Saturday, March 6th, ‘10

Saturday, March 6^th, ‘10

MAD YET?

“…Paul, you are beside yourself; much learning has made you mad” (Acts 26:24)

You’ve read of the madman of Gadara but have you considered the madman of Tarsus, Saul of Tarsus who later changed his name to Paul? Yea, Paul had always been mad. He was a fire-breathing Pharisee – “And Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord…” (Acts 9:1) We can’t condone his belligerence but sometimes God looks for a man with personality, someone with moxie. His fire was misplaced but not misspent. It is “good to be zealously affected always in a good thing” (Gal 4:18). Radical Pharisaism wasn’t a good thing but radical Christianism is. Either be mad in sin or mad at sin but by all means live in at least a degree of madness. Useless is the person that doesn’t have a consuming passion. Jesus threatens to spew lukewarm Laodiceans out of His mouth.

What pushes your button? What provokes madness within? Paul asked, “who is offended, and I burn not” (2 Cor 12:29). When his people hurt he hurt. If you want to raise a man’s thermometer reading just mess with his vision or life passion. We are to be “fervent in spirit” (Rom 12:11). The Greek there, zeo, means to boil liquids. Paul lived at the boiling point, both as a sinner and as a saint. Remember when they called you a madman? Back then you’d stay out all night hopping from bar to bar. How come now you get restless if Sunday evening church lasts past the stroke of eight? If you could party all night for the devil can’t you pray all night for the Lord? It all depends on where your madness resides.

There is a band of Moms called MADD that have a right to be mad. Drunk drivers robbed loved ones from their homes that can never be replaced. They’re boiling inside but using the heat to fuel change, instead of vengeance. There is a madness that comes with love. Solomon penned, “Love is strong as death…the coals thereof are coals of fire…” (Song 7:6) Some call it being “madly” in love. Ladies, men, do you prefer mellowness to madness? Would you rather the relationship come as a calculated business transaction or as spontaneous combustion? Worship is to be like that. Felix thought much learning had made Paul’s mind snap. Fact is, he had seen a vision of Christ. Forgiven he became fanatic. Funny how fanaticism is a virtue on the ballfield or office desk but is considered a mental problem on the pew. Jesus suffered the same criticism. His friends said, “He is beside himself” (Mark 3:21). And the Upper Room crowd on the day of Pentecost were counted as crazies. “Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine” (Acts 2:13). Personally, I would rather be thought drunk than passed out! Today’s bland band of believers looks more the latter when nothing boils in the spirit. There is a certain gladness in madness, not anger, but madness, that quality of being sold out to one’s convictions and love for the Lord. It’s catching. All fire is catching. Paul had it, I want it, I pray that you get it.