Re: Mix

Ian El-Paget February 01, 2025 5 6

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Acts 16: 25-34 (NIV)

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

Let’s change position in this remix.

Imagine yourself as one of the other prisoners listening to Paul and Silas. Their portion is the same as yours in a dark wet dirty dungeon of a prison.  Locked up, probably only still alive because they hadn’t decided your fate or hadn’t decided what torturous means they were going to use for you to meet your fate.

And here in the darkness, in the cold, on the hard floor where you cannot sleep, roll the echoes of two men singing praise to God in the dead of night. Theirs is a song of hope, a song of deliverance. Are they mad? Yet the song they sing is strangely warming, not just your heart, but your mind. You have heard these songs before. And now you are transported to another time, another place. You are no longer where you are, but you have not yet left. Your soul has been lifted to another realm where the darkness is light, and stillness dancing. 

Then comes the earthquake, the shaking, the rattling, the doors breaking, the bars bending — freedom, freedom!

But somehow you are not able to leave, you realise your soul was already set free, not by some freak force of nature but by a song of praise sang by two men in the deepest darkest part of the dungeon. 

This is the power of your praise. This power is not just for you. It is for those in the deepest darkest places. Today let your voice sing in praise regardless of the circumstance. I tell you the truth, if you keep quiet, there is a voice in the darkness that draws people even further down. But praise comes from the courts of heaven and silences all others. 

Prayer:

My prayer for today is an adaptation of the NIV translation of Psalm 8.

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth. 

Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them, what am I that you care for me?

You have made me a little lower than Elohim and crowned me with glory and honour.

You made me a ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under my feet.

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!