Monthly Archives: May 2014

THE WAY OF HOPE AND PRAISE Read Psalm 43

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Many Hebrew manuscripts of  the Psalms unite the 42nd and 43rd  as one Psalm.  For in both the cry of the soul, the parched and thirsty soul, for the living God is evident, with the phrases ‘why are you downcast, of my Soul?  Why so disturbed within me?’ are repeated 3 times .  Why, why, why?  Questions we have asked ourselves and the Lord at times in our lives… maybe even today?  Praise God the  Psalmist comes to a wonderful conclusion in both Psalms saying ‘Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God’. But we ask–how did he get to that point in his life.  The place all of us who are believers want to be…close to God, hoping in Him alone, trusting Jesus no matter what, counting our many blessings naming them one by one.  That’s where we want to be.  Yes?  Right?  So, how does he get there?  How can we?  I think the key is found in what we call Psalm 43 verse 3 where it says ‘send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me…’  Read that verse again.  Who or what does that sound like to you?  To me, I picture God’s gracious gifts of His Messiah, His Son Jesus; and the Bible given to us as light and truth to guide us through the  perilous journey of life in a sinful world.  Jesus, the Light of the world.  Jesus, the way and the truth…making our paths clearer and brighter and crisper, who points the way and even goes with us, who is above us and below, in front and behind holding our hands as we run and crawl, stumble and fall, get up and go…with Him.  And His Word, the Bible, our GPS in life, the AAA triptik  moving us forward, the love letters that will never fail, phony flatter  or forsake.  The Bible–our hope and strength for the days to come!  While in Charleston area for the past couple months, my wife and I visited  both the Magnolia and Middleton Plantations.  Beautiful places of such natural wonder–the azaleas were in full bloom and just breath-taking.  Both were originally very successful and profitable rice plantations until after the Civil War.  So, I decided to read once again Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe on the horrors of the labor that made those plantations run so profitably,  that is slavery.  Let me recommend this classic if you haven’t read it or its been awhile as it was for me.  Uncle Tom, the slave hero of the story, is an amazing, committed Christian under the most terrible circumstances in life.  Yet, listen to his hope in God, his habit of receiving the light and truth he needs to make it through…”Is it strange, then, that some tears fall on the pages of his Bible, as he lays it on the cotton-bale, and, with patient finger, threading his slow way from word to word, traces out its promises?  Having learned late in life,Tom was but a slow reader, and passed on laboriously from verse to verse.  Fortunately for him was it that the book he was intent on was one which slow reading cannot injure,–nay, one whose words, like ingots of gold, seem often to need to be weighed separately, that the mind may take in their priceless value.  Let us follow him a moment, as, pointing to each word, and pronouncing each half aloud, he reads, ‘Let—not—your—heart—be—troubled…'”

God has sent His light and truth in Jesus and the Bible…who could ask for anything more?

ENDING WELL Read Job 42

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My good friend Job…yes, he’s my friend!  And when you read that last chapter in his wonderful book, you’ll see that he’s your friend as well.  Sure, if he can still be called a friend to those 3 botchagaloops (!) of his, then he can be a friend to both you and me.  Those 3 had so played with Job’s head and soul confronting him with so many ‘spiritual’  things that turned out to be not right at all.  They were not helpful friends.  I think in the beginning that they really wanted to be friends of Job, to help him if they could.  But their good intentions quickly deteriorated into a big old argument where they had to be right and Job just plain wrong.  How many times have I fit their category of well-meaning but I was just paving more roadway for a friend on the way to a you-know-what  experience?  Thought I was right but guess again.  Yes, I’ll say it again–Job’s my friend and so are you!  We’ve let friends  down, and we’ve been let down also.  I can think of maybe a couple people in my life, who were friends at the time, just one handful who after they let me down, and some in a rather severe way with terrible consequences, who ever said they were sorry or even looked my way ever again.  Like I was dead to them.   But these 3 friends of Job, after the Lord tells them what to do…to humble themselves, offer sacrifices to the Lord in the very presence of Job asking him nicely to pray for them that God would forgive their folly… they do what they now know is right to do.  How humbling indeed!  Admit they’re  wrong, go to Job, be with him,look him in the eye, be serious about asking for forgiveness from God through the prayers of good-old Job.  As if God is saying to them– ‘don’t pray to me, I’m not too happy with you 3 at the moment for what you said about ‘my servant Job’. Offer sacrifices and he’ll pray for you.  He will and I’ll accept his prayers on your behalf forgiving all that folly and foolish badgering  that you put him through’.  And Job is so forgiving–he could have just written them off once and for all.  No, he ends his story and life well.  He does what the Lord says to do, he stays with those 3 men as they repent and confess in deep and honest sorrow.  Look at verse 10–‘After Job had prayed for his friends…’  Did you see it?  The 3 were still his friends!  He allowed them back into his life.  He was big-hearted,doing what the Lord Himself wanted to do…to forgive and restore his friends.  Yes, they are his friends. And so are you!   I was thinking though–anyone you need to go to  saying that  you’re sorry?  Or someone who needs restoring if they’re sincere in repentance?   Being a friend.  Staying a friend.  Praying for our friends.  Having faithful, loyal friends.  Being a faithful, loyal friend.  That always ends well…”The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first”(verse 12).  Amen?  Amen!

THIS TOO WILL… Read Acts 19:1-20:2

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What a riot Paul caused in the ancient city of Ephesus.  He didn’t have a riot, he caused one!  Popular guy… to get out of Dodge!  Read especially verses 32-34.  This angry mob was so totally out-of-control, Luke says ‘in confusion’, some people shouting one thing and some another.  He says that most of the crowd had no idea why they were even there!  But there they were, angry as all- get-out, yelling at the top of their lungs ‘in unison for about 2 hours’.  Can you imagine?  A cacophony of blood-curdling  screeching that never seemed to end. But  let’s step back a moment.  Have you ever been in such a situation that felt like this Ephesian chaos but obviously was not?  A time that was just plain horrendous for you personally or professionally or for some loved one?  I have. A number of them really.  As we all have if we think about it.  One of them for me was  when a pastorate just blew apart.  When sermons gave way to screeching.  When it just never seemed to end or go away, the pain that is, the disappointment, the angst over what the future held, where the Lord would now lead or even if.  That’s where those 5 opening words of Acts chapter 20 mean so very much to me–‘when the uproar had ended’.  Yes, Lord, thank you, it will, the uproar will not last forever. The uproar will not be the final word.  There will be an end, and it will come at just the right time, from His hands holding our needy ones.  But read on in Acts 20.  Luke says that Paul didn’t just lick his wounds. No, he encouraged those around him.  He traveled ‘speaking many words of encouragement to the people’.   Paul may have been down, but he got right back up in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Ok, lick your wounds.  I did…for a long time. .  But pray…get up…go on for Jesus.  Learn from the uproar.  I did.  I learned to reach out to those who have landed their ministry boats on the rocks.  Of the over 100 fellow pastors in my regional denomination, only one ever called to say ‘how are you?’ and ‘I’m praying for you’.  One…one percent or less.  Better than none, you may think. I’ve learned to reach out, go out of my way to fellow pastors in crisis, to encourage them by just being there for them,  whether they’re right or wrong, to be there for them and encourage them  with what Luke wrote, ‘when the uproar had ended…’  When knocked down in life, get  back up…in time–the best thing you can do for yourself is to reach out to someone else.  Only God knows when the uproar will end, but I can be there for someone else until it does.  And you?  Can you?  Will you?

TIME TO TRUST Read Job 41:1-11

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I feel sorry for Job.  He’s called ‘blameless and upright’ and ‘the greatest man among all the peoples of the East’ (Job 1:1,3).  And  yet God allows him to go through just the most horrible experiences none of us would ever want to endure, even one of them.  But  at the end of this amazing book in the Old Testament, after Job has had to ‘verbally fence’ with his wife, his 3 old friends and then that young whipper-snapper Eliphaz, then the Lord speaks up.  God speaks.  Everyone is quiet.  There is the sound of silence for once.  They clam up in the presence of the voice of God Almighty.  Who wouldn’t?  God speaks, it says, ‘out of the storm’ (Job 38:1). Maybe you feel like you’re in a ‘storm’ right now?    Now reading the first 11 verses of chapter 41 we hear a series of ‘can you’ and ‘will he’  putting it to Job, whittling his strength down to human size. Then in verse 11 God makes an amazing statement about Himself–‘Everything under heaven belongs to me’.  He owns it all.  Nothing that exists anywhere is other than God’s own possession.  Like it says in Psalm 24:1–‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.’  When times get real tough for us, when questions loom larger than good, satisfying answers,  that’s exactly when we need to be reminded of who God is.  He’s God–just that.  No limits, no phony-baloney anything, He’s the real deal.  Everything is His.  And when I accepted Jesus into my heart, I became His child just as He promised (John 1:12).  And that relationship will last for all eternity.  To infinity…and beyond!  And the Bible is so crystal clear that God truly loves us with an agape love known truly only to Him.  His love knows no bounds, forgives so freely and willingly, gives and gives and gives some more.   He gave His only Son for us(I wouldn’t do that), He died for us(I wouldn’t do that) and rose in power over the ultimate enemy, Satan and death and separation from God(I can’t do that).  All for us.  A divine love we can barely grasp with the fingers of our soul.  But true, nevertheless.  If we are His, and everything belongs to Him, can you see what comes next?  Are you with me?  We can now trust our God with every part of our lives, with every prayer that seems to go unanswered, with every uncertainty of health and wealth…we can throw all our trust on Him,  relaxing  in His arms moving forward with a confidence and a joy and a security that He wants to give us every moment of every day…until that day when we come home to Jesus, in heaven.    ‘Everything…belongs to me’–that’s you and me in every facet of our lives.

THERE’S GOT TO BE MORE! Read Judges 10:1-5

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I was reading in my devotions today from the book of Judges in the Old Testament.  Judges were rulers or leaders that were supposed to help Israel as a people in following the Lord their God.  After Moses’ and Joshua’s deaths, a terrible power vacuum existed.  Quickly the people turn away from the One True God and worship the idols of those around them.  Sin has its consequences and things go terribly bad for God’s people who turn their collective backs on Him.  Really?  Duh!  Glad none of us has ever done that!  Israel cries out to God for help and He provides leaders, the Judges.  Some are names we recognize like Gideon, Deborah, Samuel. But many are not familiar at all.  Like the two from today’s reading in chapter 10.  Tola and Jair–who are they, anyway?  What did they do to help Israel live for Yahweh God?  We know so little of them and their lives.  Yet, they led Israel for 45 years.  That’s a long time.  Of Tola, we only know the names of his father and grandfather (imagine a name like Dodo!) and that he was of the tribal family of Issachar but lived south of his clan in the hill country of the tribe of Ephraim, in a town called Shamir.  That’s it.  Who and where; but, no what or how.  Just the facts, Mame.  Oh, yes, I forgot…after leading Israel for 23 years, he died and was buried in the town where he chose to live, Shamir.  Then comes Jair of Gilead, an area east of the Jordan River,  between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.  He’s 22 years as leader, has 30 sons and rides 30 different donkeys controlling 30 towns in the region of Gilead.  Did he think the number 30 was lucky?  I don’t know, but I do know that when he died he was buried in a town called Kamon.  That’s it, again.  Dare I speak for you?  But don’t we want our lives to count for more than that?  Now, to be fair, maybe the author of Judges (possibly Samuel, the last of the Judges) felt enough said the better.  Or that that was truly all there was to report.  Regardless, looking in the mirror of my life, I’d like my life to count for more than just the bare bones facts. Something like this– to have lived for the Lord, to have shared Him with others, to have given money so that others can share the Good News with those who would never hear otherwise, who loved the Lord and was not ashamed to admit it, who was far from perfect but knew who to go to for forgiveness and restoration,who had a few tough breaks some of his own sinful making  but who ended better than he began. To end well.   Isn’t that our heart’s desire?  Yours and mine?  That’s why when I daily pray the prayer of Jabez ( 1 Chronicles 4:9-10) where he says to the Lord, ‘…enlarge my territory’, years ago I expanded on that thought–‘ Lord, enlarge my territory…for You…for others!’  Not for more money, more prestige, a bigger car or home, or anything of this world, but to make a greater impact in even the smallest ways for the Lord  and for others to know Him and grow in Him.  That’s my prayer.  That’s the desire of my heart.  For there’s got to be more.  In Jesus, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!   There’s lots more…and more!

THE READING OF THE WILL Read Acts 18:18-22

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Early in my Christian life, I really struggled with knowing what specifically is God’s will for my life.  I mean wrestling within myself, agonizing over everyday decisions, little itsy-bitsy stuff that seems so silly and embarrassing today.I was fearful of making a wrong move, possibly triggering  God’s wrath in the process.  What does God want me to do?  I would have to say that this went on for years and years.  Talk about sapping any joy I had in being a Christian.  Just clouded everything with cosmic uncertainty and doubt.  Not like what Jesus said about giving us life and that abundantly(John 10:10), or the simple joy of the Lord.  Frankly and honestly, I was miserable.  Would someone please deliver me from the pretzel of my innards, PLEASE!  Anyone else have this experience, I hope not?!  Sure I’m not alone but if I am, so be it; and if not, then good for you!    As the years have gone by, you know what has really helped me, to give me some peace and joy?  Just reading God’s word and listening to what’s going on inside it.  Slowing down… to hear the dialogue of the Bible and what the Lord has to say today to me…and it may be nothing to do with today’s whatevers in my life, but just knowing that it will be of use at some point, some day.  Hint from the Bible: stop worrying and start enjoying the Lord who really loves me, who truly loves you.  Stop being so intentional, so useful and immediate… just being with Him and listening to how He deals with other people, the true stories we read about in the Bible.  Have you read what I suggest for today from Acts?  Here’s a good insight into how to know the will of God for you and me.  The Apostle Paul is in the major ancient city of Ephesus teaching and speaking in the synagogue about Jesus, the Messiah.  The people there can’t get enough of what he’s saying. They beg him to stay and continue with what the Lord is showing them.  They need more of his time and instruction of Scripture.  But Paul says ‘no’, he declines their offer.  He does?  I’d find that very hard to do.  Is this not God’s will…from His mouth through their lips?  But Paul moves on as he must, he’s on continuous mission for the Lord.  But he does promise them “…I will come back if it is God’s will.'(Acts 18:21)…that word ‘if’ is very meaningful.  That’s a little word that can help us…’if’. Trusting that God always knows what’s best for us.  Go with your passion, live the life you want, be who God gifted you to be, stop worrying about it all, be confident in His love and acceptance, keep pressing forward knowing that ‘I will…if it is God’s will’.    And sometimes, as in prayer, we must keep on knocking, keep on seeking and keep on asking.  Persevere, work hard, dream big and little dreams…knowing that God’s will overall is for you and for me to ‘glorify Him and enjoy Him forever’ (from Westminster Shorter Catechism–still good today!).  Go for it…Read His Will, the Bible, listen for His voice, and glorify Him and enjoy Him!  OK?  Hope this helps you as it has helped me.

A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE Read 1 Corinthians 9:6, Galatians 2:1,9,13 and Colossians 4:10

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If you’ve read the Bible readings for today, you know I’m still caught up with good old Barnabas!  These verses round out his character, draw a more complete picture of a truly remarkable human being, a committed follower of Jesus Christ.  Quite a role model, yet with flaws and foibles and sins like the rest of us.  One of the many things I love about the Bible is how honest it is.  No candy-coating, no political spin or cover-up.  It gives us a complete picture.  Take Barnabas for example.  He’s hardworking.  In Corinthians Paul mentions that he and Barnabas must work for a living.  Paul was a  tent-maker.Possibly Barnabas was also.  We don’t know– but we do know is that they didn’t live by hand-outs.  They were hard-working men.  They did what they could not to be a burden on anyone else.  They were able…and if we’re able, we should do what the  Lord wants us to do.  And to do for those unable to help themselves.  A job to do, a word of encouragement to give, a second chance to offer…I want to be a laborer for Jesus just  like Barnabas !  You too?  Now, turn to Galatians and we see Paul and Barnabas as a team–‘this time with Barnabas’ and ‘gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship’.  Barnabas is a team-player, an encouragement to Paul, someone he can could on when the chips are down.  ‘Paul and Barnabas’–sounds like one name!  Well, neither of them are perfect, certainly.  They had that huge fight stomping off in  totally different directions. I’m sure they both felt the other was in the wrong and that they were dead right.  Paul certainly had his strong opinions.  Read Galatians 2:11 where Paul, the newbie, confronts the premier Apostle, Peter, ‘because he was clearly in the wrong.’  Clearly! Paul’s got chutzpah!  Not only is Peter wrong but we discover that he’s dragged good old Barnabas along with him!  Yikes.  You see Peter would fellowship with Gentile Christians but when the up-tight old Board of Elders showed up he turned his back on the  Gentile Christians, snubbing some of this,his new church family.  Paul just shakes his head in disgust, looks around the room and who’s with Peter off in the corner with the high mucky-muck? That’s right, Barnabas!  Bet that didn’t last too long–Paul lets those hypocrites know all about it.  And Paul could do it– and he did it! Now step back and pause for a moment.What about you…and me?   Who am I avoiding?  Or looking down upon?  Or trying to please people covering up who I really am?  ‘All things to all people’ but not save them, but to preserve my image in their eyes?That’s something to ponder and repent of.   Now to Colossians where Paul mentions Mark his fellow disciple, the cousin of Barnabas.  That second-chance given by Barnabas really paid off in the life of Mark.  He’s back in the battle, he’s here to stay, he’s standing side-by-side with Paul in prison never to run away,never to desert, never again.  Who knows what encouragement, what kind word, what act of tough love, what second chance we may give someone that may be just what the Holy Spirit will use to mold a life for Jesus now and forever.  Who knows?  Want to find out?

COULD THEY BOTH BE RIGHT? Read Acts 15: 36-41 Again!

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Could they both be right?  Paul and Barnabas have a huge argument over whether to take John Mark on their second missionary journey for the Lord, since this young man has deserted them on the first journey.  Left them high and dry running back home to Jerusalem. Take him with us again?   Paul says in effect ‘no way, he better grow up first.  This is for the Lord, and we need no more distractions from the likes of John Mark.  Maybe some day…’  But Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement and John Mark’s cousin (Col.4:10), wants to give him another try, a second chance. Who’s right after all?   Well, as we know, the result is TWO power-packed missionary journeys spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ farther and faster  than even they imagined.  I still wonder though: could Paul and Barnabas both be right?  Stepping away from the actual situation, let me be personal here.  Sometimes in my life, the doors have been slammed closed right in my face.  Get moving, buddy.  Not here…not in our backyard.  And the job of pastor comes crashing down.  It hurt, to put it mildly…it was devastating and I can still feel the anxiety of the unknown future, what lay ahead.  Not just for me but for family and others as well.  I think the Apostle Paul would have advised me to take time off, to grow closer to the Lord and not that denomination any longer, stop trying to climb ladders professionally, talk more about Jesus than your plans for bigger and better churches just around the bend. But for now, no new missions for you. Grow…before you go.Get closer when the doors close.   And Paul would have been right.  God led me through times of growing and allowing times of failure and getting closer to Him before I would take a side-step here and there…getting close and then pulling back.  Do you hear what I’m saying?  Am I the only one with these experiences?  But then again Barnabas was right also.  I thank God for the people who gave me second and third chances…to minister.  A Roman Catholic priest who was a local hospital chaplain faced real criticism by having me, a Protestant, preach at the Catholic service at that hospital chapel two weeks after leaving my church …he didn’t care what people thought, he was Barnabas to me.  He said, ‘Get right back on that horse’!  He gave me a second chance when I didn’t even ask for it… and I am forever grateful.  And for a TV station that allowed me to do ‘Person-to-Person’ for 5 years witnessing in word and song to Jesus Christ– not just behind the walls of one church building  but throughout 2 whole counties.  And the church I just retired from, 14 years of preaching,teaching,  evangelism, mission projects, Bible studies, prayers groups…all from the Lord because I was given a second chance…all in the same town!  Have I seen what the Lord can do with my life?  And not just mine!  I think Paul and Barnabas were both right.  How about you?  Need to grow before you go?  Don’t rush it…spend lots of time with Him in the Bible and prayer with God’s people. Growing and growing in Him alone.   Need a second chance?  Pray for it…God will open doors and windows just for you… for others… for Him!  And maybe, just maybe, you need to give someone else a second chance. Think so?

THERE’S TROUBLE BREWING! Read Acts 15: 36-41

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‘There’s trouble, right here in River City’!  Well, ‘Music Man’, not referring to pool-playing downtown and the temptations of youth, but rather to what happened in the early church one day.  It happened one day, but trouble had been brewing for awhile.  It began when Paul and Barnabas (remember him?!) and some others sail from Barnabas’ home island of Cyprus for the Turkish port city of Perga.  In Acts 13:13 Luke tells us that John (his full name is John Mark, the writer of the Gospel so named) ‘left them to return to Jerusalem’.  If that’s all we knew, we’d think that nothing out-of-the-ordinary had happened with Mark and the others on this inaugural  missionary journey.  Maybe he had other commitments, possibly he had a message to take back to Jerusalem for the Apostles still there?  We wouldn’t know, would we?  But a few chapters later, Luke tells us that something has broken out between these missionary partners, Paul and Barnabas–and it’s all about John Mark.  You see Paul wants to travel back again to those towns where those new believers needed encouragement, proper teaching, whatever.  Paul tells Barnabas that they must go back and ‘see how they are doing’.  And Barnabas’ heart, that ‘Son of Encouragement’, would leap with joy at the thought.  But here we discover something we didn’t know before.  John Mark didn’t just go home or on a side-mission. No, Luke says that ‘he had deserted them’.  Oh, no, how horrible!  A deserter.AWOL.  Weak…troubled…a failure.  John Mark, Barnabas’ cousin, had abandoned them on their mission for the Lord.  Can you imagine?  Trouble among believers…a church split wide open.  And not just a slight tiff, either.  Luke says ‘they had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.’  Went their separate ways.  This was a big blow-up, indeed. Swords were sharp and sharpened.   And among leaders in the early church and early missionaries of the Prince of Peace. Prince of what?  Peace…shalom?  Well, you’ve been around awhile like I have.  We’ve seen these things happen.  Sometimes the shock just lingers for years and years.  Others have failed us and we have failed others as well.  I have and I’ve had it happen to me a number of times as well.  That’s just  life–even in the body of Christ.  No fun…disillusioning for sure.  But here’s one lesson from this story. My take on it.  Don’t let troubles that brew…stew.  Let them go…but you go on for the Lord.  Don’t let them stop you in your tracks.  Learn from them as much as you can…and then let them go.  Someone needs that message today…maybe you or possibly someone you know. If someone else, then forward this blog to them today. I think I’ll stop here to let you digest what God is saying to you right now.  Me, too.   But there’s more to this amazing story… for next time!

HERE HE IS AGAIN! Read Acts 9:26-31

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The first time Barnabas shows up in the Bible he’s a giving man, selling a piece of land and placing all the monies at the total disposal and discretion of the Apostles.  His given name is Joseph, he’s from the Israelite tribe of Levi. The Levites  were servants of the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. After the defeat and dispersion of Israel , the  Jews worshiped God in local  synagogues wherever they lived. Joseph was so special to the Apostles that they gave him the new name of Barnabas, ‘the Son of Encouragement’! He  was from Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean Sea off of what is today Turkey, a place of mixed religions and peoples, an island with a very ancient history.   I hope you’ve now read from Acts 9 to find out more about Barnabas, for this is where he shows up next in the Bible.  To set the stage a bit, a ferocious enemy and persecutor of the early church, a man named Saul, has had a rather dramatic conversion experience.That’s an understatement!    Now, he’s speaking out and preaching  about the Risen Lord Jesus, the Messiah!  Not against, but for.  Not an enemy, but a brother in Christ?  What, are you crazy?  Talk about the ultimate con trick.  Infiltrating our small group of believers from the inside to finish us off.  We must be so careful.  We were warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing.  And now Saul is one of us?  Yeah, right!  He wants to reduce us to maybe one!  And now the report is that he’s in Jerusalem looking to join us, to be one of us.  Oh, the fear and trembling going on.  Lord, deliver us from the likes of this Saul of Tarsus.  Help…help…help!  We just can’t believe it.  Can we blame these early Christians?  No, certainly not. I’m sure I’d be with them.  But one of them,  a man of courage, good old Barnabas, steps forward, trusting in the Lord no matter what, and goes to Saul.  The Bible says that Barnabas brought Saul to the Apostles telling them all about that dramatic encounter with Jesus on the Road to Damascus, where Saul was blinded and actually talked with the Risen Lord Jesus, who told Saul all about the godly plans Jesus had for him in the future, and how Saul, the persecutor was now Saul the preacher.  And how Saul’s life was now in danger from the very people he was one of just a short time ago.  Did you notice something about Barnabas? Something special?  A quality in him, this Son of Encouragement?  How did he know all this about Saul?  No e-mails or tweets or snail-mail in those days. No, Barnabas actually listened to Saul.  He was interested in what had happened to him.  He was genuine, he cared, he desperately wanted to know all about this man Saul and what had happened to him on that Road to Damascus.  Barnabas listened… and what an encouragement that can be.  What a gift you can give someone today.  Just to listen, just to care, just to hear their hearts and minds.  Doesn’t happen very often in life does it?   Could happen today and it could happen from you and me, to be an encouragement to some one today!  Hear their story…hold back yours.  That was Barnabas…but there’s more!