Passage of the Day - February 21, 2011

Acts 26:9-23

 ⁹"So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

 ¹⁰"And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them.

 ¹¹"And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.

 ¹²"While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

 ¹³at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.

 ¹⁴"And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'

 ¹⁵"And I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

 ¹⁶'But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you;

 ¹⁷rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

 ¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.'

 ¹⁹"So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

 ²⁰but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.

 ²¹"For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death.

 ²²"So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place;

 ²³that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles."

Faith, hope, and love are things that God gave us, but alone they are of little value.  Look at verse 18.  Here we see the culmination of faith, hope, and love.  What use is faith, if it isn’t faith in Truth?  What use is hope if it is in something with no Power?  What use is love if it is ultimately directed to the father of hate? 

The only true spiritual light is Truth.  Christ is Truth.  The only way to truly walk the minefield of life is with the lens that Christ and His Word provides.  Only with a biblical worldview and guidance of the Holy Spirit can we avoid Satan’s traps and mines.

Even if we have Truth, if we rely on our power or any other power to release us from Satan’s bondage we are fooling ourselves.  You can’t navigate the minefield of life if you are in chains.  Christ’s work on the cross saved us from the penalty of sin, but it is Christ’s work on our hearts that saves us from bondage to sin.  He chose to remove the chains.  This is why we can hope in His Power.

When we serve ourselves, we serve Satan.  The desire to do what is contrary to what God wants originates from Satan.  Every sin we commit advances the cause of Satan on Earth.  Whom do we love when we sin?  We end up loving Satan.  Love misdirected can cause great harm.  However loving God and obeying Him to advance His cause on Earth is our ultimate purpose.  It is the capstone of the trinity of life – faith in Truth, hope in Power, and loving the Lover.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)