Today’s passage is Acts 25:13-22. King Agrippa and his wife arrive in Caesarea and Festus tells them about Paul’s case, that he doesn’t know how to handle it because it concerns Jewish disputes and that Paul appealed to Caesar rather than go to Jerusalem for trial. Agrippa wants to hear the details from Paul.
Why is Festus at a loss on how to deal with Paul’s case? How am I at a loss?
Festus is an educated Roman governor. He is well versed in Roman law and understands the politics of an empire.
He knows what is important to managing a province of the Roman Empire.
He knows how to deal with the things of the world.
What he doesn’t understand is how brilliant minds can become passionate about religious matters, how God can be more important than worldly wealth and power.
The emperor is more important than God.
He, Festus, is more important than God. His hope that a Jewish king will explain these matters to him is in vain, but maybe he will learn something.
I am often at a loss because I straddle two worlds, the secular and the spiritual, and I often apply different rules to different events.
When I feel comfortable in a worldly situation, such as dealing with school curriculum, I speak from my knowledge and experience, leaving God outside.
At church, during mokjang and training, I sometimes apply worldly wisdom instead of spiritual understanding from the sermon and QT.
Salvation is important and introducing a spiritual aspect to my discussions can help remind me of what is important.
I don’t know what God’s plan is for my life or anyone else’s, so it’s important to keep God in my plans.
Today I am at a PD(Professional Development) day for the international school teachers.
I am doing my THINK homework in public because I didn’t organize my time well this week.
The result is that I tell people about God because they interrupt my typing.
At first I was a little embarrassed because I felt conspicuous in my failure to do my homework.
But God used my failure to introduce himself to others.
Lord, let me not lose sight of you because I’m worrying about myself. Inspire me, I pray, to know what is truly important.
