Which of us is God?

There's this story in the Bible (Acts 12) Where the king, Herod, gets lost in a moment and decides that the people are right to address him as a God.

Which apparently wasn't the wisest of things to do.

The ancient historian, Josephus, said that the evil that came upon Herod's heart caused him to become ill and die.

Which sounds a bit strange to those of us who read the story today, but then I think that we forget that evil will always kill us if we let it fester in our lives, which is probably why the writer of Acts says that when Herod died, he became worm food quite quickly - it's called festering or rotting. Evil.

Evil. Being opposed to God.

Now I think we all find ourselves shifting quite uncomfortable in our seats when we think of evil in terms of not doing what God called us to, and then even more when Paul tightens the net further by saying that everything that not done in Faith is sin.

Faith or evil - it's a risky line to walk isn't it.

But what we shouldn't do is spend our time worrying about whether we're doing evil or not. A better way to live is to live asking - how can I move in more faith today. Now I think that this is where the line is easier to see. Because faith becomes more about whether you trust God with your life, or yourself with your life.

And that's true of your situations as well.

In the stories of Acts 12 we find two stories. In one, Peter waits for God, and God rescues him from prison and certain death. In the other, Herod tries to push his agenda and plans and he dies trying.

You see for many of us, we forget that when we try to force God's hand on something, or we lose patience waiting for God to do what we want, or we just ignore God altogether, really what we're saying is 'I know best'...

or I have a better idea than God on this

or I know more about this

or I'm like God?

So you realise that when we take matters into our own hands, rather than waiting for God to show his plan, really we're not that different from Herod, the worm infested king after all...

Are we?

The choice is yours

Most of the time we find ourselves staring choices in the face, never sure what to do with them.

What will people think if I do that?
How will things work for me then?
Will it even work?
What if it fails?

There's a story in Acts 10 and 11 about a massive choice that Peter had to make. But bigger than the average choice, Peter was deciding about the future of the church.

Was church going to be open to everyone?

Because if it's church, then it must be open to everyone, right?

That's what they call a 'non sequitur', because history shows that just because it's church doesn't meant it's open to everyone...

...and that truth should hurt us.

Because when the issue of the openness of church was first raised amongst Peter and the first christians, they decided that the church was and should be accessible to everyone. 20 Centuries ago they decided that it was open to all, and yet we still struggle with that today.

That's why it hurts.

And given the high likelihood that you're reading this and are most likely not Jewish, that means their decision affects you. This was the Jewish Christians deciding that the message of Jesus was available to anyone who wanted to follow Jesus.

And that possibly means you.

So why don't you extend the favour?