God Glorified in "The Inner Cell"

I have decided to start blogging........again. That's right, I used to have a blog......but I never updated it. Somehow when I merged my Google accounts it got deleted and is nowhere to be found. I can't even use the same URL I had before. So here goes another shot at successfully sharing life with all of my friends and family.

You might be thinking to yourself, "Why is he calling his blog 'The Inner Cell'? That sounds so gloomy and depressing." I have found in life that times that are gloomy and depressing are often when God glorifies himself most. That is certainly the experience Paul and Silas had when they were thrown into prison together.

We read in the second half of Acts 16 (starting in verse 16) a story of these two men who were journeying together proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. Paul casts a demon out of a slave girl, and her master wasn't very happy about that. They are turned over to the Roman officials who have them beaten and tell a jailer to put them in prison. We read in verse 20, "Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks." (ESV, italics added). So we find Paul and Silas in an extremely gloomy and depressing place, and on top of that they were just beaten. However, instead of letting their circumstances control how they acted they continued to glorify God. Acts 16: 25-26 says, "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened." 

FASCINATING! Did you catch what just happened? It wasn't just Paul and Silas whose chains were broke looks.....it happened to everyone! I believe that as Christians our worship of God should impact those around us. And, as in the case of Paul and Silas, it should bring freedom to their lives. The story goes on to tell us that the jailer and his entire family received Christ and were baptized.

I hope that through this blog God will impact the lives of those who read it. In some cases, I pray, it will set them free from sin. That is what God desires, isn't it? For every human being to have freedom in the name of Jesus Christ.