WONDERWHAT

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The Unstoppable Life

 “…life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, life finds a WAY!” ~ Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

I really like that movie – and I always enjoy Dr. Malcolm’s description of the power of life. He, of course, is couching his description in the course of natural evolution – but I like to imagine his description applying to The Life – the redeemed life found in Christ. And it’s not so much that God’s life finds a way, but that God makes a way.

We’re going to be reading Acts 5:12-42 in our study this Sunday, continuing our way through the book of Acts.

Luke again repeats a pattern started in chapter 4, where we see the good being done by the infant church resisted and opposed by the powers that be. We can get the message…this new life that God is forming in us is going to be resisted by the systems and patterns of this broken world.

What are the ways, besides just human antagonism, that we can find ourselves being resisted in our journey of faith in Christ? Have you ever been moving in the right direction only to find everything going wrong in your life? What is your greatest temptation in those times?

I love the words of the angel in this passage:  “Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this Life.” What encouragement can you derive from those words?

The speech given by Gamaliel in the final section of this passage is quite profound. “If this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.” In other words…this Life is unstoppable. His words were spoken over 2,000 years ago. If 2,000 years of hardships, pressures and persecutions could not stop this Life…what will be able to stop God’s redeeming life in you?

Hope to see you this Sunday!

 

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One response to “The Unstoppable Life”

  1. julie Avatar
    julie

    The pattern is actually encouraging and to me seems a kind of microcosm of this Life….looking at the section as a whole, the disciples are doing good doing what Jesus told them to do…and really cool stuff was happening as a result (signs and salvations!) then comes the opposition(bad guys maybe I should say blind guys put them in prison), then more good,(God intervenes Angels unlock the door), then persecution(beatings), then more good (preaching)…moves and counter moves it seems… God and His guys always trumping evil….
    It is a good picture of how our lives will roll as well…as we set out to live as God has told us to, to go about doing good…we can be assured stuff will hit the fan!! Because we don’t go to jail for talking about Jesus it will be other challenges, there are as we all know too many to list…maybe sickness or loss of one kind or another maybe we feel imprisoned by our circumstances at times and we may very well be seemingly held back from His pursuits at times but just as happened in our story God will intervene, set us free to sing His praises, and then another obstacle will surely come in which He will certainly make His move again and on and on the cycle will repeat until our time here is up and the ultimate Happy Ending arrives!! 2 Cor 4:8 says we are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed;perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed!!! It’s normal we should go ahead and expect this knowing He and His (life) will prevail!!!
    When challenges come we could feel tempted to think that maybe we are somehow on the wrong path or made the wrong choice or are getting a raw deal for following God….the pattern in the story assures us we have not gone wrong !!! In fact in life we will experience trouble with or without Jesus, probably more with Him as the enemy wants to take out those who pose a threat to his kingdom, but with the ultimate King on our side, the end to these cycles is always a resounding CHECKMATE!!
    I love Gamaliel’s statement…If it is of God you won’t stop it anyway…How hopeful is this!!! No matter what comes against us..His plans for us will prevail period the end!!! Even in imprisonment this was true….it was His plan for His disciples to be there for a time…it wasn’t the first or last time followers of Jesus found themselves in jail, they were always ultimately delivered and God glorified but I bet God was doing something eternal even in the midst of jail…we aren’t given the details of what went on during their stay in the cell this time but at other times we know because of God’s work in freeing them a guard and his entire family were saved, who knows the countless many who came to know Jesus by sitting in a cell with His disciples…And we know Paul wrote many epistles from prison…the fact is as Romans 8:28 says, all things work together for Good for us called according to His purpose…..our lives can bear fruit no matter the circumstance….Nothing Stops Him…His Life in us is an invading force that simply can’t be reckoned with!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!

    Reply

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