Preacher Diaries

Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

Acts 3:6.

Do not focus so much on what you do not have, that you lose sight of what more you have – even in such abundance and to share. Peter and John knew what they had, despite what they lacked.  They were frank about what they lacked, yet they were not going to let anyone blackmail them with that particular lack.  They were not going to let anyone put them under the unfortunate stress and pressure of a struggle to ‘also give’ what they didn’t have, just to meet some outsider’s sudden public expectations.

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And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 

Numbers 23:14.

1. How Many Altars Make a Curse? 

Balaam was a famed prophet of international repute whom kings often hired to curse their foes.  He was so highly ranked that, like flocking insects to a night lamp, nobles were his clients (Numbers 22:4-17).  He was a man of such aura that even animals took up a human voice in his sessions (Numbers 22:28-30).  That was whom Balak the king of Moab consulted to cast a spell over the Israelites in transit from Egypt.  To do that effectively, Balaam raised seven consecutive altars in each of three separate locations, making a total of twenty-one altars, to wage just one battle of a curse.  Unfortunately, those many altars with their lavish sacrifices failed against his innocent and unaware targets (Numbers 23:1, 11, 14, 29).  How many altars make a potent curse?

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It might take a miracle to get some baby, but it will take the mother to nurse that miracle.  If she should fail, that miracle could die, prophetic though the miracle had been.  Often, we invest intensity to procure a miracle, and celebrate it with more intensity and noise, but not always have we watched over that gift with the same dedication.  Every miracle is often human participation in divine intervention.  Where the human element fails, miracles also often fail, despite having come graciously from God.

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This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. 

Acts 7:35

1. Messiahs Refused 

Not always do an oppressed people recognize and receive their messiah, because messiahs don’t often look like it.  A people’s reception or refusal of their messiah, however, does not dismiss his mandate, although it can diminish his mission to them.  Reception often determines delivery.  In other words, how well one receives a messenger often determines how much of the message, or of the benefits of the message, one gets (Matthew 10:41; Mark 6:11).  It may also be said that reception begets reception.  That is, the reception that one gives to a message or messenger often influences how much of the related benefits one can receive.  

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1. The Insight of a Prophet 

One tiring thirsty afternoon, Jesus broke a long-distance trip on foot to sit by a midway Samaritan well where He struck a conversation with a local woman.  By prophetic insight, at one point in their discussion, Jesus said to her, “thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband” (John 4:18).  She was very shocked at how the stranger knew so much about her private life, and that opened the door to other matters.

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