Acts 28 | Wayfarer

“Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” Acts 28:28 (NRSV)

I have watched with keen interest the past few years and have noticed a trend. It began with the world’s largest and oldest institution of Jesus followers in Rome when they elected a humble outsider from South America to be Pope. Pope Francis has been shaking things up, and this Protestant will admit being a fan. One of the things I’ve noticed in my study of Jesus is that he was an equal opportunity offender by speaking truth and raising the ire of people on both sides of the spectrum. I’m seeing Jesus’ heart in Francis. He has been appointing more and more Bishops from the Third World into the upper levels of leadership in the Roman Catholic church.

A few months ago I received an e-mail from our friend who has, for several years, been the President of a large international ministry organization called the Navigators. Founded to reach out to men and women in the U.S. armed services, the group spread to college campuses and has since grown over the decades into a world-wide mission organization. Mike’s e-mail described the Navigators’ leaders from around the world gathering to pray for guidance in selecting his successor. Their choice to lead the Navigators was a couple who are natives of Kenya in Africa.

This morning as I read the chapter I found it interesting that Paul told the Jews in Rome that God, in response to the Jews unwillingness to believe, has sent salvation to the Gentiles. God uses the metaphor of wind to describe Holy Spirit. The wind moves, changes course, increases to gusts then falls back to a gentle breeze. It is not tamed nor controlled. Paul observes that the Spiritual winds are shifting and blowing away from Jerusalem and to the rest of the world.

Jesus said to be aware of the signs and the times. Paul was aware that God’s Spirit was shifting in his time. In our time I believe I have seen a shift in Holy Spirit wind moving and gusting through the Third World. I see it in Rome. I see it in the Navigators. I am seeing other weather vanes turn in headlines and news reports. I am not a prophet and I can’t see the future, but I want to be aware of what God is doing on a meta-level even as I struggle to fulfill my bit-part on a micro-level here in the middle of fly-over country America.

Today, I find my heart echoes the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: “May your will be done on Earth….”

snake bite — from things_to_remember via Flickr

As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, “A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.” But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. Acts 28:3-5 (NLT)

When Taylor called me from Africa a few weeks ago, we enjoyed a long conversation about the conditions where they are staying and what they are experiencing. One of the things I’ve consistently heard from friends and family who have travelled to remote, undeveloped areas of the world is that spiritual forces are much more visible in every day life compared to our own culture that tends to deny and suppress spiritual things. When I asked if this was true where they were staying and working, Taylor said that it was true without a doubt. As an example, she related the story of a local woman who had been possessed and had screamed non-stop at the top of her lungs for days.

It is impossible to journey through God’s Message and read the first-hand accounts of Jesus’ life without being faced with an uncomfortable realization about the spiritual realm. There are forces of Light and there are also forces of darkness. Jesus regularly encountered and confronted individuals who were possessed by spiritual darkness.

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters, his classic book about the forces of spiritual darkness, that there are two equally foolish mistakes we can make when approaching this sensitive subject. One is to give too much consideration to the forces of darkness, the other is to give too little consideration to them. I often ponder this. While I do not doubt that many easily explained phenomena are incorrectly labeled as spiritual issues, I equally believe that many truly spiritual issues are incorrectly dismissed as easily explained phenomenon.

I loved the image of Paul getting bitten on the hand by the poisonous snake, holding it up and then shaking it off into the fire. Of course, the snake has been the metaphorical symbol of spiritual darkness since the Garden of Eden. Jesus taught that those who believe and receive Him into their hearts and lives are subsequently filled with Light, and where there is Light there is no darkness. That doesn’t mean that darkness cannot attack us. Like Paul, all who follow Jesus are susceptible to spiritual snake bites. We can take courage, however, that those who are in Christ have nothing to fear in these attacks; We can simply shake it off.