Acts 16-17

We see here that as Paul has a dream that he is to go to macedonia, but it isn’t until all the pieces of the trip just fall into place perfectly that he knows for sure.  I really wish that it were always this way.  Their are times that all the pieces go together so perfectly and you get excited thinking, wow this has to be what God wants or it wouldn’t be so perfect.  Thats not always the case, but I don’t think that we should ever get discouraged when a seemingly perfect plan fails.  We only get discouraged because we don’t know Gods plan.  We just have to keep reminding ourselves of that, and give God praise and glory what things do go together so perfectly.  Let us not forget the small things in that either.  If your day is going well, thank God for it.

So here are Paul and Silas, beaten and siting in jail.  I just can’t help but think at some point Silas turned to Paul and said “Was she really bothering you that much.”  One of the things that I find so remarkable about the early apostles is they managed to be so close to Jesus and so far from their own flesh.  Paul had been broken out of jail by an angel before so if I were him and an earthquake hit and the doors flew open I’d accept that as Gods way of springing me out again and i’d be gone.  The cool thing here is that none of the prisoners tried to leave.  My best bet on that is since right before the earthquake Paul and Silas were singing and worshiping God thus inviting him into the deepest darkest place that they were at and with God present the other prisoners didn’t want to leave.  Even jail isn’t all that bad as long as you’ve got God with you.  I love that Paul with all he’s been threw up to this point finally gets one in, when he sends word up the chain that the judges had two roman citizens beat and thrown in jail.  So embarrassing this had to be for them.

Now we have two more instances of Paul and Silas having mobs angry at them and leaving town prior to Paul getting to Athens.  Now in Athens Paul is alone, and deeply disturbed by all the idols that he sees everywhere.  I noticed a huge difference in his style in Athens as he begins to share the gospel.  I’m thinking that he’s been learning from all the beatings and jails to adjust his tactics a bit.  I pulls things from the surrounding that the people are already comfortable with and uses them to show them God.  He spent some time to find out where their coming from with all their ideas on idols instead of just coming in heavy handed and telling them their all wrong.  He was able to make a case for Christ in a peaceful manner without drawing an angry mob.