Tabitha

Week 44  Acts 9

This year I was noticing the spectacular events in the church.
On the Day of Pentecost people were beside themselves with wonder. They were amazed and perplexed.
When the apostles performed miracles everyone was filled with awe.
The lame man walked and people were absolutely astounded…and in awe of the wonderful thing that had happened.
Ananias & Sapphira died on-the-spot and people were filled with great fear.
Stephen performed amazing miracles and signs.
In Samaria when Philip performed miracles there was great joy.
Aeneas was healed and the whole population…turned to the Lord.
Tabitha was raised from the dead.
I could easily form the impression that the NT church was a parade of spectacles. But there was quite a bit of low-key normalcy at the same time. I noticed when I read Tabitha’s story there’s only two things said about her life: she was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor (the example given was that she made clothing for widows in Lydda).
It’s one of the great short stories in Acts. All that Tabitha did was to help the poor and do kind things for people. It wasn’t very much…no inexplicable jaw-dropping actions by Tabitha. But there was standing-room only when she died.

Note: quotes from Acts 2:7 12 2:43 3:10-11 5:5 11 6:8 8:6 9:35 40 36 (NLT). End of month report: I’ve read 1587-pages out of 1730. So I’m staying ahead.