God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

In our last post from the book of Acts we learned about “the most delicious of moral treats.” If you’re interested, you can read more here: “The Love of Jesus vs. ‘the most delicious of moral treats’–Acts 25-26“. In today’s post we’ll take a look at Paul’s apparent misfortune, because of Festus’s decision to send him to Rome.

Acts 26:30-32

Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them. And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.” And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Apparent Misfortune and God’s Work

So after Paul gives his defense, king Agrippa, Bernice, governor Festus, and others who heard Paul’s case: they said to one another that Paul was innocent, and Paul could be set free. If it weren’t for this one problem.

Paul had already appealed to Caesar, and, according to Keener, it was politically unacceptable for Festus and Agrippa to pass final judgment on Paul’s case, once an appeal had been made to Caesar.

The thing is, because Paul appealed to Caesar, Paul was executed, in Rome. And for the two years before his execution, he was under house arrest in Rome. And his trip to Rome was no picnic either. At one point he was ship wrecked. Knowing these things, right about now you might be thinking: “Well, that’s too bad. If the politics had been a little different, then Paul could have been set free. What a shame.”

But thinking it through, I wonder if we would have Paul’s epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon if Paul was never sent to Rome. All of those books of the Bible were written by Paul, in Rome, while he was held captive.

I’m reminded of certain Psalms written by David. Psalms like Psalm 69: “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out . . .” (Psalm 69:1-3)

“O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them.” (Psalm 86:14)

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him,’ lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” (Psalm 13)

So, if David didn’t experience that painful sorrowful suffering, you and I wouldn’t have these Psalms available to us today.

Thanking God and Hard Things

Sometimes when I can’t think of anything to pray about, I just start thanking God for everything I can bring to my memory. It’s always a long list. That’s what I did today. And the list of what I thanked God for today included the following:

• Thank You Father for the opportunity to help family in Florida after the hurricane.
• Thank You Father for the privilege of caring for Kathy’s Mom during the last nine months of her life while she struggled with Lewy body dementia.
• Thank You Father for blessing us with the privilege of raising Gabe and Nate, and for Kyle and Cole and Corey and Deidra and Ivory.
• Thank You Father for my marriage.
• Thank You Father for every time we had a code save.
• Thank You Father for every time we saved someone’s home or business by putting a fire out.
• Thank You Father for every time You taught me how to love a person with a difficult personality.
• Thank You Father for every time You corrected me when I was wrong.
• Thank You Father for teaching me humility.

Do you know what’s interesting about the items on that list?

Every one of those amazing blessings was also a very hard thing. They were sometimes painful. They were often disruptive. There was sacrifice involved. They were hard.

I’m getting on toward the end of my life, and as I look back, I realize that the best things have been some of the hardest things. Also, the best things generally don’t involve entertainment. The best things generally don’t involve my phone or my screens. I think our culture today encourages us to escape into our phones and our screens. I want to swim upstream against the flow of our culture when it comes to engaging God’s best even when it’s hard, even when it means a lot less entertainment.

Paul’s being sent to Rome reminds me, that the best things in life are sometimes the hardest most difficult things in life.

“Father, have mercy on me, and on the dear person reading this right now. For some of us, the waters have come up to our necks. We are weary with our crying out. Have mercy on us and fill us with Your strength. Fill us with the Spirit of Jesus. Help us to love the way You want us to love, the way Jesus loved: even when it’s hard.

“Have mercy on us Father.

“In Jesus’ name.

“Amen.”

Notes:

Craig Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, IVP Academic; 2nd edition, January 3, 2014, p. 409

Image of rock climbers via Pexels and Freerangestock–no attribution required

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Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon and the ebook is now available on Google Play Books.)