God's Perfect Timing

 "Timing is everything." It's an old adage, and certainly guilty of overstatement. Yet, the Bible affirms the benefit of timing things well. For instance, Solomon reminds us that "A person finds joy in giving an apt reply - and how good is a timely word!," (Proverbs 15:23). Think of how good, "Will you marry me?" fits when it is spoken to the right person at the right time.

As good as humans can be at saying or doing the right thing at the right time, God is infinitely better. While God is not limited by time or space, He is by no means unfamiliar with the concept of time. He invented time, and the progression of moments serves Him and His purposes.

Worship the God Who Calls

Paul, along with Timothy, Silas, and Luke the physician, traveled into Europe, to Philippi.  At Philippi, they waited for the Sabbath intending to preach the Gospel in the synagogue, only there was no synagogue.  

The King's Banquet

During this week around 2,000 years ago in Palestine, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and began teaching quite openly about the kingdom of God or heaven.  More particularly, Jesus taught on who and how to enter the kingdom of heaven, and his teaching encouraged the poor and downcast and unnerved the religious leaders.  One of his public speeches included a parable about a king giving a wedding feast for his servant.  In Matthew 22:1-14, his audience included both followers and opponents, as well as a general crowd made up of curious Jews.  In the parable the kingdom of heaven is compared to a feast that is ready to be attended and enjoyed.  However, the guests not only rejected the invitation summons, they beat and killed the king's messengers.  Thus, the king sent the messengers to all the commoners that could be found to fill his hall with guests.