today as A was napping, i read several chapters of acts. i know that in each season of life the way scripture touches us is different. today as i was reading chapter 5, the latter verses, i thought "are you kidding me?" so the apostles are arrested and they were arrested because of jealousy (v. 17). the high priests and everyone else were jealous. the thing that made me think "are you kidding me?" was in verse 41. "the apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." seriously? if you look in verse 40 they were flogged. i don't know exactly what that means, so i asked my pastor and he said that it was like tying a man's hands and stretching them. then they take this whip and hit them with it. seriously, they endured that without once saying, "okay i won't teach in the name of Jesus." my pastor said that he thought maybe it was one at a time that this happened. which meant that all the other apostles saw what was coming and still... then as they were leaving from this flogging, they are rejoicing because they were glad they were thought worthy of such suffering.
i definitely was not flogged, but do feel like this suffering is unbearable. i am hopeful that it will get better and want to just look to Jesus.
22 more days...
