Stand up!

Acts 14:10: Paul called out in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet." He jumped up and began to walk about.

In context, this passage is about Paul and Barnabas fleeing persecution and going to Lystra to share the Good News of Jesus. There's nothing like a healing miracle to get people's attention. There's a lot of detail given in this story--the people spoke Lycaonian and worshipped the Greek gods. They thought, witnessing the miracle, that Barnabas was Zeus and Paul was Hermes. There was a priest of Zeus near by ready to sacrifice some oxen at a temple. Paul used their stunted knowledge about their own religion and the natural world to tell them the Good News.

Do you ever see anything in Scripture that you've never noticed before? I read this as a message to us and the churches in this time of fear and weakness that has crippled us.  Not just stand up, but stand up straight. Not on your knees begging for permission from the government, but stand up on your feet ready for business! Let’s kick butt; we’ve been crippled long enough.