Obedience…
Last week in Nashville was awesome! I wish I had hours to sit down with everyone and share all the wonderful stories of how God worked and continues to work through that missions project. As Chris Page and I started planning for the week, we talked about how we could create a sense of community for our team. So each night after everything was over we gathered them all together for worship. Every evening there was music led by either Joe Lee, Wade Hodges or Alison Everill followed by Bible study led by Chris Page, myself or one of the youth interns. The focus in each team member’s private devotion time was on the subject of prayer while the evening corporate Bible studies were all from the book of Acts. These were some awesome times of worship! I saw God work in the lives of our kids in a mighty way. As we were focused on Him, He allowed us to be used by Him. This didn’t happen by chance. Our kids and adults had to make the effort. They had to choose to serve God. They had to be obedient to the call that God put on their lives. You may think, by what you have heard so far, that the week was a challenge-free week. That is simply not true. When we are obedient in our walk with the Lord, we will almost always experience the following three things: clarity, challenge, and celebration.
In Acts 16, we find the obedience of the Apostle Paul. In the first part of the chapter, Paul receives his marching orders. As they traveled throughout the region of Phrygia, they were kept from preaching the Word because of their obedience to the Holy Spirit. While in Troas, “Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, `Come over to Macedonia and help us,` ” (Acts 16:9). Paul immediately got ready to go to Macedonia. He could have easily ignored the prompting of the Spirit but instead he obeyed and therefore received clarity on the plan that God had for him. Paul’s obedience was a factor in the conversion of Lydia, who they met outside the city gate by the river. In the next section of Acts 16 Paul faces an intense challenge. As they were going to a place of prayer, they met up with a slave girl who had an evil spirit which gave her the ability to predict the future. This ability brought her owners a great deal of money and made her a valuable commodity. For days she persisted in following Paul and Silas announcing that they were servants of God. Annoyed by her constant shouting Paul finally turned and cast the evil spirit out. Her owners being greatly upset at the loss of their profit scheme had Paul and Silas seized and brought before the authorities. While in the hands of the authorities, they were flogged and badly beaten and imprisoned.
We may think to ourselves at this moment that this is not fair, but sometimes the challenges in our lives are there to produce a beautiful outcome. As it was in this case. For it was in that very jail, while they were worshiping their Savior, they met the Jailer. Paul was able to share the gospel with him and his whole family and all were saved. The end result of his obedience, as well as ours, is celebration: celebration in seeing a soul transformed and celebration in a job well done.
Choose you this day, whom you will serve…as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!
Aaron Hodges
