Acts 25, 26:19-32
When Paul told his judges of the command of Jesus that he should work for him whose followers he had persecuted, he said, “I was not disobedient.” The trouble with too many people is that they are disobedient. They hear the voice of God and do not obey it. They have glimpses of the lovely things of Christian life and do not strive to reach them. If only we would always be obedient, in little things as well as in great things, our feet would constantly be lifted higher and higher, each step taking us into a nobler, truer life, nearer to God.
It was the heavenly vision which Paul obeyed. There are visions that are earthly and there are visions that are heavenly. This world starts dreams in our hearts. But he who follows only earthly visions wins nothing that he can keep forever. There are also heavenly visions – glimpses of God’s beauty, revealings of God’s will, intimations of lovely things which we may attain. It was a heavenly vision that Paul had – a vision of Christ himself in his divine glory. Heavenly visions come to all young people, inviting them to pure, good, true, holy things. The Christian mother’s teachings, as she holds her little one on her knee and talks to it of Christ, place before the young eyes a vision of the Saviour in his beauty and love. When we meditate upon a verse of Scripture and it opens, giving us a glimpse of something lovely in character or starting in our minds a thought of duty, it is a heavenly vision that we are having. Every fragment of loveliness we see in a human life is a vision sent to win us toward better things. We should never be disobedient to any heavenly vision, but should follow it as an angel sent to woo us nearer to God.
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