Two or More Ways of Seeing Something

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                        Acts 1:18

Two or More Ways of Seeing Something

by Robert T. Cooper

I was recently looking at a book that included the optical illusion involving a black and white line drawing that can be seen as a young woman if looked at one way or can be seen as an older woman if looked at another way. Most people have seen similar optical illusions. One simply has to change one’s focus and the way in which one organizes what is being seen.

It is something like a policeman getting the stories of several eyewitnesses. No two stories will totally match, but all will contribute to the truth of what really happened. It can even be the same if a single person tells more than once something that happened. The details will vary, but it is possible to harmonize the stories.

There is a story of a teacher who had four students who missed a test. The four insisted they had been headed to the test on time, but their car had a flat tire. Something about the situation made the teacher suspicious, but the teacher agreed to give them all a one-question make-up exam. The teacher had them sit in the four corners of the room. Then the teacher told them what the one question on the make-up would be: “Which tire was it?”

In Acts 1:18, it is reported that Judas used the 30 pieces of silver to purchase a field. While at that field, he fell headlong, his body burst open, and his intestines spilled out. That is one graphic and memorable image. But the Gospels report that Judas threw the money back to the priests and that it was the priests who bought the field. Then the Gospels say that Judas went out and hung himself. So just who bought the field? Just how did Judas die?

Is it possible to harmonize the two accounts? When the priests bought the field, they might have done so in Judas’ name so that the legal records showed that it was Judas who bought it. We don’t know that is how it was, but it is a plausible explanation. But harmonizing the rest of it takes a lot more imagination. One suggestion is that Judas was running with the rope around his neck (picture the crazed Judas of The Passion of the Christ) when he tripped. As he fell, the rope caught on something so that he hung himself. But rather than being suspended in the air, his falling body hit a jagged bit of ground that caused his body to burst open and his intestines to spill out. Gruesome, huh? Again, we don’t know that is how it was, and it is a little less plausible than the purchase of the field, but it might have been that way.

So what is the point of all this? Different people might see certain things in more than one way. Don’t you want people to believe you and be gracious to you when you say what you understand and they don’t understand it your way? We too should be gracious when others say things that we genuinely believe not to be so. The other person may not be a liar and may not be crazy. The other person might not even be mistaken.

If we truly love one another, we will think the best of one another and be gracious to one another.

What do you relate to in this blog post? Can you share a story of a time you and someone else saw something different ways?

Just Sort of Slips Them in There

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                        Acts 1:14

Just Sort of Slips Them in There

by Robert T. Cooper

 

I had been a member of this Glee Club in college. Now I was a graduate, attending one of their concerts in Dallas. There was a fellow still in that choir who had been in the choir at the same time I was. When the concert ended, this fellow made a beeline for me. He wanted to let me know that he had in the intervening time placed his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. My friend is still walking with Christ today. Sometimes we “accidentally” discover that someone has become a fellow believer in Christ.

 

Acts 1:14 mentions some people who were in this 24/7 prayer meeting during the days between the Ascension and Pentecost. We aren’t surprised to find the Apostles there. We aren’t surprised to find Mary, the mother of Jesus, there. It isn’t even particularly surprising to find “the women” there. (This was a substantial group of women who traveled around with Jesus and His disciples during the 3½ year ministry of Jesus. They frequently were the source for funding for the ministry.)

 

But we are surprised to discover that Jesus’ four brothers were part of the prayer meeting. The last we had heard of these brothers, they had been taunting Jesus about how He behaved as a public figure, taunting because they were not believers in Jesus or in His mission. In fact, at the crucifixion, Jesus gave a verbal will as He hung on the cross. He gave the care of His mother to John, the youngest of the Apostles, rather than to any of His brothers. Yet here, not two months later, the four brothers are with the Apostles at the prayer meeting.

 

What had happened? How had they turned from mockers into disciples? Frankly, the Bible does not tell us. It is a mystery, and will remain so until we see them and can ask them for ourselves. Yet they were converted. And when Luke mentions they were participants in the prayer meeting, he doesn’t make a big deal of it. He just sort of slips them in there. Moreover, two of those brothers ended up writing books of the New Testament. One of those brothers ended up being the Senior Pastor of the Church at Jerusalem, pastor of the Twelve Apostles.

 

It is not an uncommon thing. The person it never occurred to you would eventually come to faith in Christ does become a believer. In fact, God seems to enjoy bringing salvation to unlikely candidates. So don’t give up on people. Perhaps all won’t be converted, but you never know. Only God knows.

 

In the Comments section, we’d love to hear any stories you may have of someone who came to faith in Christ, someone He just sort of slipped in there.

Anything But Solitaire

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                Acts 1:12 – 14

Anything But Solitaire

by Robert T. Cooper

In Christianity we put a lot of emphasis on making a personal, individual decision of your own for Christ. Yet when one reads the Bible, one gets the idea that while I have to decide for Christ myself in order to be saved, Christianity is not supposed to be an individual affair.

In the 21^st century one constantly runs into people who claim to be Christians, but they live their lives as individuals and not in intentional, continuing fellowship with a group of fellow believers. This is not the Bible way.

Looking at Acts 1:12 – 14, we see that the apostles, who had been together for the ascension of Jesus, stayed together as they returned to Jerusalem. They were all staying together in an upper room (probably the same place the Last Supper had taken place, probably the home of John Mark’s family). To emphasize the group nature, the passage lists the names of the Eleven. It is emphasized that they all prayed together. It even mentions additional people, men and women, who took part as they all prayed together.

Now is it possible that God has directed one or more people of your acquaintance to not join a local church? I suppose so. It is not my place to judge. Those people are accountable to the Lord, not to me.

Yet that would seem to be the exception, not the rule. Since we are to study together, to pray together, to be in fellowship with one another, to break bread with one another, since we are to form ministry-evangelism groups together, since there are no “lone ranger” Christians in the Bible, it seems that most all of us should be active in the fellowship of a local church.

With respect to being part of a local church, please leave a comment as to how God led you to your current situation.