Psalm126; Acts 12:1-5

Psalm 126
Sometimes God does a work so quickly or unexpectedly that it seems to be a dream. When this happens, we can only sit back and say, "Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!" Even the enemies of God recognize His greatness. vv. 1-3

When God blesses us, He wants us to be a blessing to others as well; He wants us to be a refreshing stream to those who are still in the desert. v. 4 And then He wants us to get to work in the harvest too. We are to plant the seed of the Good News about Jesus, water it with our tears, and then one day we will sing and rejoice as we bring in the harvest of people for Jesus.

Acts 12:1-5
Here we meet King Herod Agrippa who persecuted the Christians in order the please the Jewish leaders. In fact, he had James killed with the sword. James, the brother of John, had been one of the 12 original apostles. Peter, also one of the 12, was arrested and imprisoned under heavy guard. "But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him." We will see that God rescued Peter from this crisis, but He allowed James to be martyred. This is an example of the mysteries of God. In this life, we will not understand why some people suffer and others do  not, why some are disabled and others gifted, why some die young and others live a long life. We can't answer these questions because we do not see everything God sees, and we cannot know the mind of God. We do know that God has allowed evil in this world for the time being, but we CAN trust Him, and we know that He has promised to eventually destroy all evil and sorrow.