After Jesus finished His work on earth, He ascended to heaven, to take His strictly reserved place at the right hand of God. While His disciples faithfully heeded to His command to take the Great Commission forward, apostles Peter and Paul stood out as the bastions of New Testament Christianity. They endured many forms of persecution, imprisonments, trials and death threats to finish their race as martyrs for Christ. It baffles me, when I try to reason out, how they could respond the way they did, during troublous times.

Peter for example, bound with two chains and lying between two soldiers, effortlessly drifted to slumberland, not caring two hoots about his predicament. Peter knew for sure, that God would do something supernatural to pull him out of his misfortune. Rightly so, God sent an angel to bring him out of the slammer, to leave his Jewish fault-finders dumbfounded (Acts 12:1-19).

Paul and Silas, jailed for similar reasons, responded differently by doing a praise and worship gig for the prison guards, absolutely unnerved by their situation. God heard their frenzied worship and made the earth quake, so that they could escape. Paul walked out from prison, not before giving an altar call and conducting a baptism ceremony, as though it was just another day in office! (Acts 16:16-40)

Perilous times are not too far away, and thinking about this, I would like to sign off with a question to all of us.

How would you respond, if you were put into a similar situation like Peter and Paul in the coming days?

Thought to ponder –

“A Christian is like a tea bag. He is no good until he’s dipped in hot water!”