Daily Bible Reading - Judges 20, Acts 24, Jeremiah 43, Luke 3
“ But I don’t want to bore you, so give me your attention for only a moment. We have found this man to be a troublemaker who is constantly stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the cult known as the Nazerenes.” Acts 24: 4-5
Yesterday at work I was doing some account research when I overheard the customer next to mine talking about their work. I kind of laughed to myself because the one giving the advice sounded pretty arrogant and ridiculous as he gave his coworker advise. From what I heard people were talking badly about this coworker at work and he was pretty upset about it and was trying to get to the root cause of the accusations against him and the arrogant guy’s advise was that if they were talking badly about him then he must be doing his job right. He kept saying this over and over to the other guy and I was appalled as I listened to it. I wanted to shout to the coworker of his and tell him not to listen to this guy because he was apparently out of his mind. My advise would have been to go to his bosses and find out what was the cause, maybe buy lunch for the associates and then apologize for anything he might have done, but I didn’t and they left and I went on with my day.
I had almost forgotten all about this interaction until I got home last night and began reading the daily bible reading for today so that I could write the devotional. I love the Bible because it always surprises you and I love that each time I read a scripture their is a reaction that happens, but the one I got when I read this scripture surprised me even more. As I read Acts 24:4-5 all of a sudden I was like, “YEAH! I want someone to say that about me, that is so cool.” It took me a few minutes to realize what I was really saying. In essence I wanted to have people call me names and lie about who I am and what I was doing. Who wants that?? Apparently as I read the scripture I did. Then out of curiousity I read the Amplified version which says:
But not to hinder or detain you too long, I beg you in your clemency and courtesy and kindness to grant us a brief adn concise hearing. For we have found this man a perfect pest (a real plague), and agitator and source of disturbance to all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the [heretical, division-producing] sect of the Nazerenes.
When I read that I got even more excited. I wanted to be called a perfect pest. I mean how cool would that be. I wonder if the religious leaders even realized what they were saying. How could a pest be perfect?
My home right now is a war zone and I think I finally might be winning. My foe is the Indian Meal Moth. The little brown moths that infest your pantry and kitchen. I am not sure how they got into our home or how they’ve managed to stay but someone they have and their ranks were on the increase. I came home from vacation last Monday and there was like twenty in the kitchen. Before you get too disgusted I am a very clean person. Cleaning is my stress relief and I am stressed often so my house tends to stay pretty clean. So imagine my confusion when we have this outbreak of moths in our home taking over my kitchen. I would not say those moths were perfect but at the same time I began to see what the religious leaders were saying, basically like a pest Paul was taking over. What the religious leaders thought was an insult was basically a compliment because that is what we are called to do.
We have been called to be the perfect pest, and agitator and source of disturbance for all people all over the world. Instead of do this though we often do the exact opposite. Like what my advise would have been for that guy, we try not to rock the boat we buy lunch and apologize even though we don’t know what we are apologizing for and we talk to people and see how we can offend them less. Jesus said he didnt come to bring peace but a sword. He came to shake things up and produce disciples that would turn the world upside down and begin to disturb the world out of their complacency and show introduce them to the savior, to agitate people so that they would no longer be comfortable in their sin.
Is this who we are? What are people saying about us? It’s time that more people started accusing us of being pests and agitators then people saying nothing at all.
Live Life Extraordinary,
Alayna
Tomorrows Bible Reading - Judges 21, Acts 25, Jeremiah 44, Luke 4
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