Acts 3:8-10
And while leaping forth he stood and was walking
around. And he went into the temple with
them while walking around and while leaping forth and while praising God. And all the people saw him while walking
around and while praising God. And they
were recognizing him since he was to one who sat with compassion upon the
Timely gate of the temple. And they were
being filled of astonishment and put out of mind upon the thing that has
happened to him.
Thoughts for Today:
First Thought:
The first point today is huge: the lame beggar goes into the
temple. The reason that this is huge is
because unlike today, where we have buildings designed so that they are
handicapped friendly, in those days they had prohibitions about who could enter
into the temple. They had areas where
anyone could go, areas where only Jews with no serious physical defect could
go, then areas where men with no defect could go, then areas where only priests
(who by definition had no physical defect) could go, and then an area where
just the high priest could go. So not
only is the man healed, but for the first time in probably his whole life he
gets to go inside the court of the Gentiles (where anyone could go) and see the
parts of the temple that had been off-limits to him because of his physical
defect. No wonder he leapt as he went
in!
Have you ever felt shut out of something or excluded for
some reason? How does it feel when you
finally gain access to what had formerly been put away from you?
Second Thought:
I still want to focus on this “first-time in the temple”
thing. Obviously the man was
ecstatic. He leapt for joy. He literally leapt for joy because his life
was permanently changed and he could draw closer to God than he could ever have
done in the past.
How good are we at “leaping for joy” in celebration of what
God has done? When we have those
watershed moments where faith suddenly feels like we are closer to God, are we
good at leaping for joy and showing everyone just how excited about it we
happen to be?
Third Thought:
The people around the temple are amazed. They are dumbfounded. Yet they praise God for what they see and
cannot fathom. I love the response of
the people here. We don’t sense any
jealousy or irritation that this man was blessed in such an obvious manner and
they weren’t. They simply praise God for
God’s presence.
Imagine hearing about some miraculous event in the life of
someone you work with or go to school with - someone you know well enough to
recognize but not well enough to actually know them. How easy would it be to feel happiness for
them? How easy would it be to feel a
hint of jealousy?
Passage for Tomorrow: Acts 3:11-15
2 comments:
Saw not say in the first paragraph thing. I think that's awesome the people just praised God and didn't get jealous. Today I think more people would get jealous than praise God ...possibly because we live in a greedy society, so we might think more why does he get the miracle not me?
Yeah, it is pretty awesome that people just give praise. And I think you are right about the jealousy thing. In fact, my guess is that you are right about you and I, too. This gives us a position to work toward: celebrating what God is doing in the life of others without getting jealous and wanting it all to ourselves.
That being said, it is okay to see something happening in the life of someone else and wanting it for yourself. That's awesome. But we as human beings shouldn't let that feeling lead to jealousy. And I'm afraid your right. Human greed is so strong that it naturally will go there if we aren't careful.
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