Acts 17:13-15\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea,\u00a0some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.\u00a014\u00a0The believers\u00a0immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas\u00a0and Timothy\u00a0stayed at Berea.\u00a015\u00a0Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens\u00a0and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cBut when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea,\u00a0some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 Geez, like mosquitos in a swamp it seems like there was no getting away from the persecuting Jews.\u00a0 These Jews from Thessalonica, hearing Paul was at Berea, went there to also tell lies about Paul to the Bereans.\u00a0 They used the same old tactics: Lie about Paul, rise up a crowd by telling them that Paul was dangerous to their own lives, and get Paul either killed or run out of town.\u00a0 Before the Thessalonian Jews arrived none of the non believing Berean Jews minded Paul.\u00a0 But the persecuting Jews had come upon the way to agitate a crowd and it works even today.\u00a0 Most people tend to live and let live (although that is decreasingly so).\u00a0 So what an agitator needs to do is tell the crowd something like \u201cthis person with whom one merely disagrees with will spread his ideas and cause problems for you.\u00a0 He will cause problems that affect your business, your income, your way of life.\u201d\u00a0 Even we today are willing to live and let live, unless it affects us, and then \u201csomething must be done.\u201d\u00a0 It is not whether or not we would actually be affected, we will not stop to consider, instead with a knee jerk reaction, we will rise up against the accused person.\u00a0 Too often, no facts needed.\u00a0 No chance to defend oneself given.\u00a0 No rights to the accused.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe believers\u00a0immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas\u00a0and Timothy\u00a0stayed at Berea.<\/i>\u201d Fortunately the Bereans had believed, being hearers and studiers, they were well on their way to being grounded in the Word.\u00a0 So as the Believers with Paul and those new Berean converts insisted, Paul was sent to the coast for his safety, and for the safety of the new believers.\u00a0\u00a0 Paul and Timothy stayed behind to further minister to the new church.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who escorted Paul brought him to Athens\u00a0and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 The Believers who escorted Paul took him from Berea to Athens, down the coast.\u00a0 After arriving at Athens Paul sent word with those who had escorted him to have Silas and Timothy to rejoin with him.<\/p>\n
Family, sometimes those who seem to think it their mission to oppose us do so at every opportunity, whether a matter has something to do with them or not.\u00a0 It can become irritating to us.\u00a0 What do we do?\u00a0 We pray and we believe God.\u00a0 We may, if possible, directly dispute their lies (or errors), often we pray to our God and trust Him to take care of it.\u00a0 We pray for the person who may be divisive.\u00a0 Sometimes God changes their heart.\u00a0 Often, God changes our hearts.\u00a0 Sometimes the Lord will just move them on and teach them their error.\u00a0 However, in some parts of the world the persecutors will still kill.\u00a0\u00a0 It happens to Christians every day.\u00a0 As the Word says some consider us sheep for the slaughter (Romans 8:36, Psalm 44:22<\/b>).\u00a0 Sometimes we move on, others have, in faith, not moved on and become willing (not desirous) martyrs.\u00a0 We must remember that whether there are those who irritate us, or want to kill us, what is most dear to us is not anything in this world, but it is that God be glorified.\u00a0 Even if we are killed we cannot be defeated because of the sacrifice of Jesus, our Savior and Lord. We know that \u201c\u2026to live is Christ and to die is gain<\/i>.\u201d (Philippians 1:21<\/b>)\u00a0 The Lord always has his eyes on us and He knows how to keep us here and how to bring us home, and whichever He wills is first best for the Gospel, and also best for us.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acts 17:13-15\u00a0–\u00a0But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea,\u00a0some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.\u00a014\u00a0The believers\u00a0immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas\u00a0and Timothy\u00a0stayed at Berea.\u00a015\u00a0Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens\u00a0and then left with instructions for Silas and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,94,1874,1871,17,10],"class_list":["post-1861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-philippians","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1862,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions\/1862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}