Good morning…
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the world’s power people were trying to silence the apostles. “Stop talking about this Jesus!” they demanded. When pressed to choose between obeying God and obeying men, the first followers chose God, sharing personally about Jesus everywhere they went.
When the council members heard this, they became so angry that they wanted to kill the apostles.
But one of the members was the Pharisee Gamaliel, a highly respected teacher. He ordered the apostles to be taken out of the room for a little while. Then he said to the council: “People of Israel, be careful what you do with these men. Not long ago Theudas claimed to be someone important, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed. All his followers were scattered, and that was the end of that. Later, when the people of our nation were being counted, Judas from Galilee showed up. A lot of people followed him, but he was killed, and all his followers were scattered. So I advise you to stay away from these men. Leave them alone. If what they are planning is something of their own doing, it will fail. But if God is behind it, you cannot stop it anyway, unless you want to fight against God” (Acts 5:33-39, CEV).
Even a wise Pharisee figured out: “Human efforts fail and fizzle out, but if God’s power is behind a movement the LORD will be unstoppable.” Paired down, his wisdom sounds like this: “We are in doubt, let’s wait and see if this is a God-thing.”
When facing a difficult decision, why not follow Gamaliel’s “wait and see” game plan? If plans are of our own doing, they will fail and fizzle out. If God’s power is behind our movement toward committing more, cutting free, or changing course, the LORD’s plan will be unstoppable.
…Sue…
