June 07, 2017
It is beautiful to watch animals in the wild. They are unfettered and powerful. Not confined by man's enslavement, there are a joy to behold.
There's something powerful about men, filled with God the way they were created to be, unrestrained by the fear of others, witnessing to everyone of Jesus Christ. Acts, Chapter 5 records the Apostles imprisoned by their enemies. In the night, an ""angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison"" and told them to ""Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.""
Emboldened by this amazing miracle and exhortation, they do exactly that. The Pharisees are puzzled, pull them back into court, vainly warning them to stop, and the apostles look at them with calm victory in their eyes.
""We must obey God rather than men,"" they say. And then give another bold witness to their enemies.
Finally, they are scourged and released and somehow this persecution fails to stop them, but merely fills them with joy! ""So they went from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name."" And they continued ""right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.""
Filled with God, emboldened by His miraculous presence and power, and empowered by the authority of the message which they had now decided to die to proclaim, they are unstoppable.
It is a rare beauty to watch men who are set free and filled with God-initiated purpose. The one purpose worth dying for. May God give us an army of such men and women in our day!
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