Are you praying or practicing magic?

S: Acts 19:11-20

God gave Paul the power to perform unusual miracles. When handkerchiefs or aprons that had merely touched his skin were placed on sick people, they were healed of their diseases, and evil spirits were expelled.

A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered.

The story of what happened spread quickly all through Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks alike. A solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honoured. Many who became believers confessed their sinful practices. A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollars. So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect.

O: The magicians thought that “Jesus” was a magic incantation, and all they had to do was to repeat the right words for it to be efficacious. But that’s not what’s going on here at all.

The sound of “Jesus” is irrelevant. In English, it’s “Jesus”. In Greek, it’s Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous). In Malay, it’s Yesus or Isa. In Hokkien, it’s Iaso. In Cantonese, it’s Yesou. In Tamil, it’s இயேசு (Iyesu). In Spanish, it’s Jesus (pronounced Haysoos). In French, it’s Jésus (pronounced Zhesoo). The original Hebrew is יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua).

None of this matters when dealing with the power of God. It’s the intent and relationship with Him that matters. It’s whether you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s whether you’re walking in His ways and obeying God. That’s when you’re covered by the blood of the lamb.

Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, as it says in 1 John 4:4. This is why the demons flee. This is why you can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil (Psalm 23:4). That’s why no weapon can stand against you. (Isaiah 54:17)† That’s why neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).

The Ephesians who trusted Jesus showed that they no longer trusted in their magic incantations by burning their expensive sorcery books! That shows how much they believed.

A: So let us not think that particular words or prayers will have some magical outcome. No number of “our Fathers” or “commanding prayers” or making sure to say “in Jesus’ name” or any other formula will guarantee success. ‡ Prayer is not an incantation. Faith is not a magical technique. Jesus is not a supernatural password.

Instead, we need to take up our cross daily and follow Him! (Luke 9:23) Live every day walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). That means to live in continual dependence on the Holy Spirit rather than being directed by self, sinful desires, fear, pride, or circumstances. It is a daily pattern of surrender and obedience. Let us put on the whole armour of God daily (Ephesians 6:10-18). Let’s submit ourselves to God and resist the devil – then he will flee from us (James 4:7). Then we will not have to live in constant fear of evil spirits, etc.

P: Father, I do not always walk in the Spirit. I give in to temptation, stray from Your ways. Fortunately, I always end up repenting and coming back. But help me to always submit to You, to always flee temptation, to always resist the devil, to always show Your love to the people around me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

† Isaiah 54:17 does not promise that no weapon will ever be formed or that believers will never be harmed. It promises that no weapon formed against God’s servants can finally succeed, because the Lord Himself is sovereign over every power, vindicates His people, and has secured their ultimate salvation. Therefore, we can walk in confidence: enemies may kill the body, but they cannot take away the eternal life Christ has secured for those who belong to Him. (Matthew 10:28)

‡ I am not saying that we should not pray the “Our Father”, end your prayers with “in the name of Jesus”, use commanding prayers, etc. These practices are not wrong in themselves. My point is that they are not magic incantations. Their value lies not in the words themselves, but in the faith and relationship with Christ that they express.

Note: I wrote this myself, but there has been some editing and suggestions from 2 AIs. The header picture is also an AI-generated picture from something I came up with but was not satisfied with the aesthetics of the results.

Carpe Diem

S: Acts 17:16-34

O: We don’t actually know what this unknown god altar was. Some people point to a story about when Athens was experiencing a plague, and they tried to sacrifice to various gods they knew, but the plague continued. Then Epimenides of Crete advised them to release black and white sheep from the Areopagus (Mars Hill) and wherever a sheep lay down, it was sacrificed to the god related to that place. As a result, according to Diogenes Laertius, who wrote about this 3 centuries later, there’re many altars around that didn’t specify which god it was for.

Various other ancient writers talked about altars to unknown gods in Athens – but that’s gods – plural – while Acts talks about an unknown god – singular.

Another possibility was that these altars were just kiasu altars – in case they left out some god that they didn’t think of.

There are various other theories. But the important thing is, Paul saw the opportunity and used it as an opening to share the Gospel. And, like he talked about in 1 Corinthians 9:20-23, he did it in a culturally sensitive way.

This is in line with the advice he gave his protégé Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

We are ambassadors for Christ, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20 – an ambassador represents their country in another country. So, we represent the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Pastor Daniel Ho of DUMC tells many stories of taking every opportunity to share the love of Christ with people – when he sits down in a food court, when he takes a grab car, when he flies in an aeroplane, etc. He admits, sometimes people don’t respond positively, but often people do.

God calls all of us to shine His light in a dark world. Not everyone can be like Pastor Daniel or Paul, but we can all share the light. We often think of evangelism as something we deliberately do. But being an ambassador for Christ is also about who we are. I remember examples like the doctor in verse 2 of this song by Carolyn Arends:

Seize the Day
by Carolyn Arends

Well I know a doctor, a fine young physician
Left his six-figure job for a mission position
He’s healing the sick in an African clinic
He works in the dirt and writes home to the cynics
He says “We work through the night so most every day
As we watch the sun rise we can say

Seize the day, seize whatever you can
‘Cause life slips away just like hourglass sand
Seize the day, pray for grace from God’s hand
Then nothing will stand in your way
Seize the day

A: This is a challenge for me. I often go through the day, busy with my work, etc. and forget that I’m an ambassador for Christ. I’m representing Jesus to everyone I meet. So I need to be walking in His ways and sharing His love.

P: Father remind me when my impulse is to reply in the flesh to an annoyance, or ignore another person, etc. Jesus, let me shine Your light. In Jesus’ name, amen.

When it’s all been said, when it’s all been done

S: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Philippians 3:7-10a I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.

O: Years ago, we participated in a yee sang toss with friends from church, and they were saying all the traditional yee sang toss things, about wealth, prosperity, that our children will be successful, etc. and something made me say that may our children be committed to Jesus. It may have been because I had friends who were committed to Jesus, but whose children had wandered away. And I was reminded of someone who said that, if his children were prosperous, successful, etc. but did not follow Jesus, they wouldn’t really be successful.

A few days ago, my wife and I were alerted by 2 different circumstances that both our girls were walking with the Lord. That’s such a blessing to know. They’re still in their late teens, the older one in her first year of degree and the younger one in her foundation year at university, so they still have a long journey ahead of them, but it is very encouraging to us that they’re sincerely seeking God.

Philip Sandifer wrote this song:

Well I could talk for hours about His coming
But the louder that I speak
I’d just grow deaf against his call
And I could pray for years
I could bind my ails and my fears
And even believe I have the answer to it all

But when it’s all been said
And when it’s all been done He’ll ask me
Did you go my way child
Did you know my Son

And when it’s all been said
And when it’s all been done he’ll ask me
Did you find your way within my Son

A: Even at my age, I must continue daily taking the daily steps to find my way within Jesus. I still have so many flaws, so many things more to bring into conformity with Jesus.

The next day after those incidents that showed that my kids were walking with Jesus, I messed up in two different ways and had to repent of it. One of them my eldest was the one who called me on it. Thank God for her.

So, I’m still a work in progress. Daily, I must work out my salvation in fear and trembling, while being assured that God is working in me, giving me the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2:12-13.)

P: Father, thank You for Your grace. May I find my way within Your Son, growing in Christlikeness day by day. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Second Chances

S: Acts 13:13; Acts 15:36–41; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11

O: Mark was basically one of the early second-generation Christians. Acts 12:12 says that his mother’s house was where the believers gathered in Jerusalem, and church tradition identifies it as the house that contained the κατάλυμα (guest room) in which the Last Supper was held. (This is the same word traditionally mistranslated as “inn” in the Christmas story.)

In Acts 13:13, Mark “chickened out” on Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey. Now, in Acts 15:36–41, Barnabas, the “Son of Encouragement,” wanted to bring him along again for their second missionary journey.

Paul didn’t want to have anything to do with that. I can imagine the argument:

Paul: I don’t want that quitter coming along again! He’s useless!
Barney: He’s young. We need to nurture him so that he will grow.
Paul: If we bring him, he’ll just chicken out again! Let him learn at home here in Jerusalem!
Barney: If we discourage him now, we could set his growth back years!
Paul: I’m not bringing him! He doesn’t have what it takes!
Barney: I love you, you love me… 🤣

Okay, maybe not exactly like that. 😊 But Luke does say, “They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas.”

Interestingly, if we move forward several years, we find Mark working alongside Paul. In Colossians 4:10, Paul mentions Mark and tells the church to welcome him. In Philemon 1:24, Paul lists Mark as one of his fellow workers.

And in 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul goes even further: “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” What a turnaround! The man Paul once refused to take on a missionary journey had become someone he considered useful to his ministry.

A: God is a God of second chances, and we, as His people, should be willing to give others second chances, too. I know it’s not always easy, especially when someone has let us down. Sometimes, like Paul, we may have good reasons to be reluctant to trust that person again. Giving someone another chance doesn’t mean pretending that nothing happened or ignoring the need for growth and accountability. But Barney had the right idea. Paul had forgotten that he himself was one of Barney’s “encouragement projects.” I guess Paul later learned to be more like Barney, too.

Note: I wrote the first draft myself, but I did get AI to do some editing.

When Jesus is not Jesus

S: Acts 13:6-12

When Barnabas and Saul got to Paphos on Cyprus and shared the Gospel with Sergius Paulus, the sorcerer Bar-Jesus opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. But the Holy Spirit filled Saul and had him say, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”

As a result, Sergius Paulus believed in Jesus.

O: Recently Cristiano Ronaldo had a public dispute with the coach of Portugal’s national team, Jorge Jesus. Christiano accused Jesus of breaking his word twice, and there was quite a bit of public fall-out in the news.

In the above reading, Bar-Jesus (i.e. “Son of Jesus”) was clearly the bad guy, trying to stop Sergius from trusting in Jesus.

In modern times, we find a lot of people claiming Jesus but doing questionable things, especially in politics, but sometimes in other ways as well.

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11:4 and Galatians 1:6–9, warned against people preaching a different Jesus and a different gospel.

Actually, the name Jesus is the same name as Joshua, but the fact that Jorge Jesus and Elymas Bar-Jesus happened to have that name spelled the same way, and Cristiano Ronaldo has the name of Christ, just highlights something: Someone can be called by the name of Jesus (or Christian) and not be following Jesus, or even be opposed to what Jesus wants. (Note that I’m not assuming who is right or taking sides in the Jesus vs Christiano dispute, just using the names as an illustration.)

A: We need to be authentically following Jesus if we are to call ourselves by His name, to be Christians. We must beware of others or even ourselves labelling our thing as Christian but not actually be in line with what Christ would want.

So we need to keep in fellowship with Him, read His Word, and accept correction from the Holy Spirit. Staying in fellowship with other believers who can encourage us and alert us to when we stray from Jesus is also important and helpful.

P: Lord make me like You.
Please make me like You.
You are a servant, make me one, too.
O Lord, I am willing, do what You must do
To make me like You, Lord,
Just make me like You.

Amen.

P.S. Speaking of names, it is interesting that from this point onwards, Luke refers to Saul as Paul (Latin Paulus).

Perhaps it was because of the Roman practice of adopting an adult they like and making their heir (see what happened to Judah Ben Hur after he rescued Quintus Arrius in Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ).

St. Jerome, the 4^th century theologian, historian and Bible translator, thought that Saul called himself Paul in honour of his first distinguished convert.

Other people think that Luke switched from calling him Saul to calling him Paul because he, being a Roman citizen, already had that Roman name in addition to his Hebrew name, and now he was concentrating on the Gentiles.

In all his epistles, he called himself Paul.

Pride and Prejudice

S: Acts 12:20-25

O: Herod Agrippa I was a grandson of the ruthless Herod the Great from the Christmas story. He seems to have been less notorious for cruelty than his grandfather, but he also persecuted the church. He had James son of Zebedee executed, and when he saw that this pleased the Jewish leaders, he proceeded to arrest Peter. That was calculated persecution: he used violence against Christ’s apostles to strengthen his political standing. Josephus, the Jewish historian, generally wrote positively about him but also noted that many people celebrated his death.

He also was familiar with the Jewish religion, and so would have known that it was wrong to receive worship like the Roman emperors did. Josephus portrayed him as a king who took Jewish law seriously. As a Jewish king whose position depended partly on maintaining good relations with his people, Agrippa had reason to respect their religious traditions.

Unfortunately, when the crowed proclaimed him a god, he failed to give God the glory, so God struck him down. Perhaps his earlier persecution of Christians was also relevant. Josephus said he died after 5 days of excruciating abdominal pain.

Luke supplies the detail that he was eaten by worms, which is ironic, because Josephus reported that worms was part of how his grandfather Herod the Great died as well. Josephus reports that Herod the Great's final illness was regarded by some as divine punishment for his impiety. In the surrounding account, Herod had executed Jewish teachers and their companions who opposed his placing a golden eagle above the Temple gate, an act they considered contrary to Jewish law.

The irony is striking: Agrippa seems to have taken Jewish law seriously, unlike his grandfather, yet he failed to give God the glory when the crowd acclaimed him as a god.

A: God opposes the proud and preserves His purpose. Therefore, we should remain humble, give God the glory, and take courage when worldly powers oppose the gospel. We may die like James ben Zebedee did, or be rescued like Peter, but in either case, we should stay true to Yahweh and trust that He is ultimately in control.

P: Father, help me to stay in Your ways. When I am tempted to do wrong, remind me. When I suffer for doing right, keep me faithful. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Note: I discussed these ideas with 2 different AIs and used some of their phraseology.

When God challenges your prejudices

S: Acts 10:1-11:18

O: Cornelius, a centurion in Caesarea, sincerely sought God, and God answered him, sending an angel who told him to invite Peter from Joppa, 50 km away, which back then in those conditions took roughly 12 hours to walk, but usually people would take two days.

For Peter, entering a Gentile home was not a small social adjustment. In our Malaysian setting, it may feel as difficult as asking a committed Muslim to enter a non-Muslim’s home and share a meal in a way that could bring criticism from his own community. That helps us feel the force of Peter’s obedience and the scandal it caused among the Jewish believers.

So God had to send him a vision – the animals on the sheet – to persuade him to go with the people Cornelius sent to invite him, and then when he got back to Joppa, the other Jewish Christians were scandalised, and he had to go back to Jerusalem to answer their charges. He managed to persuade them by pointing out to them that if the Holy Spirit accepted them by giving them the Gift of Tongues, who were the Jewish Christians to deny them?

Even after this, Paul still had to contend with the Judaizers. And even Peter backslid and Paul had to correct him (Galatians 2:11-14). So it was definitely not easy.

A: What prejudices do I still hold against people different from me? Who is in and who is out?

The Jewish Christians were demanding that Gentiles had to “masuk Yahudi” before they could become Christians and be saved. We must not make people feel that they have to “masuk” our culture before they can come to Christ. They do not need to become like us in order to be saved.

And, even before they’re saved, remember how Jesus accepted Gentiles like the Syrophoenician woman and others. What non-Christians are God calling for me to drop my prejudices against?

And we must be open to others’ correction, like Peter was to Paul even though he was the leader of the Apostles after Jesus’ ascension.

P: Father, open my eyes to see where my own practice of the faith needs to expand its horizons. And help me to be open to others’ correction. In Jesus’ name, amen.