Stick with The Lord

Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God,was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleaveunto the Lord.. – Acts 11.23

I chose the old King James translation today for a reason. Irealise that we don't speak 17th century English today. I realise that we don'tuse all of those old words. But I like the phrase 'cleave to the Lord' in thisverse.

The disciples were now free to preach the gospel to anyone.A few of them travelled to Antioch where a bunch of Greeks lived and they preached thegospel to them. God was with them and a great number of them were saved. When theygot saved Barnabas was sent on a follow up mission.

When he preached he pleaded with the new believers to ‘withpurpose of heart’ or with a determination, they would ‘cleave to the Lord.’

I like words. Cleave is interesting because for a good partof English history it had two opposite meanings. One use was the spilt apart;the other meant to stick to with permanence.

The modern versions all use something like ‘continue’ withthe Lord here. I am sure that is a fine translation and was probably chosenbecause today almost no one uses ‘cleave’ to mean ‘stick to.’

But I like the idea of cleave and it’s ‘stick to’ meaning.When Barnabas preached to these believers he urged them to prioritise ‘stickingto’ the Lord.

I think we need a good dose of sticking to the Lord as we gothrough life. When things are going great just stick to the Lord and don’twander off. When things are just kind of coasting along, just keep sticking.When the storms of life come our way and try to tear us apart hold on tight andstick to the Lord.

Just stick.