JULY 3

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

NAMES FOR JESUS USED IN THE BIBLE:

JEHOVAH RAAH (MY WAY AND MY SHEPHERD) Ps 23:1; Jn 10:11; 2Cor 2:12

JEHOVAH TSIDKANU (MY RIGHTEOUSNESS) Ps 23:3; Jer 23:6; 1Cor 1:30;  Phil 3:9; Romans 10:4

JEHOVAH SHAMMAH (EVER PRESENT) Ezek 48:35; Jn 8:12; Mt 5:14; 2Cor 4:3-4

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This month we will read the book, “Whatever Happens – How to Stand Firm in Your Faith When the World is Falling Apart.”  By a contemporary author of many best-selling Christian books, Robert J. Morgan.  He took care of his wife when she had MS, until she went home to her Savior.  “He knows of which he speaks.”  I pray that this book blesses you.

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Acts 16:11-34:

“Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis,  and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.  And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.  Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.  And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’ So she persuaded us.

 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.  This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.’  And this she did for many days.

But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And he came out that very hour.  But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, ‘These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city;  and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.’  Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.  And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.  Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.   Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.  And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.  But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.’

 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.  And he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

 So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.  And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.  Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.”

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BUILD YOUR OWN MENTAL HYMNBOOK

After Paul’s Macedonian call, he and his team booked passage across the Aegean Sea and arrived in Philippi, a wealthy Roman city in Macedonia, which is modern day Greece.  (It was a modern city of its day with a population of about ten to fifteen thousand people.)

(Luke is believed to be the writer of the book of Acts, as well as his own gospel and in the first three verses in the group of verses above, they meet Lydia, the wealthy dealer in purple cloth.)

If we could visit Lydia’s booth in the Philippian agora, we would have been wide-eyed at her luxurious fabrics and colors.  Her home city of Thyatira was famous for its production of this cloth.  Apparently, Lydia exported the fabric to Philippi and ran a thriving business.  She became Paul’s first convert in Europe, and her house became the meeting place for the church that soon formed in the city.

Shortly afterward, another woman was converted—not a wealthy businesswoman but a demonic slave.  Her conversion sparked a riot, leading to a physical attack on Paul and Silas.  They were stripped and whipped (verses 16-24).  We can only imagine how painful this would be.  In the civil rights classic book, “Twelve Years a Slave,” Solomon Northrup said when he was being whipped, his whole body felt like it was on fire, and he thought he would die.  After their beatings Paul and Silas were placed in stocks with their feet spread apart and their hands restrained, unable to soothe their wounds.

But now we come to one of the most remarkable scenes in the book of Acts, relayed in verses 25 through 34 of chapter 16 (above). 

“About midnight,” we read, “Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”  (verse 25).  As they sang, an earthquake rocked the prison, throwing open the doors.  When the warden rushed in, Paul led him and his family to Christ.  The jailer took them to a fountain and washed their wounds, then Paul baptized him, presumably in the water now tinted with his own blood.

So, despite Paul’s incarceration, the church continued to grow at great cost.  Had you or I attended a service, we would have seen Lydia and her household, the slave girl, the jailer and his family, and probably some released prisoners.  They would have been singing.

I’ve often tried to imagine the scene at midnight when the two prisoners in the innermost cell – immobilized, bleeding, traumatized, their raw wounds untreated – began singing.  It probably took them hours to process their pain and their painful emotions.  But by midnight, they were ready to shift their attention from their wounds to their worship.

The lyrics were undoubtedly from the book of Psalms, and I’ve read through the Psalms trying to figure out the ones they might have chosen.  Psalm 18:6-7 says:

“In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried  to my God for help.  From His temple He heard my voice:….The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook.”

That’s exactly what happened in Acts chapter 16.  Additionally, Psalm 68:6 says:

“He leads out the prisoners with singing.”

It’s pretty easy, then, to imagine that Paul and Silas had the words – the lyrics of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs – already in their minds.  They didn’t have a hymnbook with them, they sang for memory.  This came from their Jewish worship practices.  Every practicing Jew knew the book of Psalms by heart.  They sang them in the synagogues, at the temple, as they traveled to their festivals, and in their private devotions.

We can learn from that.  Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

From this heritage, Paul and Silas had a treasure trove of devotional material in their minds and hearts and at the midnight hour it spilled out in singing.  Paul was a Hebraic Jew and Silas, a Hellenistic Jew, but they both had the songs in their minds and hearts.

Through song and suffering, the church was planted in Philippi, and through song and suffering, we, too, serve the Lord faithfully with joy, even in our midnight hours.

It takes awhile to move from pain to praise.  So whatever happens, build your own mental hymnbook.  Sing to the Lord a new song, but don’t forget the old ones.

Whatever happens, keep the melody of praise in your heart.

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