“They Took Him Aside”

So, my entries here have been sparse since the move to NOLA. The Internet retailer that one of my new roommates ordered the router from somehow lost the order, and the item never shipped. Well, that problem has been resolved. So, it’s time to get this old blog back onto its feet.

I want to share a brief story that confirmed my decision to go to the seminary here in New Orleans. This story that I am about to describe is not something that happens all that frequently, but there have been moments when the Holy Spirit has directed me toward a passage of Scripture simply by placing a specific reference into my head. One morning during the week before I was supposed to move (I can’t remember precisely what day now), a voice whispered into my mind the book Acts, the chapter 18, and the verse number 24. I always take such things with a grain of thought because the heart and mind can easily twist God’s words in a manner similar to the way that the serpent twisted God’s words to deceive Eve.

Yet, this passage seemed entirely appropriate and served as a great comfort:

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

Apollos had a good understanding of Scripture; he was eloquent and knowledgeable concerning the faith, but there came a time when he needed further instruction from those who had been at it a while longer than he. As I have spent time praying and considering my call into ministry, the doors opened up for my time to enter into such a season as this.

I had been taking classes through the North Georgia extension center of NOBTS without a sense of peace about going full time into seminary. As I started to register for the upcoming semester, though, I encountered a level of excitement for the classes I saw on the plan of study that I had not quite felt before. At that point, I felt that perhaps the winds of change were blowing. Eventually, the slight breeze brought on the rush of a new season of life for me. It’s exciting and, with the advent of learning Greek and the Masters level study of Christianity, a little unnerving.

The Lord, though, is faithful. Such a truth tends to be difficult for us to grasp. At least, it is difficult for us to take the word “faith” and make it a regular practice, but the Lord has taken me aside. He will continue to instruct and lead me along this path of relationship with Him.

It is exciting, and it is a little unnerving. What would this walk be, though, without a little disruption of that temporal, fleshly peace we crave so much?