God's at Work

 Acts 18-19           Psalm 59             Exodus 35-38

In Acts 18 and 19 the story of the struggles of the early church continues. It makes clear that the message of Jesus disturbs those in power and challenges them to live differently. The willingness to sow confusion and falsehoods often creates situations that only the wise will take the time to think through and pause before taking action. Allowing our crowd to be stirred up by falsehood often leads to angry and violent reactions that hurt the cause of good or evil. Note how many times the crowd is disbursed to go home and think through their actions.

While David was surrounded by those that sought to destroy him, he looked to God for protection and put his trust there. When God is your stronghold you don’t have to seek the death of your enemies, since that makes them forgettable, but pray that God will reveal their lies and the sin of their words and therefor bring them down. In the end all people will know that God rules the earth and is worthy of praise. The call is for us to praise God at all time and all things because we believe that God is the anchor of all we believe and worth trusting.

God instructs Moses to use the gifts of the people, both in what they give and, in the skills God, has given them. When Moses puts out a call for gifts with specific requests as the Lord told him to, they bring them with great joy. The Lord reminds Moses to tell the people what they need to accomplish the work and to only expect it from those with a willing heart. When Moses puts out the appeal there is an overwhelming response to the place where he has to tell them to bring no more.

As they begin building the place of worship the follow the details God has laid out for them and find that God has given the skills that are needed to meet every need and the provide superior work.

It is clear from today’s readings that God has provided us with everything we need to accomplish our tasks in the Kingdom and that those that attack the faithful will have their plans overcome. The key is always to trust God and believe that He has our best interests in mind when we do what we are commanded and live as we are instructed.