"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." Acts 9:5-6
But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." Acts 9:15-16
I was a little startled lately when I noticed deep inside me a bristling response to the word "must" in the above verses. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. It is the natural response of the natural man, right? We want to do what we want to do. Being told we "have to do" anything in our current culture has become anathema. Having to suffer in particular.
The Greek word, dei (δεῖ), means "it is necessary," and in this context means a "necessity in reference to what is required to attain some end … necessity established by the counsel and decree of God, especially by that purpose of his which relates to the salvation of men by the intervention of Christ and which is disclosed in the O. T. prophecies."
Whoa. This is not just an authority figure telling us we have to do something we don't want to do. This is what is necessary to attain God's ultimate plan and purpose – the salvation of the world. If we call ourselves Christians there are things that we "must" do. The Lord didn't waste time telling Saul/Paul what he must do, the works planned for him from the beginning of the world.
Right after I read and meditated on these verses, J.D. Walt sent out an article with some "musts" for the Church today. I think the urgency with which he writes is justified:
"We stand in the ruins of the still collapsing facade of Christendom. And all our churches are like so many blind people standing around a massive elephant each with our hand on a different part of the animal and each proffering and preferring a different diagnosis, prognosis and plan.
So what's the point today? The point is to say the Day of Pentecost never ended. We need not return to the first century church but to restore the 21st century church. This will come by Word and Spirit and the recovery of plain Scriptural Christianity. We must cease fiddling with forms and fads. We must find each other again, not as so many churches but as "Church." We must cease chasing after phenomenology and begin to run after Jesus on the path of the race marked out for us.
We must meet one another again at the level ground of the foot of the Cross and awaken to the fact the Heavens have been rended once and for all. Jesus is ascended as Lord and King." -- J.D. Walt 1
And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" Luke 2:49
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. Mark 8:31
Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. Luke 22:7 (KJV)
And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Mark 13:10
But when they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you should make your defense or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you must say. Luke 12:11-12 (NET)
As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. John 9:4
1Don't Pray for the Wind. Set the Sails https://seedbed.com/dont-pray-for-wind-set-the-sails/
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