Provoked By Love

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Saturday, ‎July ‎11, ‎2020 Good morning, Lord V.O.D.: Jeremiah 32:17 ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. M.O.M.: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27 Today's reading: Psalm 4-6 Acts 17:16-34

Provoked By Love

Our encouragement today is to be provoked by love as opposed to whatever emotion we may feel as we see the world whirl around us. This comes from: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. Our encouragement also comes from Acts 17:16 where it tells us that Paul's soul was provoked as he saw all the idols in the city of Athens. He spoke to the philosophers and started by saying, "I see you are religious..." He meant that they are fervent and faithful to their beliefs in their Gods.

Paul was provoked to action by the love of Christ-compelled not to sit and wait for his friends to come but to be moving for the gospel. He was always moving for the gospel. He always followed the leadership of the Holy Spirit into whatever place and situation God had next.

Imagine Paul as he walked around in Athens and saw all the statues of the Gods.

I remember visiting Kiev, Ukraine. They had statues-maybe not as many as the Greeks but very large. It seemed that every new view of the city or country side showed a new figure jutting fifty or sixty feet into the air. Some were stone but a lot were shining metal. Even the village cemetaries had a small statue of the 'mother' waiting for the children to come home from war. The idols of this people seemed to be their countryman-hero worship.

Paul saw the Athenian people reaching for something bigger than themselves. They reached so far as to erect a form to the 'unknown god'.

Paul was provoked and compelled by the love of God. This was an urgency he felt to use his time as wisely as he could. His friends could arrive any day and sweep him off to another place and he knew the need before him. God had his focus and that focus was on the lost folks in Athens-brilliant and fervent and studious but lost as a ball in high weeds. Paul's heart was on the edge out in front and felt the searching of all these folks. He knew that they had previously had no hope of the truth but had hope for the truth.

He was like a man standing in fire ants. He did not start a riot. He did not set off a bomb. He went first to the synagogue and taught the Jews. As he taught, the word got around that there was a new 'voice' in town and he was invited to speak at a large meeting. He was recognized as a man of reason and education. He was not recognized as a hot-headed revolutionary. Well, not right away....

What does this have to do with us today? Paul was the first of His kind-you are the first of your kind. But, you say, Paul was empowered by God to do special things. God has empowered each of us to do what He has for us to do. But Paul was a very special man. God has made all of us very special.

But Paul had a specific job and so do each of us. If we are listening to God as we should, the way Paul did, we will hear and feel God's power provoking and compelling us to move. Your job may feel small and simple to you but God has tasked only you to do it. It you don't, who will?

There are millions of us as 'single-cells' making up the body of Christ and we all have a jobs to do. Many times, folks are meant to support and encourage which is as important as sunlight reaching the lower, hidden leaves on the bottom of a bush.

How do we get provoked? The Spirit compells us to move all the time. Are we listening? If we are listening and if we are obedient, we will be provoked into obedience as was Paul.

...because he loves us...

Father in Heaven, I confess, I let the world get in the way and I stop listening. Have mercy on me and lead me forward. Father of love and strength! In the name of Jesus, Amen