It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.  When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each.  Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

Considering that James had already been murdered, the situation looked pretty grim for Peter.  But, just when Peter’s life was placed on the chopping block, God sent an angel to the rescue.  The angel appeared in the cell, smacked Peter to wake him up, told him to grab his stuff, released his chains and guided him past the guards and away from the jail.

Talk about being saved by the bell.  In Peter’s hour of need, God came through.  While we won’t always be rescued by angels, the knowledge that God is in control and that He knows the best path for our lives should never escape us.  We may be faced with tough situations in which we must ensure some pain (not everyone has such a heroic and angelic rescue), but if we maintain our faith and knowledge that the Lord is at the helm, those dead-end dilemmas won’t overtake our lives.  The Lord really can — and often will — rescue us in our hour of need.

Verse nine reads, “Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.”  We may not recognize that the Lord is at work in the midst of personal chaos (hindsight is always much more accurate than our perceptions while dealing with life’s dramas), but we should remain faithful and follow God’s calls, as Peter did in Acts.  What an awesome lesson to retain and practice.  Anything truly is possible with and through Christ.

Today’s entry is about America’s “National Honesty Day.”  And, to be quite honest (no pun intended), this is the first time I’ve heard of such a designation.  Alas, April 30th is Honesty Day!  Read more about it here.

The entry caused me to think over how prone we all are, as sinful beings, to lying.  Sometimes the lies are simple or, as we tell ourselves at the time, harmless.  Other times, our lies multiply and breed even more mis-truths.  I know I’ve been guilty (and, unfortunately, will likely be guilty of such offenses again in the future) of this.  In the Bible, Proverbs 13:5 says the following,

A righteous man hates lying, But a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.

Additionally, Proverbs 12:17 says,

He who speaks truth declares righteousness, But a false witness, deceit.

After my conversation with Nate Phelps yesterday (son of “pastor” Fred Phelps), lying and the damage it can do is such an appropriate topic (an article will follow, though you can read my past thoughts on Westboro Baptist Church here).

In the end, we’re all prone to lying, but we’re not incapable of stopping.  Surely, we can be more aware and place more value on the truth.  Even small lies are unacceptable, though they may not seem so at the time.  In discussing politics, in our jobs, when dealing with family and in other areas of life, we may perpetuate mis-truths without even realizing it.  We’ll never be perfect, but this is one area we can all strive to work harder to rein in.

Just some thoughts to start the day.