Title When the Grounds of Life Shake
Contents
<Today's Word>
1 At that time King Herod stretched out his hand to harm some of the church.
2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword.
3 When the Jews saw that they were pleased with this, they began to arrest Peter, too, on the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
4 And when they caught him, he put him in prison, and gave it to four men of four each to keep it, so that after the Passover he would bring it out before the people
5 So Peter was put in prison, and the church earnestly prayed to God for him.
6 The night before Herod was about to arrest him, Peter was sleeping between the two soldiers, bound by two chains, while watchmen were guarding the prison outside the door.
7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood beside him, and there was a quiet light in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell from his hands.
8. The angel said to him, Put on your belt and put on your sandals. Peter did so. And the angel said again, Put on your robe and follow me.
9 Peter came out and followed him, and did he see visions, not knowing that what the angel was doing was true.
10 So they passed the first and second watchtowers and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and the gate opened by itself.
Haiti is a country where people have no food to eat, so they make cookies with clay for breakfast and dinner. To make matters worse, the earthquake that occurred there fundamentally shook the place of living. It's really sad to see people strewn among the ruins that have fallen here and there. An uncertain future where the entire city has collapsed and is not sure when it will recover is driving people out of the country. It seems to be a preview of what it will look like when the foundations of life are shaken.
◆ What to hold on to?
In a situation where everything is uncertain and we can no longer rely on anything, the first thing we need to do is to be clear on what to hold on to. You can't hold on to anything in a hurry. There are certain things that will disappear in our lives. But there are also certain things in our life that will not go away when burned. A precious life must be built on an eternal rock, not on what will disappear for a while.
◆ How the Church Chooses… Prayer
A great deal of persecution came again to the early church, which had been revived due to the history of a few people. Watching the spread of the gospel work out of control, Herod is determined to harm some of the churches. So they killed James, the spiritual leader of the early church, with the sword. When Herod saw the people rejoicing, he finally arrested Peter as well. Surprisingly, prayer was the method chosen by the church in the face of the imminent crisis of death. I didn't go looking for people or use this or that other way, I just prayed. The victory or defeat of faith is decided at the knee.
◆ What is more important than the faith of those who pray...
God's way was very different from our thoughts. The reason prayer is amazing is that it allows us to learn about the works of God. Obviously the church was praying for Peter. But even Peter thought that what was happening to him was just a fantasy. It doesn't mean that I need to know everything to solve my intuition. The Lord can work without my knowledge. Even though we prayed, we could become like the early church, who did not believe in Peter's escape. But the Lord works. Let's work together with the Lord without change yesterday and today.