Day 174, 21st February: 1 Kings, Acts and Psalms

Be A Rebel
By Josh Langlois, Trinity Church Guernsey

Today’s readings
1 Kings 11:14-12:24
Acts 15:22-41
Psalm 77:10-20

When I was at school, I used to be in trouble all the time; whether it was pranking mates, or even messing teachers around. As a result, I seemed to be in a non-stop detention. Part of me liked being rebellious, part of me always wanted to go against what I was told to do.

I’m not encouraging others to get in trouble at school, but maybe making a stand can be a good thing? Nowadays we tend to think rebels are just bad people.

I think it’s time to start a revolution…

In today’s passage we see numerous people rise up to stand against others – Jeroboam against Solomon, the people of Israel against Rehoboam, Barnabas against Paul. This is actually seen throughout the Bible and has been for good reasons (Jesus turning over tables of businessmen in the temple – Matt 21:12) and bad reasons (Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit – Genesis 3:6).

What if we could be rebellious, in a good way? A way that could change the world?

What if we were radical?

What if we loved people unconditionally?

The same God that says, “I will be with you” in 1 Kings 11:38, is the same God we serve today. Our world has a lot of hurting places, and a lot of hurting people and it is our mission to love every one of them. Stand up and speak out, just like Barnabas did when he disagreed with Paul (Acts 15:37). Disagreements will happen sometimes, but God works for the good in all things (Romans 8:28) and both Barnabas and Paul went on to lead incredible ministries.

Don’t be held back by your failings and shortcomings because, unlike in 1 Kings 12:4 where Solomon’s yoke and burden were heavy on Israel, we live with and for Jesus, whose yoke is easy and burden light (Matt 11:30).

If we take a stand for Jesus, you too could be like the Psalmist, praising God for His incredible miracles, His mighty works and His awesome deeds (Psalm 77:11-14).

You really want to be a rebel?

Get stuck into God’s Word, spend time hanging out with Jesus, tell people about God and love those who no-one loves. Why? Because not enough people are doing that.

Jesus was a rebel, let’s be like Him.

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Today’s picture was taken by…
Emily Spademan. Thanks Emily!

If you’d like to take your own picture to potentially be featured on the blog, then get your Soul Survivor Bible in One Year, and take a picture of yourself – and your Bible – at some interesting or colourful location. Then email it to us at editor@soulsurvivor.com.

The pictures will need to be a pretty good resolution (we use 640px by 360 px so at least as big as that), landscape photos work best and if you include the day of the reading in the picture then make sure you send it to us a good few days before that reading, so we have time to include it in that day’s post! We’ll credit all photographers!