OzThoughts – Thursday, 25th June, 2009

OzThoughts – Thursday, 25th June, 2009

There is a sense in which the past shapes today and our past shapes us. We can’t escape history. Yet we don’t have to live history over and over again. History is the foundation on which we build.

Today, Paul and the others have left Paphoios and eventually come to Antioch in Pisidia where they go to the meeting place on the Sabbath. Then after listening to reading of the Law and the Prophets contained in Holy scripture they are asked by the president of the meeting if they wished to say something “, "Friends, do you have anything you want to say? A word of encouragement, perhaps?"

Paul stands up and speaks up. Now it had been suggested Paul give a word of encouragement. He could have chosen to give a fantastic motivational and encouraging talk. He did but it was history. It was a reminder of how God had worked with them and for them in history. He started in Egypt and reminded them of key points in the history right up to King David.

Paul tells them that a descendant of David was the Saviour of Israel f=given by God. Paul tells of how John had alerted the people to the coming one but made sure the people knew that he, John, was not the one.

The story will be continued for us tomorrow, but we can have encouragement from the fact that the God who worked in history is still working for us and with us today.


[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3522.mp3
or: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_980.mp3 ]

O worship the King, all glorious above;
O gratefully sing his power and his love;
Our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.

O tell of his might, O sing of his grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space;
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is his path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, thy power hath founded of old,
Hath stablished it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light,
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distils in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust and feeble as frail,
In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend.

O measureless Might! Ineffable Love!
While angels delight to hymn thee above,
The humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall sing to thy praise.
Author: Robert Grant (1779-1838)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 16


Acts 13:13-25 (The Message)
13-14 From Paphos, Paul and company put out to sea, sailing on to Perga in Pamphylia. That's where John called it quits and went back to Jerusalem. From Perga the rest of them traveled on to Antioch in Pisidia.
14-15 On the Sabbath they went to the meeting place and took their places. After the reading of the Scriptures—God's Law and the Prophets—the president of the meeting asked them, "Friends, do you have anything you want to say? A word of encouragement, perhaps?"
16-20 Paul stood up, paused and took a deep breath, then said, "Fellow Israelites and friends of God, listen. God took a special interest in our ancestors, pulled our people who were beaten down in Egyptian exile to their feet, and led them out of there in grand style. He took good care of them for nearly forty years in that godforsaken wilderness and then, having wiped out seven enemies who stood in the way, gave them the land of Canaan for their very own—a span in all of about 450 years.
20-22 "Up to the time of Samuel the prophet, God provided judges to lead them. But then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, out of the tribe of Benjamin. After Saul had ruled forty years, God removed him from office and put King David in his place, with this commendation: 'I've searched the land and found this David, son of Jesse. He's a man whose heart beats to my heart, a man who will do what I tell him.'
23-25 "From out of David's descendants God produced a Savior for Israel, Jesus, exactly as he promised—but only after John had thoroughly alerted the people to his arrival by preparing them for a total life-change. As John was finishing up his work, he said, 'Did you think I was the One? No, I'm not the One. But the One you've been waiting for all these years is just around the corner, about to appear. And I'm about to disappear.'


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