JOINED IN: Goodbook 04-26-12

Goodbook messages arrive every Monday, Thursday, and Friday with a Scripture reading and ideas for how to apply the reading in our lives. We are reading through the book of Acts. For additional Scripture reading, you can follow the Advanced Track.

Reading: Acts 16:22
(Advanced Track: Ps 108‐110; 1 Chronicles 23‐25)

²² The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 

Application:

Can you remember having this dialogue as a child or parent?  Kid: “Come on.  Why can’t I do it?  Everyone else is doing it.”  Parent: “If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it to?

I remember having that dialogue several times as a child.  It has stayed with me.  Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean it’s a good thing for us to be doing?  In our reading for today, the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas.

If you remember the last devotion, some slave owners were upset because Paul had freed their slave girl from a demon and now they couldn’t make a profit off of her.  In anger, the slave owners drug Paul and Silas before the authorities.  What they were doing was not right.  Nevertheless, the activity gained attention and momentum.  The crowds joined in the brutal attack.

Think for a moment about times in your life when you joined the crowd and participated in hurtful activity.  Maybe you joined a crowd in teasing another kid.  Maybe you joined a crowd in stealing or vandalizing property.  Maybe you joined a crowd in using drugs.  Maybe you joined a crowd in using hurtful language.  Maybe you joined a crowd in cheating.  I’m sure you could probably add other examples.  I can.

Now think about today.  The crowds around us often engage in behaviors that are hurtful – teasing, drug and alcohol abuse, marital unfaithfulness, selfishness, competing with others for status, placing work or money above family, watching media that degrades others and ourselves, overeating, busyness that pushes God and others out, lying, cheating, verbal or physical abuse, apathy to the problems of the world, etc.  I’m sure you could probably add more examples.  I can. 

Youth and adults face a lot of pressure to join the crowd in hurtful behaviors.  So what can we do?

1) Stand up for what you know is right no matter what the crowd is doing.
2) Get in crowds that are intentional about loving and following God – church, small group, youth group, adult ministry, accountability partners, etc.

Share your thoughts, questions, and ideas about how to apply this…