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| Essential 100 -- Chained and Detained | | Date Created: Apr 29, 2005, 07:29 AM |
80 — Friday April 29 — Acts 25-28
Let's not candy-coat this thing. Was Paul preserved through his trials? Yeah -- all except the last one. He was killed, though it probably happened a couple of years after Acts concludes. And living through these chapters must have been frustrating for Paul. Called to be a missionary on great travels and instead of the freedom of the open road, he's handcuffed and in prison and facing one hearing after another.
Some of his epistles were written during these difficult years. Luke doesn't mention them. Neither Luke nor Paul have any idea how important they are. Paul probably thinks of his epistles as a second-best solution to make up for his inability to visit and talk face-to-face.
I know that my worst trials are trivial inconveniences set next to what Christians like Paul have gone through over the ages. For all of us, though, it isn't so much that God is going to keep us alive and healthy -- even Pauls do die -- it's that he'll use us right through those things, and we've got to trust that even things we regard as second-best solutions will be, in God's hands, useful to him. |
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