How you doin? Acts 26 is a short chapter, but boy is it loaded. God is really turning up the heat in my process. AWESOME!!!!!!!
Paul, still defending himself, gives his testimony once again. POWERFUL!!!!!!! Let me start with verses 5-8... “They
have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing,
that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a
Pharisee. 6 And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. 7 This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. 8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?"
COME ON!!!!!!! Verse 8 blows me away. The dictionary in my Bible
defines hope like this, "to desire something with confident expectation
for it's fulfillment". Webster's defines it like this, "to
cherish a desire with anticipation". Webster's from 1828 defines hope
like this, "A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight
expectation of obtaining it, or a believe that it is obtainable. Hope". I
don't think Satan gets stirred up as long as our hope remains a wish.
Biblical hope is not a wish of God's promises... it's expecting them.
Paul is very aware of God's promises and is expecting them. In
Revelation 12:10 it says, Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the 'power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has
been hurled down." We know that Satan is our constant accuser. His
accusation attempt to steal our identity, our inheritance, and our
worship. It's all a lie. DIG IT!!!!!!!
Paul goes on to tell about the promise that he has faith in verses 17-18, "I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to
open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a
place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’" Here Paul
testifies to his vision. It sounds like the great commission to me.
Verse 19 is great, “So
then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven." I
can't help but to think of how pleased God is with Paul and all who
follow Jesus. That's a good word. I need to land this thing. This
chapter is dripping with radical faith and hope. The real hope, not our
wishful hope. Hope is not a wish. Paul followed Jesus because he had
hope. COME ON!!!!!!! The Jews, with Satan's help, were stirred up and
accused Paul. Verses 22-23 are the trump cards, "But God has helped me to
this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I
am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— 23 that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”
WOW!!!!!!! That's a promise I believe. Jesus lights our path to the
Father. I'm not wishing for that promise to come true... I'm expecting
it. COME ON!!!!!!! Be expecting of something good today.
PS This is Webster's definition of wish, "to have a desire for (as something unattainable) <wished he could live his life over>". There is no definition in my Bible for wish.
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