The Book of Acts

This book has always been one of my favorite books in the Bible. The first time I ever got serious about Bible reading, and the first time I actually made a commitment to read the Bible daily, I was seventeen, and I chose to start with the book of Acts.

I have probably read this book through more times than any other single book in the Bible. Each time I gain new insight. Each time I see a new element of the Gospel conveyed. I think the reason I like it so much, is that it is simply the story of real people living out their faith, and their calling.

I was impressed today by the story of when Barnabas and Paul went to Lystra, preached the gospel, healed a guy, and then the people of the city started saying that they were the gods come down in human form. Barnabas was Zeus, and Paul was Hermes. They almost sacrificed to them!

As weird as it may be, this passage encouraged me. It shows that even our best efforts at serving God, our most valiant attempts to please Him and to make Him known, sometimes go awry. Now, I've never had people try to worship me, but I have felt the frustration and disappointment that come with toiling in ministry, spending hours in prayer, and painstaking preparations, only to feel like it was all in vain, and that nothing worthwhile came out of it...

Of course, you're probably waiting for the silver lining in the story. The sad part is, that there isn't one. The story ends by the Jews convincing this crowd that Paul and Barnabas were bad, so they stoned Paul and left him for dead. What did they do next? They went home. The mission trip was over.

I have experienced what I consider to be some profound failures in my life and ministry. I'd be willing to bet that Paul would chalk this one up as a failure too.

The reality is that serving God isn't always rosy, it isn't always fun, and it doesn't always seem to work out. But Paul didn't quit. Not too much time passed before he decided to go back over all the cities he had previously visited, and see how the churches were doing. He went back to Lystra. He met a young guy named Timothy there. Now for 2,000 years we've been reading the letters that Paul wrote to this young man. Imagine if Paul had given up? Imagine if he had decided to skip Lystra on his second trip. After all, he wasn't very well received the first time.

The point is, don't quit. Failures are inevitable. Hardships are inevitable. But God is bigger than all of it.