Episode 32: Acts 16:16-34

Translation: Common English Bible (CEB)

3 Questions:

What word, phrase or image strikes you in this text?

Toward what is God calling you in this text?

What might cause you to abandon a custom for something holy?

Additional texts:

Psalm 97

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

John 17:20-26

Transcript

00:00:02.31
Kevin Shock
Merry Christmas. I don't know why I said, well, no, I know why said that. Nathan just had me singing Christmas music, listening to Christmas music right before we got on this. So, uh, Merry Christmas in May.

00:00:15.50
Kevin Shock
Actually, does this, oh no, this episode drops May 26th.

00:00:17.74
Nathan Pile
Well,

00:00:19.30
Kevin Shock
So we're one day off. Yeah. Okay.

00:00:21.11
Nathan Pile
one day off, one day off.

00:00:22.01
Kevin Shock
Um, here, here we are ready to attend again, uh, with,

00:00:22.61
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah, it's too bad. Too bad.

00:00:29.06
Kevin Shock
with a reading that has ah literally nothing to do with Christmas, except that Jesus might be, no, Jesus isn't even named in this reading, I don't think. Okay, so Nathan and I are looking at, Merry Christmas.

00:00:41.85
Nathan Pile
So Merry Christmas.

00:00:45.11
Kevin Shock
is here's your

00:00:45.95
Nathan Pile
ah Jesus Jesus isn't even mentioned.

00:00:47.36
Kevin Shock
as your Here's your regular weekly gift of listening to Nathan and I embarrass ourselves. um Before we get started, one I do have one shout out.

00:00:58.98
Kevin Shock
Our frequent listener, Sherry, ah sent me an email and there was there was something I had to say about the email, but I can't.

00:00:59.20
Nathan Pile
me

00:01:07.71
Kevin Shock
Well, first of all, thanks to Sherry for ah she always ah ah any any time. um Sherry has concern for me as a, as a pastor that she knows.

00:01:18.07
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:01:19.58
Kevin Shock
And so, so anytime I say something it might make it sound as though I'm not, uh, I'm not completely satisfied with life. Sherry always checks in with me, which I greatly appreciate.

00:01:31.28
Kevin Shock
Um, but, uh, Sherry also in that email answered the question that we asked a few episodes ago, what will you declare about Jesus? And, um,

00:01:43.07
Kevin Shock
She says that Saul's declaration that Jesus is the son of God sounds simple, but she thinks that saying Jesus's love is simpler yet, even for a child. We are most like Jesus when we are loving one another. Imagine what the world would be like if we all could just love one another.

00:01:59.62
Kevin Shock
It would be easy to rejoice then. So I appreciate that that commentary, Sherry, your thoughts about that question. um Yeah. So.

00:02:10.00
Nathan Pile
Well, and it's it's great that you um shared that, Kevin, in that one of the things Kevin and I have begun to discuss, we have to figure it out because we're both kind of slow, but um is how...

00:02:22.93
Kevin Shock
well Well, unfortunately, Tend is not the highest priority for both of us in our in our life and work. So, um no, no i'm not saying I'm not saying it's not the most important thing.

00:02:29.47
Nathan Pile
That's not true. That's not true.

00:02:35.28
Kevin Shock
I'm saying it's that we have other lots of other things that we have to do.

00:02:37.15
Nathan Pile
Yeah, but but every day, every week, you and I make an hour to do this. So it's it's kind of out there.

00:02:42.37
Kevin Shock
We do. It's a high priority.

00:02:43.34
Nathan Pile
it's kind of It's a high priority. Yeah.

00:02:45.27
Kevin Shock
Yes.

00:02:45.28
Nathan Pile
So anyway, what what I'm trying to say, um it was that Kevin and I have begun to talk about how we might better um seek to offer this podcast to you that would also allow us for some more community engagement.

00:02:45.51
Kevin Shock
but

00:03:02.91
Nathan Pile
um One of the things that comes out of our Lenten book or this year pamphlet studies is the engagement that we get with each other in in in that format. And so Kevin and I are exploring ways that we can do that. It looks like Substack might be the application um that would allow us to do that and to build some Cree community space to allow us to share more openly yet in a private way within a larger community. So um we will continue to explore that, but wanted to give you a beginning, just a little tidbit of something that we're working on ah for the future.

00:03:43.84
Nathan Pile
Of course, the hard part is that Nathan is also getting ready to walk into summer camp and so.

00:03:50.19
Kevin Shock
Right. My my point.

00:03:50.71
Nathan Pile
I barely, I bare- I barely have an hour.

00:03:52.26
Kevin Shock
My point.

00:03:53.34
Nathan Pile
I barely have an hour after that. ah but But we will be working on this because we do think it's important. It's something that as we interact and and check in with ah the Tend Nation, because I can't think of another word other than nation, we'll how do we how do we interact with each other is also a big part of being community. So we are working on that to know and um gives us a way to to connect with you, but also to connect

00:04:26.63
Nathan Pile
to show care for one another as community. So that's, I think Kevin and I think are is very important in the day and age that we live in is to make sure that we're, we find supportive communities and then find ways for those communities to connect to each other. And so we're working on that um part of the puzzle here for this digital, this digital space where we proclaim the gospel together. so

00:04:53.77
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. Because social media is fine, but it doesn't really, you have to be keyed into it. Substack or something like it would give us a space where everyone could gather and we could have all of our, all of our stuff together and people could comment on things and yeah.

00:05:00.71
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:05:09.40
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah.

00:05:14.48
Nathan Pile
And it'd be a little bit more private and so, sure.

00:05:14.62
Kevin Shock
So it would be more private. That's right. Yeah.

00:05:18.54
Nathan Pile
Sure. So.

00:05:19.30
Kevin Shock
Right.

00:05:21.78
Nathan Pile
All right.

00:05:21.87
Kevin Shock
Okay.

00:05:22.10
Nathan Pile
ah Sorry. Go ahead, buddy.

00:05:24.51
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Let's, uh, so we're looking at, uh, Acts chapter 16 verses 16 through 34 from the common English Bible. Um, And the three questions that we're going to look at today, what word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text?

00:05:40.12
Kevin Shock
Toward what is God calling you in this text? And what might cause you to abandon a custom for something holy? Okay.

00:05:53.89
Nathan Pile
Some information about your hosts. We are men married to women in financially stable households, white, firmly in middle age, college and seminary educated. We work in the Lutheran Church and were born and raised in Western Pennsylvania.

00:06:08.22
Nathan Pile
All of this affects how we read scripture and discuss it. But none of this makes us better able to read and discuss scripture than anyone else. We believe that the wisdom of Scripture is the whole community's compiled interpretation for life with God and one another.

00:06:23.33
Nathan Pile
So we want to know what you hear and think from your life experience.

00:06:30.86
Nathan Pile
Acts, the 16th chapter.

00:06:35.37
Nathan Pile
One day, when we were on the way to the place for prayer, we met a slave woman. She had a spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She made a lot of money for her owners through the fortune-telling.

00:06:50.66
Nathan Pile
She began following Paul and us, shouting, These people are servants of the Most High God. They are proclaiming a way of salvation to you.

00:07:02.82
Nathan Pile
She did this for many days. This annoyed Paul so much that he finally turned and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave her. It left her at that very moment.

00:07:15.50
Nathan Pile
Her owners realized that their hope for making money was gone. They grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the officials in the city center. When her owners approached the legal authorities, they said, These people are causing an uproar in our city.

00:07:32.81
Nathan Pile
They are Jews who promote customs that we Romans can't accept or practice. The crowd joined in the attacks against Paul and Silas, so the authorities ordered that they be stripped of their clothes and beaten with a rod.

00:07:46.21
Nathan Pile
When Paul and Silas had been severely beaten, the authorities threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to secure them with great care. when he When he received these instructions, he threw them into the innermost cell and secured their feet in stocks.

00:08:02.55
Nathan Pile
Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and other prisoners were listening to them. All at once, there was such a violent earthquake that it shook the prison's foundations.

00:08:15.56
Nathan Pile
The doors flew open, and every everyone's chains came loose. When the jailer awoke and saw that the open doors of the prison, he thought the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword and was about to kill himself.

00:08:29.02
Nathan Pile
Paul shouted loudly, Don't harm yourself. We're all here. The jailer called for some lights, rushed in, and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

00:08:41.04
Nathan Pile
He led them outside and asked, Honorable masters, what must I do to be rescued? They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

00:08:51.46
Nathan Pile
You and your entire household. They spoke the Lord's words to him and every everyone else in his house. Right then, in the middle of the night, the jailer welcomed them and washed their wounds.

00:09:03.38
Nathan Pile
He and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. He brought them into his home and gave them a meal. He was overjoyed because he and every everyone in his household had come to believe in God.

00:09:19.13
Nathan Pile
If you're meeting with a group, you can pause the podcast now and engage the questions on your own. But if you're just listening along, what word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text, Kevin?

00:09:35.82
Kevin Shock
annoyed

00:09:42.09
Nathan Pile
Okay.

00:09:43.97
Kevin Shock
yeah I um I I think of how many times uh I get annoyed um by things and um I I don't want to say by people but the honest truth is sometimes i do get annoyed by people um I did not realize that I could

00:09:43.98
Nathan Pile
Say more. tell us Tell us why the word annoyed

00:10:05.33
Kevin Shock
ah in the name of Jesus Christ, rebuke ah spirits or people that were annoying me. um

00:10:15.79
Nathan Pile
It's a new part of your call just has been has been fleshed out.

00:10:15.87
Kevin Shock
but he's is It's been unlocked. Yeah.

00:10:21.08
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:10:21.29
Kevin Shock
um No, I'm sure, I'm sure that this is a translation decision that was made by the translators of the CEB to use annoyed there because I've never heard that before. Yeah.

00:10:35.29
Kevin Shock
But also related to that is, I think I'm also struck that this is, you know, you and i talk a lot about the problems with ah idolatry, especially when it comes to money and and kind of worshiping, seeing this seeing the system, our our economic systems as an idol.

00:11:01.00
Kevin Shock
um

00:11:01.54
Nathan Pile
hmm hmm

00:11:01.70
Kevin Shock
it The same thing exists here in the ancient world. um

00:11:05.38
Nathan Pile
hmm

00:11:06.57
Kevin Shock
Paul gets annoyed. He rebukes a spirit that leaves the leaves this woman and it ah she's, she's enslaved.

00:11:19.06
Kevin Shock
um She's owned by people. And um when they find out that they can't make money off of her anymore, they and contact the authorities who arrest Paul and Silas and um and beat them and put them in jail.

00:11:34.48
Kevin Shock
I mean, that's really. It seems really extreme, but it is, um it shows, to me, it shows how much that part of the ancient world, and this would have been, here they're still in Philippi, which is a major trade city, correct, Nathan?

00:11:53.44
Nathan Pile
It is. Yep.

00:11:54.12
Kevin Shock
ah Yeah. um That this is ah what they're doing. but Paul and Silas, just by being present there and and rebuking this spirit in the name of Jesus, ah they have disrupted the system so much that the governmental authorities are easily swayed to beat them and arrest them.

00:12:18.34
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:12:18.98
Kevin Shock
Beat them and jail them.

00:12:19.26
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:12:20.09
Kevin Shock
Yeah. um Beat them ah severely, apparently.

00:12:26.34
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:12:26.94
Kevin Shock
a And so, yeah, I, it just, it's amazing to me that the situation escalates that much. I do sometimes wonder why Paul got annoyed ah because she was not telling a lie about them.

00:12:46.36
Kevin Shock
Ha ha ha ha.

00:12:47.65
Nathan Pile
It's true.

00:12:48.68
Kevin Shock
she was, she was probably drawing unwanted attention to them, but then, but then when Paul rebukes the spirit that's in her, he draws unwanted attention to himself as well.

00:12:48.89
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:13:00.09
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:13:01.16
Kevin Shock
So, yeah.

00:13:01.91
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:13:04.03
Kevin Shock
Yeah. There's, there's, there's more.

00:13:06.70
Nathan Pile
There's, I was going say, there's so much in this reading.

00:13:09.25
Kevin Shock
yeah There's so much because I'm also intrigued by what the, the the jail, the jailers conversion,

00:13:09.60
Nathan Pile
yeah.

00:13:16.21
Kevin Shock
um

00:13:17.78
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:13:18.04
Kevin Shock
Not the reason for his conversion, but the rejoicing in his household that he has converted.

00:13:24.92
Nathan Pile
yeah

00:13:25.62
Kevin Shock
Because that also seems like he's putting himself in danger when he does that. After all, he's he is a he a a hmmmm he's he's owned by the system that employs him, I guess, is a way to say it.

00:13:42.07
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, right.

00:13:43.24
Kevin Shock
and

00:13:43.99
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:13:44.06
Kevin Shock
and and he's And he's rejecting it whenever whenever he does this.

00:13:49.50
Nathan Pile
Well, and, and there's like, again, thinking about the economics of the situation, like these are the people that pay him to make sure his family has a way of living.

00:13:56.72
Kevin Shock
Right. Mm-hmm. Right.

00:14:04.70
Nathan Pile
But this, this person feels so strongly about, that these are the right actions that he's willing to kind of put in danger.

00:14:16.67
Nathan Pile
Those, those individuals that have, you know, placed Paul and Silas in his jail.

00:14:22.57
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:14:24.81
Nathan Pile
You know, it that part of it is, is, is, um, you

00:14:31.46
Nathan Pile
know, like the, the, being the, hearing this story, not being in the space and place, but recognizing that that the the gentleman had to be taking some level of um significant risk personally and for his family to do this.

00:14:50.69
Kevin Shock
yeah

00:14:54.51
Nathan Pile
um

00:14:57.66
Nathan Pile
You know, yeah. Like, most of us wouldn't make a choice in the spur of the moment to threaten the livelihood of our family.

00:15:10.29
Nathan Pile
But that's pretty what you know pretty much what happens here in in a short couple of moments ah and events. um The jailer becomes the party host.

00:15:25.65
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:15:26.02
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And his right. And he, um, he, he is overjoyed the text says, but he's overjoyed because he and his entire household have come to believe in God.

00:15:38.18
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:15:38.78
Kevin Shock
Yeah. So they're, ah they're also a part of they, whatever they see him risking, um, in order to follow the way of Jesus, they think it's worthwhile too.

00:15:55.37
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yep.

00:15:59.88
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:16:00.40
Kevin Shock
What about you, Nathan? What do you, uh, what word phrase or image gets your attention?

00:16:04.52
Nathan Pile
As I read this, and then again, I can't look it up.

00:16:11.64
Nathan Pile
Um, I can't look up the translation or the Greek translation here where I'm at. Um, I could, but it would take me longer than there'd be long silences on the, on the podcast. So, uh, but the thing that struck me as I read it this time, and i don't know why it struck me today, but it did.

00:16:30.23
Nathan Pile
ah verse 17, she began following Paul and us. ah

00:16:36.51
Kevin Shock
Mm. Mm-hmm.

00:16:37.25
Nathan Pile
um And so it's that word us that caught my attention.

00:16:37.43
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:16:40.82
Nathan Pile
Like there's not like, though we have gospel writers and we have Paul, um this is the gospel of, or this Acts, which is the gospel writer of Luke um that's connected to this.

00:16:56.80
Nathan Pile
But we don't usually get ah pronoun like us, like a first person person. first person experience telling us the story.

00:17:09.61
Nathan Pile
So, um,

00:17:15.28
Nathan Pile
so it sparked my imagination of the author of Luke acts being in the crowd that is following Paul around. Um, and so all of this is first person witness.

00:17:32.08
Nathan Pile
Um, And though the gospels are that way, um the gospel writer has removed themselves from the writing. And so it's not about, we went with Jesus here.

00:17:47.11
Nathan Pile
And then we did, you know, there's not that kind of, but here, and again, I'm not sure if the Greek translation would help us or not, but But obviously our translators for this context feels like the author is a part of the group that is following with Paul.

00:18:09.75
Kevin Shock
Yeah. um I mean, it does. Haman is the word there. Us. I mean, it yeah, the the woman with the spirit, the divining spirit, ah met, met us.

00:18:33.33
Kevin Shock
But again, I don't know that that, I don't know that helps us at all.

00:18:39.74
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:18:44.69
Nathan Pile
Yeah. I don't know. it But there's, there's an interest of, for me, yeah just in that this is first person. And so the, the, um, again, it's not a, um,

00:18:58.97
Nathan Pile
a perspective that I feel like is, is throughout this. Now, Paul top typically is, he'll write in that way. um but this is, this is connected to a gospel writer here.

00:19:11.29
Nathan Pile
And so, um, and it's just fascinating to me that that's, um, that's there.

00:19:11.80
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:19:17.23
Nathan Pile
And, and, and then it sparks all kinds of questions in my own head of, of what stories are we witnessing? And do we good do a good job of telling them?

00:19:30.58
Nathan Pile
Um, this week, there's a group here serving a camp. Um,

00:19:36.62
Nathan Pile
that is um, that is a, they come a couple times a year twice a year once in the spring once in the fall they have a person in the group that's a great storyteller he loves to tell stories um and um And obviously sometimes you tell stories and they're a little bit embellished, you know, but that's the, the, um, the storytelling thing.

00:19:57.28
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:20:00.68
Nathan Pile
Right. Um, but for us today, like, how do we tell stories about, um the Holy spirit moving in our world and in our life? and And do we do that enough is the question that comes into mind here for me. So, um,

00:20:27.54
Kevin Shock
Yeah, as I'm looking back at that chapter in Acts, that, the first person ah stuff is happening before here and as well. um but when they ah when When the group of apostles or whomever it is, Paul's group, whenever they are, when they meet Lydia as well.

00:20:50.58
Kevin Shock
um where Where did I see it here?

00:20:58.04
Kevin Shock
Oh, when they go to the riverside on the Sabbath, where they assume a prayer a place of prayer to be, it's all, we went out of the city to the riverside. We sat down and spoke to the women.

00:21:13.16
Kevin Shock
Um, yeah. And then, uh, when Lydia invites them to go into the house, uh, that she prevails upon them.

00:21:25.64
Kevin Shock
ah us us as what it says. And she prevailed upon us. So yeah it, yeah, is a, it's a group. I, yeah. Who, who knows who all that is, uh, is Luke, Luke, Luke, a part of that group, ah maybe, or whoever the author of Luke acts is.

00:21:37.24
Nathan Pile
who's all wrapped up in this yeah

00:21:42.26
Nathan Pile
Yeah yeah so it's just like I love the idea of of being storytellers of the spirit

00:21:46.02
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:21:58.88
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:21:59.23
Nathan Pile
especially when we're, you know, you and I've talked about the, the acts of the apostles, that this is the, that this could be the acts of the Holy spirit. and um It could really be what the title of this book is called. And, and that fat, you know, again, how do we keep telling this, the, the story because the Holy spirit is still here. It's still with us. It's still, God is still active and alive in our world. And so how do we,

00:22:26.08
Nathan Pile
how do we tell stories that use that, that first person um pronoun that, that invites others along in the journey of the Holy spirit today.

00:22:42.47
Nathan Pile
So, yeah, it's just, ah

00:22:46.31
Nathan Pile
I was caught by the, that word us and it just kind of took me down in my own head ah and, and, and, uh, my own thought vortex um or thought tornado um of what does, how how do I be a better storyteller?

00:23:03.11
Nathan Pile
How do I tell stories of the Holy spirit that I see and experience?

00:23:04.03
Kevin Shock
Right,

00:23:07.74
Nathan Pile
You know, I don't, I luckily have not been beaten up by,

00:23:15.66
Nathan Pile
the law and then thrown into a prison.

00:23:18.62
Kevin Shock
right.

00:23:18.67
Nathan Pile
Um, but, but absolutely but still believe that I see the Holy spirit working in the world.

00:23:19.01
Kevin Shock
Sure.

00:23:25.26
Nathan Pile
And so how do we do that? So, yeah.

00:23:27.91
Kevin Shock
sure

00:23:31.60
Nathan Pile
All right. Uh, you want to do a second time?

00:23:36.52
Kevin Shock
Okay. Yeah, a second time. Let's do it. From Acts 16. One day when we were on the way to the place for prayer, we met a slave woman.

00:23:47.91
Kevin Shock
She had a spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She made a lot of money for her owners through fortune telling. She began following Paul and us, shouting, these people are servants of the Most High God.

00:23:59.70
Kevin Shock
They are proclaiming a way of salvation to you. She did this for many days. This annoyed Paul so much that he finally turned and said to the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave her.

00:24:10.98
Kevin Shock
It left her at that very moment. Her owners realized that their hope for making money was gone. They grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the officials in the city center. When her owners approached the legal authorities, they said, these people are causing an uproar in our city.

00:24:26.86
Kevin Shock
They are Jews who promote customs that we Romans can't accept or practice. The crowd joined in the attacks against Paul and Silas. So the authorities ordered that they be stripped of their clothes and beaten with a rod.

00:24:39.17
Kevin Shock
When Paul and Silas had been severely beaten, the authorities threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to secure them with great care. When he received these instructions, he threw them into the innermost cell and secured their feet and stocks.

00:24:52.42
Kevin Shock
Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. All at once there was such a violent earthquake that it shook the prison's foundations.

00:25:03.41
Kevin Shock
The doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. When the jailer awoke and saw the open doors of the prison, he thought the prisoners had escaped.

00:25:10.95
Nathan Pile
Thank you.

00:25:11.93
Kevin Shock
So he drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul shouted loudly, don't harm yourself. We're all here. The jailer called for some lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

00:25:24.33
Kevin Shock
He led them outside and asked, honorable masters, what must I do to be rescued? They replied, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your entire household. They spoke the Lord's word to him and every everyone else in his house.

00:25:38.85
Kevin Shock
Right then, in the middle of the night, the jailer welcomed them and welcomed them and washed their wounds. He and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. He brought them into his home and gave them a meal.

00:25:50.67
Kevin Shock
He was overjoyed because he and everyone in his household had come to believe in God. Nathan, toward what is God calling you in this text?

00:26:01.19
Nathan Pile
Uh, I, I think my my one word answer would be witness. Be a witness.

00:26:08.65
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:26:08.80
Nathan Pile
um And um as you were reading it, and I was thinking about this question, the Paul and Silas, there's a lot of of of responses they could have had to the day that they've just experienced.

00:26:27.60
Nathan Pile
But to be praying and singing hymns to God, And others were listening. um And I can't help but think even before he he the he fell asleep, the jailer had to hear them singing and praying.

00:26:45.81
Nathan Pile
um And so their witness of of who God is in in spite of a very bad day.

00:26:59.64
Nathan Pile
um still making time that they're, um, they're sharing that story.

00:27:05.29
Kevin Shock
Hmm, yeah.

00:27:08.05
Nathan Pile
They're still sharing the story of God, um

00:27:14.50
Nathan Pile
with, with their mouths, even though they are bleeding and bruised. Um, not that it says that, but imagining if you've been severely beaten, that that's, um, pretty common.

00:27:29.66
Nathan Pile
Um,

00:27:31.05
Kevin Shock
I think it's fair to assume that because

00:27:32.52
Nathan Pile
that They were, yeah.

00:27:34.47
Kevin Shock
After, uh,

00:27:34.65
Nathan Pile
Because he does, yeah, the he he cleans up or does something for him.

00:27:38.34
Kevin Shock
yeah, yeah.

00:27:38.57
Nathan Pile
Let's see. Yeah, so that's the...

00:27:38.90
Kevin Shock
he after, um, after they, after Paul preached it, Paul and Silas preached to them, um, he welcomes them into his house and washes their wounds. Yeah. Yeah.

00:27:55.83
Nathan Pile
yeah so that's the um Yeah, so I think for me, the I feel called to to make sure that I'm i'm thinking about or or finding ways to continue to be a witness to the love of God that I know.

00:28:15.91
Nathan Pile
And, and I can only hope that on my worst days that I have the faithfulness of Paul and Silas to do that instead of, you know, laying in my cell and complaining about, um, where's God at in this moment? This doesn't, this isn't fair.

00:28:35.93
Nathan Pile
Um, you know and And your reflection about him being of Paul being annoyed, you know you know how easily

00:28:47.05
Nathan Pile
you know being annoyed, then then being beaten, and maybe even feeling wrongly accused. um But at the end of ah the day, to still be able to say...

00:29:02.69
Nathan Pile
um I'm I'm still gonna sing I'm still singing God's praise here at the end of the day, praying for God

00:29:11.94
Nathan Pile
to watch over you know whomever their prayers are for. so And maybe you know maybe they call people.

00:29:25.22
Kevin Shock
I thought I silenced my...

00:29:28.07
Nathan Pile
It's all right. It's all right. We were all oh we were all excited. We all got excited.

00:29:34.43
Kevin Shock
So I can't figure out how you heard that, but you can't hear my the music I was playing earlier.

00:29:34.60
Nathan Pile
But...

00:29:42.30
Kevin Shock
It doesn't matter.

00:29:43.41
Nathan Pile
Because your cell phone rang.

00:29:49.45
Kevin Shock
Oh, right, right. But I also... Okay, I was confused because I wasn't...

00:29:52.53
Nathan Pile
And you were playing the music on your headphones, on your ears, until I couldn't hear

00:29:55.50
Kevin Shock
I know, i know, but I didn't realize that the cell phone rang out loud as well because it was ringing in my headphones.

00:30:00.49
Nathan Pile
Oh, in your ears. Oh, yeah, no, it was it was out loud.

00:30:02.53
Kevin Shock
Yeah. o

00:30:05.61
Nathan Pile
We heard it.

00:30:05.94
Kevin Shock
Okay.

00:30:06.59
Nathan Pile
We all got to hear it.

00:30:06.64
Kevin Shock
Anyway.

00:30:08.59
Nathan Pile
No. You got a call from God.

00:30:09.83
Kevin Shock
So shout out to shout to Debbie who normally listens because that's who that was.

00:30:15.23
Nathan Pile
All right, Debbie. Woo-hoo!

00:30:17.86
Kevin Shock
ah I nine times out of 10 remember to put my do not disturb on, but I did not apparently at the beginning of this.

00:30:25.55
Nathan Pile
You were excited. We were singing Christmas carols, so it was...

00:30:28.38
Kevin Shock
I was, yeah.

00:30:29.42
Nathan Pile
It was very exciting at the beginning.

00:30:30.83
Kevin Shock
It was exciting. yeah

00:30:32.85
Nathan Pile
All right. How about you, my friend? Toward what is this, um toward what is God calling you in this text?

00:30:38.49
Kevin Shock
it It is also... um It's related to Witness, and I don't know exactly... I'm just... I'm taken by how publicly Paul and Silas and the others apparently ah live out their faith.

00:30:55.28
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:30:56.16
Kevin Shock
Especially because Paul is...

00:30:56.25
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:30:58.59
Kevin Shock
ah I was struck by something yesterday. um I was reading a part of Acts and it was, you know there are from the time that Paul is baptized into the way before ah somebody is plotting to kill him, it is a grand total of five verses.

00:31:23.31
Kevin Shock
Like right from the get go, right before,

00:31:24.35
Nathan Pile
Wow. Wow. Hmm.

00:31:27.53
Kevin Shock
right from the very beginning, uh, after he, after he converts to the way of Jesus, uh, he is, there are people persecuting him.

00:31:36.54
Nathan Pile
well

00:31:37.18
Kevin Shock
He, he immediately goes from being a persecutor to the persecuted. Uh, and here again, like, you know, he he, he and Silas and apparently the others who, whomever they are, uh, whoever they are, are, um, out,

00:31:58.00
Kevin Shock
walking in the public place of prayer, they're interacting with people, they're talking with people. and And then whenever

00:32:10.62
Kevin Shock
the crowd turns on them, which you know because of the the the locals who lose their money making venture, get people to turn on him essentially, um they're beaten.

00:32:25.97
Kevin Shock
they're They're thrown in jail. At no point do do Paul and Silas say, yeah, this ah this isn't really worth it.

00:32:34.86
Kevin Shock
ah

00:32:35.34
Nathan Pile
Yeah, that's true.

00:32:35.66
Kevin Shock
I, I'm struck by that that. I keep going back to that. I can't remember if we read it um if we write it definitively several episodes ago.

00:32:49.36
Kevin Shock
or if it's just something that keeps popping back up into my head. But the the the place where... No, we did an episode on it this season of because we were talking about credentials, Paul's credentials.

00:33:00.95
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

00:33:01.82
Kevin Shock
And um would you do you remember which epistle that's in? I never remember. Is it Philippians or... I can't remember. Because frankly, if it's...

00:33:11.20
Nathan Pile
um we Yeah, I think it's Philippians.

00:33:12.14
Kevin Shock
full I think it is too, which which gives it even more impact because here they are in Philippi where all this is happening. um

00:33:20.04
Nathan Pile
Right.

00:33:21.96
Kevin Shock
You know, Paul writes though, he writes that everything, everything that he has accumulated in his life, everything, all the wisdom, knowledge, righteousness, all that stuff is worth nothing more than sewer trash now that he's come to know Jesus.

00:33:39.18
Nathan Pile
Right.

00:33:39.22
Kevin Shock
And like, that seems like something can imagine someone in our modern age saying that, and it would be a nice thing to say, but I don't think we really ever see it lived out in quite the way that Paul is doing it here.

00:33:55.48
Kevin Shock
But he, he seems to, more, give more care to following Jesus than even more than preserving his own life.

00:34:09.19
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:34:10.47
Kevin Shock
Like he's just out there doing it.

00:34:12.39
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:34:13.30
Kevin Shock
And yet, okay, he gets beaten. He gets thrown in jail. he He still is doing it. ah And granted, you know, he gets a little bit of help because like, you know, these, the spirit, the,

00:34:28.84
Kevin Shock
it breaks away their chains and such like that. But, you know, but they stay put. They don't run they don't run off. they don't They don't leave their responsibility in proclaiming the gospel to the people who are right in front of them.

00:34:34.79
Nathan Pile
Right.

00:34:42.17
Kevin Shock
um the the The one who is doing the imprisoning and the imprisoned alike.

00:34:50.09
Kevin Shock
So I just, for me, it's, I don't think that I

00:34:56.79
Kevin Shock
I wouldn't say that I shy away from being open about the, the lot, my life of faith in public. I don't, I also wouldn't say that I offer it up to people.

00:35:09.24
Nathan Pile
Yep

00:35:09.27
Kevin Shock
um I think if I were, I think if I were given an opportunity where it seemed like it was something that the person was looking for, then I might offer it up.

00:35:21.53
Kevin Shock
But um I'm, I'm just impressed that Paul is unwavering in his process. in his proclamation of good news in delivering salvation to people.

00:35:31.15
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:35:35.46
Kevin Shock
Um, so I think that, I think that I'm feeling called to do it more boldly. I don't know exactly how I do that, but yeah, do it more boldly.

00:35:49.16
Kevin Shock
And I think we also, something else I've been thinking about a lot lately is that we live in a society where Christianity is

00:35:59.82
Kevin Shock
uh accepted but now we're getting now we're wading more into the waters of um only the only the the state sanctioned version of christianity is accepted

00:36:13.20
Nathan Pile
Mmm.

00:36:16.40
Kevin Shock
and that's a that's a messy thing that's a messy thing I, I think that we when we're looking at here at acts stuff, we're talking about house church things. we're We're not, there's not an institutional church at this point.

00:36:32.60
Kevin Shock
And, um, so I, I, it, it causes me to meditate more on what exactly church as institution is, which is admittedly problematic for, I think it's always been I think it's always been somewhat problematic for me trying to reconcile how the church is an institution.

00:36:57.50
Kevin Shock
And yet the church, when it was operating at its most effective, was not an institution. um The institution changed it.

00:37:09.46
Kevin Shock
and uh But I also think that it's coming more to a head now as I've been three years in a call where I'm more entrenched in the institution than I used to be.

00:37:21.87
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:37:22.27
Nathan Pile
Well, and we read a couple of weeks ago, even that you know, Peter being called in front of the council of Jerusalem.

00:37:33.25
Nathan Pile
So that idea of the church structure did start just as quickly as the disciples spread out across the countryside.

00:37:33.56
Kevin Shock
yeah

00:37:42.23
Nathan Pile
um And so there was already, early on, there was already conflict or rubs against,

00:37:50.32
Nathan Pile
you know, early church structure compared to what the, you might call the evangelical apostles going out and telling the story who who they were preaching to, you know, there was more openness by the evangelical apostles going out saying, know, these stories and and this God is for everyone, not just for the

00:38:18.98
Nathan Pile
the Jews who are, you know, this relationship is meant for more, so.

00:38:29.37
Kevin Shock
yeah yeah Yeah, there's I don't there's a yeah it's just there's a lot going on in this text, but it also it ah yeah it just has me thinking a lot about what what is going on in the world of the church as well.

00:38:44.36
Kevin Shock
yeah um I, The book I'm currently listening to is i it's an odd book. It was recommended to me, and so I'm listening to it, and I like it, but it's it's odd. it's It's called Soul Boom.

00:39:01.69
Kevin Shock
Um, and the subtitle is why we need a spiritual revolution, I think, but it's, it's written by, it's written by Rainn Wilson, uh, Dwight Schrute from The Office.

00:39:14.37
Nathan Pile
Oh.

00:39:15.60
Kevin Shock
And who is, um, who is an adherent of the Baha'i faith? Uh, that's the faith he was raised in and he continues to practice and he is, um, and he is an adherent.

00:39:24.87
Nathan Pile
OK.

00:39:26.67
Kevin Shock
I mean, he's a, he's a practice. I don't know what they, what they call their, disciples in Baha'i, but he's a, he's a practicing person of Baha'i. Um, and, uh, but I just today listened to the chapter where he was talking about, he was talking about, in he he was talking about Constantine.

00:39:51.37
Kevin Shock
he He was talking about his fascination with the early church, the first 300 years of the church.

00:39:58.32
Nathan Pile
Right,

00:39:58.60
Kevin Shock
And then And then Constantine came along and, and what did he do? He made it, he state sanctioned it and, uh, and it definitely changed the focus of it.

00:40:07.81
Nathan Pile
right. right

00:40:13.42
Kevin Shock
All of, all of this cultural stuff then was added to the church, things that weren't there before. And and he was talking interestingly about how, um, he, he said,

00:40:28.01
Kevin Shock
He said he considers Christianity to be the first true religion because everything else up to that point, ah for those people, their religion was the practice of customs that had been handed down to them from previous generations.

00:40:49.13
Kevin Shock
But here with with the community of Christ, there were people from all different kinds of tribes, beliefs, classes who were welcome to come together because they believed the same thing.

00:41:06.92
Kevin Shock
And, uh, yeah, so I, I, it was just, it was fascinating for me to listen to from a someone who's outside of Christianity, but has a working knowledge of it.

00:41:18.78
Kevin Shock
Um, to just to listen to their opinion on it. Yeah. So then this, that I mean, this is what Paul and Silas is in there in the middle of it here. They're there in the, they're in the very earliest stages of it, that there are jailers, prisoners, jailers and prisoners who can be a part of the same faith community.

00:41:43.82
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Yeah.

00:41:45.15
Kevin Shock
Like that's, you know, that's, that's a new thing.

00:41:46.84
Nathan Pile
Right.

00:41:49.23
Nathan Pile
Yeah. All

00:41:50.05
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:41:53.73
Kevin Shock
Okay.

00:41:53.85
Nathan Pile
right. You want to do a third time?

00:41:54.76
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Let's look at a third time.

00:42:00.98
Nathan Pile
One day when we were on the way to the place for prayer, we met a slave woman. She had a spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She had a lot of money.

00:42:11.48
Nathan Pile
She made a lot of money. for her owners through fortune-telling. She began following Paul and us, shouting, These people are servants of the Most High God.

00:42:23.53
Nathan Pile
They are proclaiming a way of salvation to you. She did this for many days. This annoyed Paul so much that he finally turned and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave her.

00:42:37.86
Nathan Pile
It left her at that very moment. her owners realized that their hope for making money was gone. They grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the officials in the city center.

00:42:50.16
Nathan Pile
When her owners approached the legal authorities, they said, these people are causing an uproar in our city. They are Jews who promote customs that we Romans can't accept or practice.

00:43:03.64
Nathan Pile
The crowd joined in the attacks against Paul and Silas, so the authorities ordered that they be stripped of their clothes and beaten with a rod. When Paul and Silas had been severely beaten, the authorities threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to secure them with great care.

00:43:23.17
Nathan Pile
When he received these instructions, he threw them into the innermost cell and secured their feet in stocks. Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them.

00:43:40.21
Nathan Pile
All at once, there was such a violent earthquake that it shook the prison's foundations. The doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. When the jailer awoke and saw the open doors of the prison, he thought the prisoners had escaped.

00:43:57.65
Nathan Pile
So he drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul shouted loudly, Don't harm yourself. We're all here. The jailer called for some lights, rushed in, and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

00:44:12.95
Nathan Pile
He led them outside and asked, Honorable masters, What must I do to be rescued? They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. You and your entire household.

00:44:25.77
Nathan Pile
They spoke the Lord's word to him and every everyone else in his house. Right then, in the middle of the night, the jailer welcomed them and washed their wounds. He and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.

00:44:39.12
Nathan Pile
He brought them into his home and gave them a meal. He was overjoyed because he and everyone in his household had come to believe in God.

00:44:52.22
Nathan Pile
Kevin, what might cause you to abandon abandon a custom for something holy?

00:44:59.28
Kevin Shock
Hmm. Hmm. Um,

00:45:07.36
Kevin Shock
the priceless worth of knowing Jesus Christ.

00:45:12.82
Kevin Shock
I, I, I mean, I honestly, I keep going back to that, that part of Paul's epistle that, um, I think the thing that would cause me to abandon ah my lifestyle, you know, ah my ah ah things that I'm comfortable with um for something holy would be ah a true recognition that nothing matters more to me in this life than than Jesus and his life.

00:45:46.97
Kevin Shock
And, you know, I mean, maybe I'm not I'm not at the point where i'm I'm not currently being called on to abandon any customs for the sake of Jesus, although at least not in a dramatic way.

00:45:59.65
Kevin Shock
Um,

00:46:03.04
Kevin Shock
like the, uh, like the, the men who have lost their money-making venture are warning the authorities of, uh, I'm not, yeah, I'm not, I'm not being called in any way, but I, you know, but I might be called in small ways to, ah you know, re rethink how I live and what I do with my life.

00:46:24.54
Kevin Shock
Um, as it relates to,

00:46:30.48
Kevin Shock
proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.

00:46:37.51
Kevin Shock
um I'm just really i'm impressed with... I mean, I think it's been clear throughout this episode. I'm, I'm impressed with Paul and his ability to stick with it.

00:46:51.85
Kevin Shock
I'm impressed with the jailer who's willing to give up his entire livelihood for the sake of this way of life and... and possibly even put himself in in dangerous way by doing it.

00:47:04.90
Nathan Pile
right

00:47:04.99
Kevin Shock
um So, yeah.

00:47:11.03
Kevin Shock
Yeah, it's that's a hard question to answer, ah but I think it's a question that gets me thinking. So maybe that's the whole point of it. What about you, Nathan? what What might cause you to abandon

00:47:22.00
Nathan Pile
Well, I was still kind of reflecting off of, of your, um,

00:47:29.54
Nathan Pile
your your words. um and And then I started to, when you started to asking me why quote you the question, I started to shift gears here. So now I have to get my two, re-separate the two thoughts.

00:47:44.29
Nathan Pile
um

00:47:44.33
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:47:48.04
Nathan Pile
To

00:47:53.72
Nathan Pile
ah to be honest, your question, um my response to your question is,

00:48:00.38
Nathan Pile
I, I can only hope that I would respond in a positive way. um

00:48:12.34
Nathan Pile
But the idea of of abandoning a custom, or especially this jailer's way of life, um

00:48:25.54
Nathan Pile
seems really hard to me. and And, you know, we talk about it, sometimes as people of faith that, you know, we just want God to give us a big flashing sign, right? And this is the way to go, but not really like, like, cause if it was just a big flashing sign, it probably wouldn't be enough for me.

00:48:43.65
Nathan Pile
I need, you know, I, I need a I'm the prison guard and you're Paul and Silas and I've locked you in the most, the most, the it the innermost chambers. It's impossible for you to escape. And then I handcuff you to the floor to to just make it even more so. And then all of a sudden you're free.

00:49:05.01
Nathan Pile
Like I need something miraculous. I hate to say this about myself, but um but it does feel that way for me as a human being. Like um for me to let go of, you know, to say I'm not going to be a camp director tomorrow.

00:49:22.66
Nathan Pile
It would have to be radical. Like I would, my mind would have to be blown.

00:49:25.41
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah.

00:49:28.67
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:49:28.84
Nathan Pile
Um, and that I'm just in awe and shock and like, yeah, it doesn't matter, Rachel. It doesn't matter what you, what you want as a child of mine.

00:49:40.87
Nathan Pile
I don't care.

00:49:41.64
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:49:41.99
Nathan Pile
This is more important.

00:49:42.59
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:49:43.78
Nathan Pile
Um, know, to be able to, to have that level, um

00:49:50.92
Nathan Pile
you know, for all of my family members to be able to say, I'm going to put you all in harm's way or, or could be harm's way because that's how, how important this is.

00:50:04.33
Nathan Pile
um, because the jailer's household was more than just, you know wife and kids. Like there's probably parents there's, um, there would be, My guess would be as a jailer would have made okay money enough that you might have servants um or people that work for you.

00:50:23.92
Nathan Pile
And so all of that is considered part of your household.

00:50:24.93
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:50:26.16
Nathan Pile
And so it's not just like in today's world, in my family, there's three people. It's not just Angie and Rachel and I that I'm worrying about. it Back then it would could have been even more.

00:50:39.51
Kevin Shock
who

00:50:40.06
Nathan Pile
Plus, if I had siblings and they would be connected to families, you know so so all of this would have had there was a very strong honor shame system in place in Paul's time and and shame was how how the powers controlled people oftentimes um or violence it was shame or violence um So you didn't want to shame. You didn't want to bring shame to the family. You didn't want do something like that. But here, and so so there's a part of all of this that kind of makes me say, like, for me to be able to shift this, and I, you know, I wanted to, I want to say that the answer would be, it doesn't take much time for me to switch to something that's holy over some kind of custom or some way of life for it myself.

00:51:31.95
Nathan Pile
But I think if I'm being honest, you know, I'm blown away at the jailer.

00:51:31.98
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah.

00:51:39.63
Nathan Pile
here um you know I'm blown away by Paul and Silas being able to be positive or at least faithful in the midst of ah very bad day too so like all of the characters I feel put me a little bit to shame um as a part of of

00:51:50.51
Kevin Shock
yeah yeah

00:52:02.22
Nathan Pile
being able to hold on to something holy do I want to be able to hold on hold on to something holy absolutely do I want to have those experiences that help me um in that but that he yeah the idea of of abandoning or moving away from ah way of life that I've developed for the last you know 25 years or more um 30 years

00:52:25.27
Nathan Pile
like that that's um it seems really difficult to me in my mind.

00:52:31.86
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:52:32.76
Nathan Pile
Um, so, uh, and, and you you shared some of that in your, um, in your reflection yourself. So, um, so I think that's where like, um, it would, you know, it would have to be that divine,

00:52:55.89
Nathan Pile
um breaking into my the divine breaking into my world um and and and that does happen today you know again I I I have felt and experienced the the divine breaking into the world not in the way Paul and Silas have um here in this in this story or that the jailer has in this story um

00:53:23.88
Nathan Pile
and probably secretly or not secretly, because I've just talked about it on a podcast publicly, um desire for that kind of, like, I'd love to have that big, that big, that big, um, aha, yes, you know, kind of moment um in my relationship with God.

00:53:43.19
Nathan Pile
Even though I would say I've had plenty of aha moments in my relationship with God, none of them to the level of this, of this story.

00:53:46.41
Kevin Shock
Yeah,

00:53:51.96
Nathan Pile
story

00:53:53.29
Kevin Shock
yeah. yeah

00:53:54.62
Nathan Pile
um and and ah and And as an American in the American culture today, it seems even...

00:54:11.35
Nathan Pile
I'm um baffled even within, you know, yes, we're free. Yes, we can we can pick and choose what we do. There's liberty. There's independence in the United States as opposed to the, the Roman world where this jailer would have had other constraints upon him that, that we don't experience.

00:54:30.82
Nathan Pile
Even in the midst of all of that freedom, there's still plenty of cultural pressure on all of us. Yeah.

00:54:37.78
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:54:38.98
Nathan Pile
and And being able to

00:54:48.03
Nathan Pile
authentically live the love of Christ in in my life is intimidating. on you know, certain places, certain days, certain situations as that lived out.

00:55:01.15
Nathan Pile
Not, know, camp, not usually that space and place, but other places where I'm out in the public world, you

00:55:11.22
Nathan Pile
Kind of a thing. so And yet, again, you see that look the example of Paul and Silas here showing us another way.

00:55:21.25
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. um ah the

00:55:27.15
Kevin Shock
The notion of freedom, um I mean, I agree with you, at least in part, that there's there are certain freedoms that are afforded to certain people nowadays that are more than what the jailer would have experienced in the Roman world. But when we look at um society as a whole, there are a lot of people who are not free to do a lot of things.

00:55:49.99
Nathan Pile
Sure, sure.

00:55:50.60
Kevin Shock
And, and, and legal freedom, political freedom is one thing. Economic freedom is something else. Cultural freedom is something else. Um, but you know, I mean, we currently, we currently live in a context where there, there's a lot of ah freedom seems to be in danger, at least for, at least for certain groups of people.

00:56:18.16
Nathan Pile
Sure, sure.

00:56:18.36
Kevin Shock
Um, and, uh, Yeah, and and even even for people who are completely free, there's there's there's Jesus. you know yeah ah ah There's a different freedom in being being a a full participant in the fellowship of Jesus Christ.

00:56:45.27
Kevin Shock
And ah I'm reminded of his conversation with the ah children of Abraham in John, ah where you know they say, well, we've never been slaves to anyone. How can you say you will be free?

00:57:02.53
Kevin Shock
Of course, there's, there are issues with them saying that too. But, but then you know then he says, anyone who is a slave to sin, ah, is is not free.

00:57:14.15
Kevin Shock
ah But if the son sets you free, you are free indeed. And there's I think there's a freedom in being a a full participant in the fellowship of Jesus Christ that even if we seem to be completely free in the world, there are things that constrain us.

00:57:32.77
Kevin Shock
and And there are things that for which we will make decisions ah that are not decisions that are made freely, but we're we're influenced in certain ways, or we or we feel bound to live into certain customs or practices.

00:57:50.49
Kevin Shock
Um, yeah. Even something as small as, uh, I'm, I'm not going to, I'm choosing not to help that person because it would put my own long-term financial security at risk.

00:58:08.35
Kevin Shock
Like that's not a, that's not a freely chosen thing.

00:58:12.32
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:58:15.45
Kevin Shock
We might fool ourselves into thinking it is, but, but in, in Jesus's world, in Jesus's reality, you are free to make that decision. You're free to help that person because you're no longer bound to your own ideas of personal security or self-preservation.

00:58:36.44
Kevin Shock
So, yeah. Yeah. I think, I, I think, I think we all have room for growth. Even the, even the most holy person is bound by something.

00:58:47.07
Nathan Pile
Yeah, yeah

00:58:49.78
Kevin Shock
Not that you or I, not that I am the most holy person in the world, but, um, I have much more growth to do.

00:59:00.20
Nathan Pile
As we all do. That's why we tend, my friend.

00:59:01.37
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah.

00:59:03.53
Nathan Pile
That's why we tend.

00:59:03.92
Kevin Shock
It is. it is right. Um, anything else, Nathan?

00:59:09.31
Nathan Pile
Nope.

00:59:10.09
Kevin Shock
Okay. Our additional text then for this ah this week are Psalm 97, that is a reminder to rejoice in the Lord, you righteous. um Revelation 22, let's just say 12 through 21. There are a few in the appointed readings, there are a couple of verses that are excluded, but um just read 12 through 21.

00:59:32.67
Kevin Shock
For some reason, 15 and 18 are not included in the regular reading.

00:59:36.79
Nathan Pile
18 and 19.

00:59:36.95
Kevin Shock
ah Oh, af yeah.

00:59:38.32
Nathan Pile
My guess would be they, they probably add more confusion because it's the book of Revelation.

00:59:38.67
Kevin Shock
Yeah. if

00:59:42.21
Kevin Shock
Probably. Yeah.

00:59:43.26
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:59:44.15
Kevin Shock
Yeah, probably. You're right.

00:59:46.07
Nathan Pile
but

00:59:46.27
Kevin Shock
15, 18 and 19. um So just read 12 through 21. And if you have questions about it afterwards, email Nathan. ah hu Blessed are those who wash their robes.

00:59:55.68
Nathan Pile
like the Rachel, we read we read Revelation here this week. And Rachel looked at me and goes, what is what is this book about? I said, we could study it. It's going to take a while. like

01:00:06.13
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:00:06.12
Nathan Pile
my my little you know It's going to take us a while to dig it all out.

01:00:09.83
Kevin Shock
Yeah. And then John 17 verses 20 through 26, actually something I preached on ah this past week, even though wasn't one of the readings, ah Jesus prays the disciples will be one and abide in his love.

01:00:24.81
Kevin Shock
um But I think that that's that's definitely related to what's going on here in Acts. It's related to Paul's, the life that Paul lives out, that unity in unity and belief and practice.

01:00:30.85
Nathan Pile
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

01:00:38.39
Nathan Pile
Yeah

01:00:38.78
Kevin Shock
So, um Nathan, I'm I'm grateful that you always give me the opportunity to reflect on some some things that make me want to continue thinking hard about the life I live and how it relates to how it relates to Scripture and Jesus and all that stuff.

01:00:55.80
Kevin Shock
um And friends, we hope that you have the same opportunity for reflection ah during these times. We hope to tend our faith with you again soon. Grace to you.

01:01:06.05
Nathan Pile
And peace. Happy New Year.