“…Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, ‘This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live’… but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god…“ Acts 28:3-6, NIV Italics and emphasis mine
It is interesting to see how our Leaders today, both in the politics and in church, will go out of their way to please people even at the expense of their calling and assignment. People would rather please people they see than God (who is unseen with natural eyes) and in so doing, we become hypocrite…we project who we are not inside in order to please people and win their seal of approval, recognition and popularity.
The trouble with people, as we see in the above text, is that they are so fickle; within a span of hours (the same night) Paul verdict moves from a murderer to god. Paul said, ‘If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ’ Gal 1:10b. I am not saying that we should ignore peoples’ opinion, but we need to be convinced of who we are and what we do regardless of people’s opinions. Malcom X once said, ‘if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for everything’
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copyright ©2008Light to my path † † † by TJM Kyara
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