knowing the Scriptures.  They were the ones who were supposed to know it better than anyone else in the world.  But to them, the Word of the Lord was simply words on paper.  The holy text was only an incriminating and inconvenient set of rules to be followed.  The God-breathed Scripture was just a dead document. 

The Pharisees thought of the Bible as simply words on paper.  But Jesus wanted them - and us - to see it as a living, breathing document.  It affects us personally; it's not just a set of rules.  God's word is as true today as it was when it was written.  If you don't see the proof of the Scriptures everywhere around you, if you don't see that God's word is coming true every single day, if your life doesn't change based on the principles that you've learned from the Bible....then you haven't really read it. 

Matthew 21:1-17

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

 ¹ As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

 ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

 ⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion, 
   ‘See, your king comes to you, 
gentle and riding on a donkey, 
   and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

 ⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

   “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

   “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

   “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

 ¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

 ¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Jesus at the Temple

 ¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

 ¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

 ¹⁶ “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

   “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

   “‘From the lips of children and infants 
   you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”

 ¹⁷ And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Remember

Deuteronomy 4:9 says "only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live.  Teach them to your children and to their children after them."

Last night I spent close to an hour going back and reading old blog posts, notes, and journal entries.  It was strange to go back to the struggles and triumphs that have been old history for so many years now.  But at the same time, it was so good to remember.  There were so many things that seemed like such big issues to me at the time, and now looking back....they're not even a blip on my radar of life.  And I found things that I had prayed for, that had lain very heavy on my heart for quite a while, that have now been answered.

One of my biggest struggles has always been making close female friends.  I don't know why, but I've always found it difficult to really connect with girls.  And there are some things that I just can't tell guys, so I was always kind of in a tough spot.  So a big prayer, one that surfaced over and over in my writings, was that God would send me close girlfriends.  Well, as I was reading back over those writings, I was struck by the fact that now, for the first time in my life, I now have more girlfriends than I have guy friends.

That may seem like a simple, trivial thing.  But to me it was huge.  Countless other examples of God's mercy and provision surfaced as I was perusing the cries of my heart from long ago.  And that's why it is so important to remember.  I encourage you to keep a journal.  Even if it's not regular, it's so important to remember what God has done for you.  And, although you may think right now that you will never forget, I can guarantee you that you will.

But God's mercies are always here.  And remembering what He has done in the past can make trusting Him with your future so much easier.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Remember what He has done for you.  That will never change.  Even though the future may be scary, trust that He will take care of you like He has already done in the past.  He has promised that He won't let you down.  It's your job to remember that. 

Deuteronomy 4:9-14

 ⁹ Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. ¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” ¹¹ You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. ¹² Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. ¹³ He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ And the LORD directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

Hold on

I'm on a music kick.  It's amazing how music can affect my life - for better or for worse.  And sometimes, I hear these songs that mirror my life so exactly, so perfectly, that I just have to write about it.  Today is one of those days.  I've been listening to "Hold on," by Michael Bublé.  I've always thought of that song as a love song, written by a man to a woman, and I strongly suspect that that is how the song was intended to be thought of.

But I realized tonight that there's another interpretation, that of a Christian to the Lord, or even a Christian to another Christian.  It's a nice utopian thought to think that life will always be pretty flowers and sunny skies.  But anyone who's lived any amount of time knows that that utopian view is a shame - it doesn't exist.  The flowers will die, the skies will grow dark.  But that doesn't mean that it's the end of the world.

As Michael Bublé would say, just hold on.  Find Christians to lift you up, take solace in the Lord that you can always lean on.  The Bible says that 2 are better than one, because they are always there to pick each other up.  Do you have someone to help you back up?  Don't get stuck wallowing in the mud alone when life's storms rains on your parade.

Hold On

By Michael Bublé

Didn't they always say we were the lucky ones?
I guess that we were once.  Babe, we were once

But luck will leave you cause it is a faithless friend
And in the end when life has got you down
You've got someone here that you can wrap your arms around

Chorus

So hold on to me tight, hold on to me tonight
We are stronger here together
Than we could ever be alone
So hold on to me, don't you ever let me go

There's a thousand ways for things to fall apart
But it's no one's fault, no it's not my fault

Maybe all the plans we made would not work out
But I have no doubt even though it's hard to see
I've got faith in us and I believe in you and me

There's so many dreams that we have given up
Take a look at all we've got
And with this kind of love
What we've got here is enough

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

 ⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?
¹² Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. 

Step on toes

When I was in high school, I was surrounded by incredibly Godly people.  They were always challenging me in my faith, lifting me up in prayer, encouraging me to be a better Christian.  But do you know what they did not do?  They weren't particularly nice all of the time.  They didn't walk gently and skirt the issue.  They didn't really care about your feelings.

Somehow we have been convinced that Christians are supposed to be nice.  That we're not supposed to hurt peoples' feelings.  That we're supposed to tiptoe around life and make sure to not step on any toes.

But really, as Christians, we are supposed to be little Christs.  And Jesus was anything but polite.  He called people snakes, sons of vipers, and whitewashed sepulchers.  He busted up tables and threw the money-lenders of the temple.  In short, saving peoples' toes was not at all a priority for Him.  Did He love people?  Unconditionally.  Did He want the best for them?  Absolutely.  But did He mince words just to make them feel better?  Most certainly not.

You see, loving people and making them feel good about themselves sometimes are really opposites.  God wants His people to know Him and be saved, not to be content with not knowing Him.  Sometimes it's hard.  Sometimes it's uncomfortable.  But when the going gets tough, just think about what Jesus did.  Let Him be your example.  And love those in your life enough to step on their toes when need be.

Acts 26

 ¹ Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”
   So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: ² “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, ³ and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.
 ⁴ “The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. ⁵ They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. ⁶ And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. ⁷ This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. ⁸ Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
 ⁹ “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰ And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. ¹¹ Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.
 ¹² “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. ¹³ About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. ¹⁴ We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,^[a] ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
 ¹⁵ “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
   “ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ¹⁶ ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. ¹⁷ I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them ¹⁸ to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
 ¹⁹ “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. ²⁰ First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. ²¹ That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. ²² But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— ²³ that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”
 ²⁴ At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.”
 ²⁵ “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable. ²⁶ The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. ²⁷ King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”
 ²⁸ Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”
 ²⁹ Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”
 ³⁰ The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them. ³¹ After they left the room, they began saying to one another, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.”
 ³² Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”