Verses that Inspire: Acts 14:19

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. Acts 14:19

Starting to see some kind of pattern aren’t you? Someone is dead again. Excuse me Darin, you were talking about being inspired. I know, I am, how about you?

We tend to gravitate to the stories where someone preaches and great things happen. People are moved, hundreds and thousands are saved, and everything goes well. We don’t typically look for a story where Paul preaches, the people think he and his companion Barnabas are Greek gods, he keeps them from sacrificing to him and then a group of Jews come and convince the people to stone Paul. Not the one we typically go with.

I don’t remember any Sunday school material on this one. No flannelgraph with individual stones provided to reenact the damage. I just don’t think many American Christians think of this one when they are thinking abundant living.

Now you might be thinking, wait a minute Darin, Paul isn’t dead. I’m sure that is comforting to know while you are being pelted with stones. I think that would hurt. Growing up my brother hit me in the head with a dirt clod and they had to help me back to the house because I was so dizzy.

My point? We are what we eat. We are as prepared as we prepare ourselves to be. The time for preparation is not when everything goes wrong, it is before everything goes wrong.

I know of so many Christians who seem genuinely surprised when things don’t go as they planned. They don’t know what to do. Well, hopefully I am ready to get back up and keep going when trouble comes because I didn’t even mention a disciple named Stephen.