“O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” Psalm 39:4. Growing up just down the dirt road that ran past my grandfather’s farm, I watched him kill all kinds of varmints but especially snakes, and so I was surprised in my 20s to see him watch one slither away as he said that perhaps it will eat some mice. I think the older someone gets and the more experiences he has the more reflective he becomes about the fleeting nature of life, the prosperity of the wicked, and the seeming purposelessness of human life. I know I have over thirty years since my grandpa let one live. This seems to be where David is in this psalm. Younger people often don’t contemplate their mortality. My teenage son thought he was invincible until he sledded face-first into a tree. Yet, it is often the young who obey the gospel. David dwells on these things and recognizes that a healthy confrontation with his mortality draws him closer to God, in Whom he hopes. He wants to know the end of his days, understanding himself to be a sojourner in this life and that his time before he departs is best spent for God. Are you wise to know the measure of your days?   

“and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians” Acts 11:26. It was no coincidence that God had opened the door for the gentiles at the same time that the Christians, scattered from Jerusalem because of the great persecution, preached the gospel wherever they went. This was all part of God’s plan to let all of mankind know that there was hope in overcoming sin and death. It was also part of His plan that the one largely responsible for the great persecution would also become the apostle to the gentiles and the one Barnabas would seek out and, with him, teach “a great many people” for a whole year at Antioch, where followers of Christ would go from being a sect of Judaism to their own brand, before being sent off on their first missionary journey. When we take a step back, we can see God’s plan at work, but He’s still in control today in His church and in the lives of His children. It may not have seemed that way to the persecuted Christians, and the future of the Lord’s church may seem bleak right now to us. But His plan is still unfolding.

“But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good” Psalm 38:19-20. I grew up with Wile E. Coyote never ceasing his pursuit of Road Runner. Falling off cliffs or having the latest ACME order blow up in his face were not reasons for the predator to desist. Evil is relentless. This is David’s experience … and perhaps yours as well. As the Road Runners in this dark world, we look out at the Coyotes’ reckless hate that never stops and question how we can go on. But, if you remember from the cartoon, the Road Runner was never focused on he was the target. He just lived and survived, but instead of happenstance, followers of Christ survive because we trust in a good God’s intervention. Yes, the world will hate you just because you “follow after good,” but we are wise to adopt a Road Runner perspective in the way we allow the wickedness around us to affect us. To add in other animals to this illustration—we must be as shrewd about evil as serpents (not purposely walking into the traps like Road Runner often did) while being innocent as doves!     

“Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Acts 10:47. First, Peter had to be convinced to even go to the home of a gentile—even one that was as devout as Cornelius. God’s people had always been just the Jews. But even Jesus, knowing that the kingdom would soon be open to all by faith, was willing to go to another centurion’s house in Mark 8 but was kept from it by that soldier’s great faith. How the believers with Peter must have marvelled as the apostle shared the gospel with Cornelius and his household—and were even more surprised when the Spirit allowed them to speak in tongues and extol God! Already having used the keys of the kingdom to open the door of the church to the Jews in Acts 2, Peter now used them to admit the first gentiles eight chapters later, even remarking that they had received the Spirit of God “just as we have.” Notice, though, that this was only the second time that God chose to give His Spirit before baptism (stated here as the way in!). What about all the many conversions between Acts 2 and 10 who had only received the gift of the Holy Spirit when they were baptized?  

“And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house” Judges 14:19. So often today we think of God’s Spirit rushing upon a per-son as like a demon possession that takes away all control from a person. Some religious groups enact this out in their services. But 1 Corinthians 14:32 says, “and the spirit of prophets are subject to prophets.” This is what we see happening with Samson here. Otherwise, we’d have to conclude that the Holy Spirit made him kill thirty men and steal their possessions. And Samson had no choice but to be angry and storm home to his parents. So, would the Spirit take us over when we’re baptized? For we believe that we “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38) when we obey the gospel. Perhaps this is why those same groups believe that a person really isn’t a Christian until he has a separate baptism of the Spirit? No, it comes down to what the individual chooses to do with the Spirit that is now poured out upon us rather than in rare dollops—like Samson received.