Devotionals

---

Woven through the narrative of Paul’s encounter in Jerusalem lies an incredible picture of man’s heart...a heart found even within the church.

Zeal among the religious! But a zeal for what? According to the elders, a zeal for the law churned among the Jews of Jerusalem. But was it not a zeal superceding true zeal for God, for Yeshua Hamashea? Was it not a zeal for ‘their own understanding’? Solomon’s counsel stands ageless, cultureless....trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

Solomon’s discerning words, Paul’s boiling situation, brings to mind so many things. Churning questions, subtle warnings to re-look, re-think my own positions and actions, to gain a clearer insight into my own set of priorities, my own understanding, that lens used, even unintentionally to view, to judge, others.

Interesting thing about coins, they always have two sides. With a flip of a coin directions are determined, destinies changed, plays called.

It’s not real comforting to suddenly confront the reality of the heart coin, carried by each of us, flipped many times within each day.

Paul’s circumstances show the coin-toss clearly operating in Jerusalem. First the heart coin tosses within the Jerusalem elders. Seeking truth, they prayerfully open their ears to God’s voice carried in Paul’s words...and hearing it, they glorified God. Though it revealed new tablets on which God was writing, they recognized Yahweh’s fingerprints, and rejoicing, freedom, loving acceptance followed.

The next toss the heart coin knew exposed a different face. The face of man’s pre-determined “truth.” From such heavy leaning on their ‘own understanding’ the Spirit’s voice lay silenced, their ears already deafened. Untruth now streamed forth from a multitude of lips, lips dripping self-righteousness born in hearts not freshly seeking God’s face before casting dispersions. Rioting, not rejoicing, followed. An entire city lay disturbed. How could it not? Dragged from God’s presence, the doors to the temple had been immediately shut. In the resulting tumult, truth could not be ascertained.

Have you ever noted how readily ‘the multitudes’ follow zealously after their ‘own understanding.’ No heart searching. No fresh seeking after God’s face, after His voice. Truth does not guide their steps any more than it guides their hearts; rather a self-satisfied resting in their own knowing betrays the exposed face revealed by their own heart coin’s toss.

Many times each day my heart coin goes airborne, turning over and over until it finally comes to rest, revealing its face. Carried upward on the wings of prayer, a genuine new moment-by-moment seeking of God’s face, His truth alone, it comes to rest in peace, in rejoicing, in a greater and deeper love for others.

But more often than I want to admit, my heart coin’s toss rises on the turbulent current of my own understanding. Instead of peace, rejoicing and greater love, it descends in agitation, ill-temper, frustration or prideful self-satisfaction, each leaving its own bitter taste.

Tossing the heart coin is unavoidable, as long as we draw breath, but the wings which carry it airborne, they are chosen, moment by moment.


(reflections on Acts 21:18-40)




© 19 July 2005
DeAnna L. Brooks

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE