Christian Living
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Paul was juggling so many things. His travels with Silas were mounting. The soles of their feet were worn, the leather straps broken and split. Acts 16 tells us he traveled from Derbe to Lystra where he picked up Timothy along the way. Taking care of kingdom business, strengthening churches, circumcising brothers, Paul and Silas barely had time to enjoy the journey. Counting it all joy, they continued to thrust forward.
Then one night Paul had a vision that woke him from his slumber. An image tugged at his clothes. A Macedonian beggar eclipsed his thoughts, gripping his heart…leading him to Macedonia. Without evaluation, critical thinking, and much planning, Paul and Silas embarked on a journey that would later change the way we view the power of worship forever!
The sun was dancing on their backs, the stretch for miles, and yet they kept walking. As they conversed, a woman from behind them began her attempts to entice and lure with her fortune telling magic. Confronted with the Spirit of God in the boys, she began mocking them with shouts of, “these men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved” (Acts 16:17b). And of course, Paul and Silas filled to the top with Gospel, the cause, and the Cross, gave no mind to her mockery.
With Macedonia on their mind they continued forth, yet this woman wouldn’t give. She kept following and shouting, and following and shouting. Perhaps anyone would’ve reacted the way Paul did as he finally said once he had enough, “In the Name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” (verse 18b). And at that moment, Scripture tells us the spirit left her body at the sound of his voice.
However, because of this, trouble (or shall I say prison), was around the corner. The fortune teller’s owners made money off her predications, and now that this spirit was no longer in her body, money will be lost. So off went Paul and Silas, dragged by their clothes into the marketplace for accusation. The Romans were vicious and merciless. They called them unlawful while accusing them of throwing the city in an uproar. They were sent to be stripped and beaten.
Ok, if this were me, at this point, I’d be scared out of my mind. Worship would be the farthest thing from my heart; giving God praise would be an elusive thought producing fog over my eyes. Yet this sudden turn of events would serve as the center theme that would in turn initiate some wall-breaking praise.
The story tells us they were “severely flogged,” not pushed or shoved or name called, but “severely flogged.” Flogged means to be whipped, lashed, flayed, battered…now add severely to all these. Is this treatment conducive to a powerful worship service? Don’t think so. Get the picture? Good, let’s keep going.
But oh, at the strike of midnight, something magnificent emerged…Paul and Silas’ worship unto God. Between the cold bars and rough floor, amidst the stings on their skin pulsating blood and puss, within the hunger pangs that were flipping in their stomachs, in the midst of this travesty was broken worship, unadulterated adoration for a Savior still loved, for a God still trusted. “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose” (verse 26).
What a vision, don’t you think? And even further, what power all the more! Now check this out, not only did their praise bust the cement walls down, but it also sliced through the chains that bound them! What can this teach us? That our praise, that our hymns unto Jehovah have the capacity to bust prison walls that surround us and slice through the chains that have us bound…literally.
Hard-pressed worship contains special elements that have the stamina to cut through our prisons of doubt, fear, addiction, and pride-with our list of imprisonment going on and on and on. And what’s more, once the walls crumble, our chains that create blood rings around our wrists will break off…and this, my friends is the same power that our songs possess.
I don’t believe my love songs are there yet, but oh how I desire them to be. I desire for my worship to possess that kind of potency that in the middle of my troubles, the walls will break over and the chains will explode into a million pieces and make me free. I pray that be your desire too. Can you imagine our songs containing this much change? Can you imagine our invisible worship capable of producing physical changes that we can both see and experience? Resilient praise can make any jail house rock, and so can ours.
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