Greetings, dear people…
…near the end of the day. It’s presently 7:48pm.
Yesterday was a full challenge. I left just after 4am and drove over the mountains to Bend to participate in a special all-day training session for Mentors of young people enrolled in the NATIONAL GUARD YOUTH CHALLENGE PROGRAM. My “Cadet” is my grandson, Zane. I’ll stick on a photo. I’m very impressed with that program that reaches out to at-risk high school drop outs/kick outs—attempting to rescue, rebuild, and set them on stable life courses.
I hauled the two grandkids we had here this weekend up to play in the snow this afternoon after church. They had a blast.
Not sure yet about tomorrow—only that it needs to be busy.
Good night. Blessings. Ray.
Peter and John find themselves in hot water. The “hot water,” of course, is the angry reactions of the Jewish leaders—the religious professionals who flattered themselves with the arrogant notion that THEY were the only qualified dispensers of Divine Truth. Since Jesus did not scratch their backs nor submit to their arrogant religious power monopoly, they totally rejected Him—and, as we know, orchestrated His death. Once in the tomb, they probably talked among themselves and figured, “Whew! It’s finally over! Good deal! He’s dead and gone! Glad that problem is out of our way!”
The thing that so riled the Jewish leaders was not so much that this crippled beggar was healed, but that Peter and John claimed to have affected the healing by means of the Name of the resurrected Jesus. “Oh, no!” they probably thought. “He’s supposed to be dead—but here He is harassing us again!—not just with His absurd claims to deity, but now with an indisputable miracle! What are we going to do?”
In no uncertain terms, Peter and John told the crowd that gathered around the dramatic healing of the cripple, “You killed the Prince of life! But God raised him from the dead, and we stand here as witnesses to that fact. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed this man standing before you. It is the faith that comes through believing Jesus’ name that has made the crippled man walk right in front of your eyes!” (vv. 15-16, TPT).
The leaders have these two troublemakers arrested, jailed for the night, then stand before a special gathering of “the big guns” the next day. They are made angry and frustrated still again because Peter and John do not appear to be one bit intimidated by their threats, warnings, and commands to “never teach the people or speak again using the name of Jesus” (v. 18, TPT). In fact, they don’t hesitate to boldly bounce right back with clear resolve—“You can judge for yourselves—is it better to listen to you or to God? It’s impossible for us to stop speaking about all the things we’ve seen and heard!” (vv. 19-20, TPT).
It occurs to me that every truly blood-washed, sin-forgiven, Spirit-filled, heaven-bound child of God should be driven and motivated by the same resolve expressed by Peter and John. After all, how is it possible to be secretly full of redemptive passion?