The blessing of being flogged

I was reading the book of Acts last night and something in chapter 5 just really stood out to me. The apostles are performing miracles and then preaching to the crowds. They were arrested because of this and during the night an angel of the Lord comes and frees them from jail so they can continue to “tell the people the full message of this new life.”

 

When the priest and associates  (people who put the apostles in jail in the first place) arrive back in the morning and go to check on their prisoners they realize they are nowhere to be found even though their holding cell is still securely locked with guards standing outside.

 

They are furious with the apostles and demand once again they stop teaching. The apostles stand firm saying, “We must obey God rather than men!”

 

Still furious, they wanted to put the apostles to death. However a Pharisee named Gamaliel has the sense to question whether this is the right thing to do. He gives the example of Theudas and how the overall plan to kill him had basically backfired. He then continues to say, “Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

 

In my head I’m picturing this whole situation going down and when I look back over it I’m pretty sure I actually started laughing. But I haven’t even gotten to my favorite part yet!!!

 

So, they decide Gamaliel’s argument has a considerable amount of merit. They aren’t going to kill the apostles! They are going to let them off with only a flogging! Rejoice!!!

 

Acts 5:40 says, “His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.”

 

*chuckle* My thought: After all this! I desperately want to know who they think they are kidding?!?! “ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus” Right, because that worked so well the first…and second time!

 

And my own notes and comments from reading this section reads like this, “Sometimes being flogged is a blessing.” There’s some more irony and perspective for you.

 

And still!!! Acts 5:41 “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” Now, I picture this scene basically consisting of a group of apostles walking away bleeding and giving each other high-fives because they recognize they are bleeding for Jesus. It’s quite the awesome mental image.

 

OK, I’m almost done. I promise. But this is the best part! Brace yourselves:

 

Acts 5:42 “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

 

Clearly, as I mentioned before, the words they had been given after their flogging, demanding them to stop preaching (AGAIN) did a lot of good. Oh wait! Actually, it doesn’t seem to have done anything to stop the apostles from telling people about Jesus. Ooops!

 

Point (or two) for Jesus =-)

Testimonies

Come back with me to a sunny afternoon in July. I was sitting outside on a chair in Gainesville, Georgia…staring. Staring at a blank page. A new journal. A chance for a new beginning. And how was I instructed to start this new beginning??

By telling about my past, of course!

I had been asked by my leaders to share my testimony with everyone on the Philippines team. Not only were our leaders going to share their own testimonies, each of us were going to share our testimonies with the team.

And so it began, my blank page. I sat. I stared. And then I turned to Margo and said, “You know, no one has ever asked me to give my testimony before.” And I had a lot of mixed feelings in the beginning. First, I was scared out of my mind. I was scared of being told to open up to a group of strangers, and I was scared of allowing myself to be vulnerable, something I don’t often allow myself to do.

But you know what? I sat there and realized there was this other part of me that was downright excited.

After listening to the testimonies of my leaders I realized how much better I understood them and how I felt more prepared to serve along side them after hearing where they had come from.

I learned first hand the most beautiful part of giving your testimony is all the dirt. All the sin. All the bad and terrible stuff. It’s beautiful. I could go as far to say it’s absolutely gorgeous. Not because sin is beautiful, but because of what God has done with our sin.

Too often we try to hide all the bad stuff. Thinking to ourselves we are past it, and it really doesn’t matter. But unfortunately, when we have this mindset, we miss the point. The point of giving our testimonies is bringing glory to God! So tell all your dirt, and then tell about how God has made it as white as snow. Not only that, but when we go to such great lengths to hide all our sin; first of all we end up exhausted at always putting on a mask. And secondly, it makes it that much harder for others to talk about their sin. It creates this illusion that we as Christians are “goody two shoes.”

I’m not saying that being a Christian shouldn’t change the way you act. I’m saying the exact opposite. When you come to know God it should absolutely change who you are as well as the way you act. With emphasis on the change. The whole point is the change. And how will everyone know how much you have changed if you never tell them who you were before God came in and took over your life?

So here’s something that doesn’t often enough get said. It’s OK to have dirt. All that sin? God’s telling us to come as we are and He’ll take us from there.

Definitely don’t allow yourself to get stuck in the past, but also don’t just plow on through and never look back. A huge part of knowing who you are now is knowing who you were before.

And finally this brings me to my overall point. We don’t ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to give their testimonies nearly enough. When was the last time you really looked someone in the eye and asked, “So what sin has God pulled you out of?”

But as a side note, as our leaders talked about, don’t come up with dirt either! Your innocence can be just as awesome of a testimony! The amount of sin isn’t what makes up our testimony. Testimonies are the stories of God’s children. Each and every one unique and precious.

So step out and don’t be afraid to share your testimony when you are asked! And better yet, ask the person next to you if they would be willing to share their testimony! We should all be getting to know our family a little better.

After all, in order to serve others with them you need to know how you can best serve them.

Asceticism

asceticism – noun
1. the manner of life, practices, or principles of an ascetic.
2. the doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial, self-mortification, and the like.
3. rigorous self-denial; extreme abstinence; austerity.

austerity - noun, plural -ties.
1. austere quality; severity of manner, life, etc.; sternness.
2. Usually, austerities. ascetic practices: austerities of monastery life.
3. strict economy.

In one of my classes we have recently been taking a closer look at theology and within that we have touched a little on asceticism. For some reason I have a fascination with this topic and have since been digging a little deeper and thinking a little harder on the subject.

Essentially when I think of the word ascetism I think of monks, and I think of Mother Teresa. I was sitting in class one day and I was really struggling with this. I have a great deal of respect for all the work Mother Teresa did, and this post is in no way trying to question her reasons for sacrificng the way she did in order to help the less fortunate than herslef. However, I think back to the story about how she would sift through a box of donated shoes, take out the worst pair, and put them on her own feet in order to give the better pairs to the more needy than herself. This decision resulted in her feet being deformed for part of her life.

And it makes me wonder. Where do we draw the line? Again, the work that Mother Teresa did was nothing less than admirable. Making sacrifices in order to better serve those around us is something we should all be trying to do more often. But at the same time, is turning to asceticism and "self-denial and self-moritifcaiton" really what God has in mind for the body of Christ? I think in our ministry and service we should also keep in mind that Christ dwells in us, and therefore I believe it is just as important to respect our own bodies as it is to respect others.

And also, "doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial, self-mortification." Ok.....? Part of me really isn't sure what to do with that, or where to even start. There's clearly two extremes facing our society today. Where's the balance between self-satisfcation/self-seeking and self-moritifcation?

Which also brings me to Matthew 16:24 which says, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'" I personally think what Jesus meant by "deny themselves" is, "deny your selfish desires for the things of this world" (example: earthly wealth, material possessions, etc.) I don't necessarily think Jesus was saying "deny and completely disregard your well-being, and don't try to care of yourselves or your health."

Something I feel the Church doesn't really talk much about is standing in awe of Creation. And I'm not just talking about the mountains, trees, skies, and earth in general. Don't get me wrong, God said all of those things were, "good." But I'm talking about what God declared, "very good."

Us. You. Me. Humans. Our bodies.

So yes, in order to be a disciple I need to deny myself and pick up the cross and follow Jesus. And yes, that may mean in the process getting a few splinters, a few blisters, and a few cuts and scrapes! But I'm also not going to totally disregard taking care of the body God has created for me. It means finding the healthy balance of serving others, and taking care of ourselves.

Basically, I see nothing wrong with a healthy amount of self-denial....it's this "rigorous self-denial and self-mortification" that I'm questioning.

I'd definitely appreciate anyone's thoughts on this topic!