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Bible Questions and Spiritual Discussion
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Something else from this reading stuck out to me though. Even in a "sharp disagreement" God was glorified. God used this to split the men and go two seperate ways to spread the gospel and preach to more people the Love of Christ. That is the part I focus on. I know that doesn't help in your particular situation.
But just know that as long as you are glorifying God with the seperation then God can do miracles with you, if however you are not glorifying Him by this seperation, then the seperation should not be. I am not taking sides, rather pointing to the fact that even when they seperated, each man continued to preach and God was able to use them. God is the master chess player to me. He has a plan for every move we make. Sometimes we try so hard to do certain things, but God is thinking 80 moves ahead of us.
Praying for you and your family.
Love each other,
Doddy
| Dodd...can God be truly glorified in sharp disagreement? Seems kind of phony to preach reconciliation when you are not actually walking in it?
| Yes! He can be. He can be glorified by all of our silly stumbling ways as long as hearts are seeking his glory. 2 mission teams went out instead of one. At least three of those men grew up in the faith as they had to live it out. Far from perfect they persevered. It takes people a long time to grow up into truthes they know. Mark became a man needed by Paul when Paul was imprisoned and aged and humbled. Paul became a man who knew his need and was more gentle with those who had growing up to do. Barnabas was already an encourager and willing to give people room to grow, so I'm sure he was just fine with letting them do that. Real men doing the real gospel with imperfect passion and a God who gives them room to grow up. It isn't phoney, it is earthy and real and somehow gets amazing history changing things done for God's glory in spite of being so dang ordinary! lol! Angels could do it, but I like the fact that God uses us, as messed up as that is!
| God can do anything Rebecca. He is boundless, limitless, and amazing.
But I think you are making an assumption that isn't Biblical. The last we hear of Barnabas is this passage. We don't know that they didn't reconcile. Also, the disagreement was sharp "about taking Mark," not about the Gospel, or about the mission field, or about Christ, or about theology. If they had disagreed about any of those things I could agree with your point, but think of two guys going back and forth "I want to take Mark" "well I don't" and on and on until eventually they say "FINE! YOU take Mark and I will go to such and such!" That is the extent of it. There was nothing for either of them to forgive, so there was no interference with the ministry and no phoniness.
Love each other,
Doddy
| Kelley and Dodd...thanks so much for your interpretations to the Paul and Barnabas estrangement. Kelley...I am so thankful for Godly counsel..I loved the "real men doing the real gospel with imperfect passion with a God who gives us room to grow up". Dodd...I want to thank you for bringing me back to the disagreement...sometimes I need to just get out of the way and let God take care of the details. Thanks so much! Be blessed...both of you!
| Rebecca, I can partly understand your concerns. My mother and husband haven't spoken in three and a half years because of a fight they had at Christmas. I have daydreams about sitting both of them down and telling them that they have two choices: either figure out a way to resolve their differences or have nothing to do with each other for the rest of their lives. My prayers for reconciliation haven't been answered yet. This weighs heavily on me and I don't know what "getting out of the way and letting God do it" looks like in this case.
| When I search the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament, I fully recognize man getting in the way of God. There are bloody wars, divisions, Families fighting, entire towns and villages ravaged...one clan "getting even" for another clans trangressions. At some point in time, it has to end. The conflict of Paul and Barnabas struck such a familiar chord with me because they are men of God, on the mission field, diligently striving to lead people to Christ and yet there is this rift of discord that separated them. I have reached the conclusion that I have to allow God to resolve the differences. The more I interfere and interject, the worse it gets. I am in a time of silence before God. His voice must be heard...and He has no intention on talking over me. Tina, I know that God has a plan of action for both of our families...I pray that you and your family have a healing of the wounds that have caused this separation to occur.
| This was a good discussion Rebecca.
| my church is going through Acts right now and a few weeks ago we went over this exact thing and he addressed this issue. what he said is that the reason for the disagreement was that John Mark left. he said that what the Greek word for left meant was that he broke the covenant that was made when they set out on their mission trip. he says that the intriguing thing here isn't that one of the men was right or wrong, but rather that they went their separate ways. both men had very successful mission trips after the split, but it is interesting that the book of Acts follows only Paul and not Barnabas after the split. Luke must have thought that Paul was doing more significant work.
| thank you for responding to the conversation. I appreciate all of the helpful insight.
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