In His Steps

Acts 25:18When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. 19Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.

22Then Agrippa said to Festus, "I would like to hear this man myself." He replied, "Tomorrow you will hear him."

Here is a model for us. For as smart as Paul was..the laws that he knew….the Gospel remains quite simple. I know a man named Jesus….who lived, who died, and who lives again. This is the story Agrippa wants to hear.

Paul’s live was changed, saved yet ruined, once he met Jesus. All he had lived for, all he had acquired, the reputation he had built for himself, the course he had laid out for his life…..turned on a dime the moment he met Jesus. Paul models Matt 10:39 here…”Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

He sits in prison, accused by the very same people who he appeased, answering to the same Jews that cheered his former ruthlessness.

The challenge is here. Do we tell the story or not? I read a book called, interestingly enough, “In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?” first published in 1896 that chronicles the paths of several people who take the challenge of a local pastor to live like Jesus. From the newspaper man (who no longer ran liquor store ads) to the housewife to the business man. These people took up the challenge to live life, as best they could, answering the question on EVERY decision they made, What Would Jesus Do? Then do that very thing. I would suppose that if each of us did this very thing, that it would change our lives, the course of our lives, our jobs and our families, much like Paul’s.