tough as nails…
devotion today came from acts 14 paul and barnabas are preaching in lystra…a cripple man is healed and the city goes crazy calling paul hermes and barnabas they called zeus. paul and barnabas had to run into the mob tearing there clothes and crying out that they were human just as them…they were not gods. the jews subsided until some neighboring jews from 2 cities came and stirred the crowd up. they in turn dragged paul out stoned him and left him for dead outside the city. the disciples gather around paul and he gets up and walks into the city…that must have been some prayer or paul was “tough as nails” the next day they leave lystra for derbe where he preaches so well that many come to Christ.
here is where i see paul is tough as nails-he turns around the next day and returns to the city where he was stoned as well as visited the two cities where the people came and stirred up the crowd from. Paul is either crazy or full of faith and power…he writes about strengthening the believers in those cities and says “we must go thru many hardships to enter the kingdom” paul is tough as nails! he is a man’s man and not a wimp…now that’s what we need in the church today! real men!
