Acts 18...Don't stop

I read chapter 18 a couple of times, then a verse hit my like "DUH??!?!" I don't know how I missed it the first time.
Look at verse 9-10 with me (again!), "One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, don't be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.""

Every now and then, He leads me to look at the verse in another version, and today I am SOOOOO glad I did.  Here is the same passage from The Message....

"One night the Master spoke to Paul in a dream: "Keep it up, and don't let anyone intimidate or silence you. No matter what happens, I'm with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you. You have no idea how many people I have on my side in this city." 

WOWZERS!!! This spoke to me so strongly!! There is so much power and strength in these 2 verses for me....I am going to break it apart piece by piece, but I'll try to be brief (because I could go on all day!!)

1. The Master....think about that for a minute...dictionary.com defines master as a person with the ability or power to use, control, or dispose of something.  That makes me think of that old Bill Cosby line, where he says I brought you into this life, I can take you out. LOL! But seriously, to me that means God will use me to do His work every day I am willing to listen....but if there is a day that I say "I just don't feel like it today Lord", He may decide to use someone else.  His work will be done, and if I say no, someone else will say yes. Am I ready to allow Him to be Master in my life??

2. "don't let anyone intimidate or silence you".... I have always felt like my story, what happened in my life was for a very specific reason.  There is someone I am supposed to reach with my story, a heart it will touch and change forever. I have told my story hundreds of times now, even to specific women God put in my path to talk to... but I still feel like I haven't reached "the one" I was supposed to yet. So I will never let someone say, ok Libby that's enough talking about domestic violence. Or ok, we get it, you were hurt. Or we get it, God turned your life around and brought new blessings into your path. I will not stop saying it until every women has heard a voice in the darkness sayings it's ok to stand up against that, it's ok to be knocked down but now you let God help you stand back up and start anew.  I refuse to believe I went through that nightmare for nothing, God is and will continue to use that for His Glory.

3. "I'm with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you"....for a loooonnnngggg time, I didn't believe that statement. I really didn't. But why?? I know who God was, I knew what He was capable of, I knew of His love, and I believed He was bigger than anything I could imagine....but I didn't believe He WOULD protect me. Did you catch that? It's not that I didn't believe He COULD....I didn't believe He WOULD.  Why would He get in my little mess?  There are a lot bigger things for Him to worry about in the world than me.  But this is just another case of me putting Him in a human box.  As a human, I can only handle so much at one time, some things take precedence, there are priorities.  For example, if I am trying to get ready for work, and Abigail comes knocking on my door for the millionth time just in that morning, I say "is anyone dying or bleeding....then I will be there in a minute". As an OCD type, I have lists, things are in order of importance. But God is not human. Let me say that again...GOD IS NOT HUMAN!!! He doesn't think that way! Everyone that He created is just as important as the next....preacher, singer, musician, drug addict, prisoner, president, mommy, 7 year old, lawyer, or homeless....we are ALL precious in His eyes.  We are His children, and everything that grieves our heart grieves His. So He is ALWAYS with me, and ALWAYS protecting me.

4. "You have no idea how many people I have on my side in this city"...I love this part!! I love the "you have no idea".  I really don't. Sometimes as believers we feel like we are the minority out in the world, at work, or at school, or in our neighborhoods, or even in our own family.  But really...we have no idea!! If we would all just rise up and BE THE CHURCH....TOGETHER!!!! Think of what an impact we could make in our homes, workplaces, cities, the world!  So just think about it for a minute....there is a church on almost every corner of downtown that I can think of, so let's say there are 10 churches.  And even if they only each had 100 members....all of a sudden your voice of 1 has become 1000....but only if we all stand up and speak as one voice!! And fight for change in our world.  We spend so much time tearing each other down IN the church, how can we ever expect to make a change AS the church??


Oh precious Protector...thank you today for my story and my voice, and the calling to reach out to others with both. Continue to burden my heart with "the one" I am to find and tell of the wonders of my loving Jesus. In Your Matchless Name, Amen.