When Turnabout is Fair Play

I've been in the book of Acts lately and I noticed an interesting recurring concept. At the beginning of Acts, Jesus ascends to heaven and the church starts in Jerusalem. Literally thousands are coming to Christ. And, almost immediately, persecution begins. That's bad. But ... look what happened. In the persecution, Christians started fleeing Jerusalem. And the gospel went out. Oh, that's good.

By the ninth chapter the Pharisees are sending their hitman, Saul, to hunt down Christians in Damascus. That's really bad. Of course, on his way, Saul gets knocked down by a light, has a face to face encounter with Christ, and is radically converted. He becomes the Apostle to the Gentiles. Oh, that's good.

In Acts 13 the church at Antioch sent Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary trip with John Mark accompanying them. After some difficult encounters, Mark bails on them and returns to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). That's bad. Later, when Paul and Barnabas were planning their second trip, Barnabas wanted to take Mark again and Paul refuses. According to the text, "And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus" (Acts 15:39). That's really bad. Except ... they ended up creating two teams where there was originally one. Oh, that's good.

In Acts 18, Paul arrives in Corinth where he meets Aquila and Priscilla. Now, this married couple were in Corinth because they were kicked out of Rome by the Emperor Claudius (Acts 18:2). That's bad. Aquila and Priscilla became important figures in the church. They even trained Apollos (Acts 18:24-26). Oh, that's good.

Then there was the riot in Jerusalem where Paul ends up appealing to be tried by Caesar (Acts 25:12). A brilliant maneuver, it seemed, except that when they questioned him further, they found no reason to try him ... but couldn't release him because he appealed to Caesar (Acts 26:32). That's bad. But God planned for Paul to stand before Caesar (Acts 27:23-24) and Paul ended up in Rome. That's good.

I don't know if you've picked it up yet. It appears that God is in the habit of using "bad" things -- unpleasant, painful, destructive, even evil things -- to turn things to their best. It seems that God, in fact, causes all things to work together for good. Oh, wait ... I think I've seen that somewhere. Anyway, the next time you encounter difficulty, just remember this theme: "You intend it for evil, but God intends it for good." Every time. Without fail.