Ten years ago I had a dream that I was in a desolate land where a bunch of people were being kept in a prison. While the intimidating appearance of the prison made it look like no one could escape, it actually seemed that it wouldn’t be that hard to break out of. That being said, me and my mentor created a plan to liberate some of the prisoners—especially the children held there.
The hardest part was getting inside. But once we did, it was actually quite easy to get the prisoners out. As we gathered children and their parents together, they formed a line and hurried right out the front door.
Sometime after our escape, I was approached by an adult who pointed at the stars and said, “That’s you.” I laughed the statement off as complete gibberish. But later in the dream, a young boy pointed at a star and reiterated, “That’s you.”
“Why do people keep saying that?” I asked.
“Because you’re from another land,” he answered.
After Paul and his friends had preached the gospel and ticked off a bunch of locals, they were dragged before the authorities and given the following charge: “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here… and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
Like Paul, all Christians are from another land. The Bible identifies us as citizens and ambassadors of Heaven and it is there that Jesus is King over us. As we live out the gospel here on earth, we turn the world upside down and liberate the oppressed, because that’s what Jesus does. That’s what Heaven does. “That’s you.”
*This devotional was created out of the themes of Acts 17:1-15 found in today’s reading at CommonPrayer.net.
Jamin Bradley 