Sun, Dec 29th - 9:08PM
Acts 5:40-42
Acts 5:40 And to him they agreed: and when they had
called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should
not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41And they departed
from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to
suffer shame for his name. 42And daily in the
temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
You get that? They rejoiced because they were beaten for the name of Christ? How many of us would rejoice for being
beaten? Probably not many of us
including myself but Christ told believers they should expect to be persecuted
for His name. And did the Apostles stop
preaching Christ because they had been beaten? No, they went right back to teaching and preaching in the name of
Christ.
Christ told believers they will be hated for His
name and since Christ is not a liar we know this to be a true statement and if
you don’t find this to be true you really need to ask yourself why not. You need to ask yourself “Christ told me I
would be hated for His name so why am I not hated?” Because trust me if you boldly proclaim the
name of Christ in this world of sin you are going to meet resistance. Now if all you ever do is spend time talking about
Christ with other believers than you probably are not going to meet resistance
at least I hope not but that also means you are not reaching out to the lost if
you only are preaching to the choir as the saying goes. If you take the Gospel into enemy territory
trust me Satan is going to put up a fight. Satan isn’t going to let you rescue souls without a fight.
Sadly so many Christians today let any little excuse
keep them from going to church. A lot of
times a little bit of rain, a little bit of snow, or cold weather, or the
sniffles is all it takes to keep them from church if that all it takes and you
are looking for excuse not to go Satan is going to send an excuse every Sunday
to keep you away. We need to wake up. We are in a fight that has been going on
since the beginning between the forces of Satan and God and fighting is never
easy. It takes Soldiers of Christ who
are brave, committed, motivated, and willing to suffer for His name to win
souls for Christ. If the early church
had the same attitude many Christians had today Christianity would have died in
Jerusalem 2000 years ago. Would you
rejoice for suffering for His name? For
many Christians around the world this is a reality and the Western church
better wake up because it soon could be a reality here.
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Sun, Dec 29th - 12:24AM
1 Samuel 16:6-7
1 Samuel 16:6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought,
“Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”
7But
the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his
appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord
does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (NIV)
And we know this to be a true statement rather we want to admit or
not. We often judge people by their
appearance. Take all of this recent
uproar about Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty. I don’t how many times somebody called him a dumb, uneducated hick. They look at him and they see a white man
with long hair and beard dressed in camo and assume he is just some old dumb
redneck. When in reality he has a Master’s
degree, he used to be a schoolteacher, and he is quiet wealthy and his wealth
came from his own business which he started in his house but has grown to a
multi-million dollar business. But this
just points out how we judge people.
The church I go to is very casual. About the only person who ever wears a suit is the pastor. Some people have a problem with that like
they believe you have to be dressed up to worship God. I believe God doesn’t care how we are dressed
at church as long as it is respectful. Some of the biggest sinners and hypocrites I have ever met were always
the best dressed on Sunday morning. They
might be impressing others but they aint impressing God because God knows the
heart. God expects believers to worship
Him in Spirit and in truth. It was the
Pharisees that made a big show of being holy in the way they dressed and their
phony religious actions but they didn’t impress Christ because He knew in reality
their hearts were far from God and He had very little in kind words to say
about them.
God knows the heart of man. You might get away with fooling others but you aint fooling God. God wants true heartfelt worship and service
to Him. There are a lot of people who
put on a big show of being religious on Sunday morning but the rest of the week
most who meet them would never believe they ever went to church. You aint fooling God, God knows your heart
and there are going to be a lot of sad individuals on the day of judgment who
hear depart from me I never knew you. (Matthew 7:21-23)
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Sun, Dec 29th - 12:24AM
Acts 5:33-39
Acts 5:33 When they heard this, they were furious
and wanted to put them to death. 34But a Pharisee
named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood
up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.
35Then
he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend
to do to these men. 36Some time ago
Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied
to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to
nothing. 37After
him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of
people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38Therefore,
in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if
their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39But
if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find
yourselves fighting against God.” (NIV)
There are a lot of people who are finding themselves
fighting against God. When I was young
everybody didn’t go to church and everybody didn’t believe in God but for the
most they were still respectful to those who did believe but not anymore. I spend a lot of time on forum and other
discussion sites and some of the things that get said are unbelievable. People openly mocking God and those who
believe in Him and these are the people who claim they are so loving and
tolerant of others. I guess that doesn’t
apply to Christians and their beliefs.
The Bible says God is not a God to be mocked. Galatians 6:7 says not to be deceived God
will not be mocked what a man sows that is what he will reap. These people are being very foolish and don’t
even realize it. God is a loving and a
patient God but He is also a God of righteousness and justice and God will not
allow unforgiven sin to go unpunished and He will hold those who mock His holy
name accountable and He will hold those who mock and persecute His children
accountable. The Bible is very clear
that every one of us will stand before God to give an account of our lives
someday and those who mocked God and denied His existence will stand before Him
to be judged the One they claimed did not exist.
There are a lot of people who want to erase any
mention of God from our society but these people are being foolish. God will not be mocked and He does not answer
to man. These people are doing the work
of Satan rather they realize it or not but we as Christians who have studied
the Bible knows how it all ends. God is
always in control. These people are only
being allowed to believe they can erase God from our world but God is always in
control and someday soon Christ will return and the nations will stand before
God to be judged by Him the One they tried to erase from society.
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Thu, Dec 26th - 10:02PM
Acts 5:24-28
Acts 5:24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard
and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.
25Then
someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the
temple courts teaching the people.” 26At that, the
captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force,
because they feared that the people would stone them.
27The
apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be
questioned by the high priest. 28“We gave you
strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled
Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s
blood.” (NIV)
I find verse 28 such a strange verse because these men were guilty
of the blood of Christ. It was this
group of men who conspired with Judas to betray Christ, it was this group of
men who handed Christ over to the Romans to be crucified, and it was this group
of men who demanded Christ be crucified when the Romans wanted to release Him. And sadly these actions have been used by the
enemies of God to persecute the Jews throughout the centuries. Like somehow by persecuting the Jews they
were pleasing God or avenging the death of Christ. What ignorance. First of all if Christ hadn’t died we would
all still be lost and without hope for salvation and second, we are all guilty
of the blood of Christ.
Christ died for the sins of all of us. He died because we are all sinners worthy of
death and doomed to hell without Him. He
died because He loved all of us enough to offer Himself as a sin sacrifice for
all of us. There are a lot of things
that divide mankind but we do share some things in common such as: We are all sinners, we are all worthy of hell
because we are all sinners, and Christ died for all of us because He alone
could take away the sins of those who believe in Him. It doesn’t matter who you are, what race you
are, what ethnic group you come, what your social status is there is only one
way to heaven and that is be accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior. We will all stand before God someday to give
account of our lives. If you have
accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior you will have nothing to fear because
the blood of Christ has washed away your sins and made you clean before God but
if you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior than you are still
guilty before God and will spend an eternity in hell.
This is a hard message for a lot of people to accept in our modern
day politically correct world but it doesn’t matter. God doesn’t change and neither does His
word. Christ died for your sins so that
you don’t have to go to hell but if you reject God’s gift of salvation and
continue to live in rebellion toward Him than what choice does God have but to
allow you to suffer the consequences of rejecting salvation through Christ. God is a God of love, compassion, mercy, and
grace but He also is a God of righteousness and justice that will judge those
who reject Him and His gift of salvation through the blood of Christ which was
shed on the cross for all of mankind so that whosoever believes in Him and
accepts Him as Lord and Savior can have their sins forgiven and eternal life
through Him.
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Wed, Dec 25th - 10:27PM
1 Samuel 15:29
1 Samuel 15:29 He who is the Glory of Israel does
not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change
his mind.” (NIV)
God doesn’t change. What was sin to God 2000 years ago is still sin to God today. God doesn’t care what is considered
politically correct. He doesn’t care
what society considers progressive, acceptable or tolerant. God is the judge of what is acceptable and
right not man and not society. It is
the same old story since Adam and Eve. Man
is trying to decide what is right in his own eyes and is ignoring the Word of
God. Well you can’t ignore the Word of
God and not expect there to be consequences.
There are many people today who think the Word of
God is not relevant to our modern society. Well one, this foolish thinking and two, it shows they don’t know the
Word of God. The Bible is just as
relevant to our society today as when it was written. Those who think it can’t be applied to our
society lack the courage to make it work for our society today and are making
excuses for not trying. There is a lot of
Christians today who need to decide who they more are interesting in pleasing,
man or God. If you as a believer try to
live a holy life in this world of sin you are going to be laughed at and talked
about and if you speak out against the sins of the society you better expect to
be attacked and a lot of the attacking is going to come from those who also
claim to be Christians. Some of the most
hateful comments I have received have come those who also claim to be
Christians. What is ironic is these
people will never publicly speak out against the sins of society but they have
no problem taking shots at fellow Christians.
Well God doesn’t change. He expects His children to live the same holy
life He expected of the 1st century Christians. He also expects believers today to be the light in the darkness that
Christ talked about. To be that city on
the hill that can’t be hidden and just as the Great Commission was given to the
Apostles it is given to us to go into the world and preach the Gospels and just
as Christ told the Disciples to expect to be hated for His name we also can
expect to be hated for His name and just as He told the Disciples if they deny
Him before men He will deny them before the Father we to cannot deny Christ
before men if we expect Christ to acknowledge us before the Father. The Western church needs a whole lot of
injection of courage and faith because I seriously believe as the time draws
near for the return of Christ the world is going to grow more hostile to those
who proclaim the name of Christ but God doesn’t change. When He said He will never leave us or forsake
that was a promise to all believers throughout the ages.
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Mon, Dec 23rd - 10:21PM
1 Samuel 15:22-23
1 Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the
fat of rams.
23For rebellion
is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and
idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also
rejected thee from being king.
The story of mankind is a story of rebellion against the Creator
of mankind. God created man and man has
lived in rebellion against God ever since. Adam and Eve rebelled against the will of God in the Garden and mankind
has suffered ever since. The world had
spiraled into such a state of rebellion and wickedness in the days of Noah that
God destroyed all of mankind except for the family of Noah. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because they
had fallen into such a state of wickedness that 10 righteous men could not be
found in the two cities. God personally
led the Hebrews out of Egypt but instead of being thankful and serving God they
fell into such a state of rebellion that God made them wander the desert for 40
years until the generation that had come out of Egypt had all died off. God destroyed the Kingdom of Israel and
allowed the Kingdom of Judah to be taken into captivity because they refused to
listen to the prophets of God and repent of the wickedness and return to
Him. In A.D. 70 the nation of Israel disappeared
for close to 2000 years because they refused to accept Christ as the
Messiah.
And so it continues today. Our nation has not learned the lessons of the past and continues to
slide deeper and deeper into a state of wickedness and rebellion against God
and just like those in the past we will suffer the consequences of our
rebellion against God. I think it is no
accident when you read about the end times in the Bible there are many
countries named that will play a role in the end time events but there is not
even a hint of the U.S. anywhere in there. I think our days as a superpower are numbered. At one time this nation honored God and God
bless this nation for it but as the Bible teaches you reap what you sow. We are sowing sin and rebellion and we will
bear the consequences for actions. God
blesses those who serve Him and curses those who do not and I think we are
seeing this happen today with our economic problems, our crime problems, our
addiction problems, the state of immorality, and our struggles in Afghanistan and
the Middle East. God punishes rebellion
and blesses those who repent and follow Him. Since this nation is turning away from God we are bearing the
consequences of our actions.
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Sat, Dec 21st - 10:35PM
Acts 4:23-31
Acts 4:23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own
people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24When
they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign
Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and
everything in them. 25You spoke by the
Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“ ‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26The
kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one.
27Indeed Herod and
Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this
city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They
did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now,
Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with
great boldness. 30Stretch
out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your
holy servant Jesus.”
31After
they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (NIV)
The world hates Christ and everything and everyone associated with
Christ because the world is under the influence of Satan and Satan hates Christ
because it is through the death and resurrection of Christ that Satan is
defeated. Satan has already been
defeated by the death and resurrection of Christ but he aint going down without
a fight. He is determined to drag as
much of mankind to hell with him as he can and he knows his time is short and
his time is short because Christ can return at any time and I think personally
that it want be much longer.
You don’t have to look very hard to see that this world hates
Christ. Let a public figure speak boldly
for Christ and to speak out against the sins of our society and they are ready
to nail them to the wall. A celebrity
can get on TV and be as nasty and raunchy as they want but let the name of
Christ be mentioned and all hell breaks loose. A Muslim can openly proclaim their faith and speak out against those they
disagree with including homosexuals and it is blown off as the freedom of
religious expression but if a Christian does the same all hell breaks loose and
they are ready to bury them. What is the
difference? The world hates the very
mention of the name of Christ. They can’t
stand the name of Christ because they know through the name of Christ they are condemned
for their sinful behavior. Satan hates
Christ and is trying everything he can to erase the name of Christ from our
society and to silence those who believe in Christ.
Wake up Christians. If you
think this doesn’t affect you, you are either one, living in denial or two; you
are so under the influence of the world that you are blinded to the truth. Christ promised us the world is going to hate
us and persecute is because of Him. They
hated Christ so much they had Him killed. If you have never felt the hate of the world because of Christ then
either one, you have never publicly took a stand for Christ or two, you are so
weak in your faith that Satan doesn’t ever see you as a threat and doesn’t
waste his time on you. Because trust me
I have been called some of the most vile and hateful things you can imagine
because I publicly preach the Word of God by the very people who claim to be
loving and tolerant of others.
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Fri, Dec 20th - 10:33PM
Acts 4:19-22
Acts 4:19But Peter and John
replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the
judges! 20As
for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
21After
further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them,
because all the people were praising God for what had happened. 22For
the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old. (NIV)
Don’t get the idea that these verses give Christians the authority
to rebel against authority because the Bible also says:
Romans 13:1Let everyone be
subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that
which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by
God. 2Consequently,
whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has
instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves
Now is the Bible contradicting itself? Of course not. We are instructed to obey the authorities
appointed over us, obey their laws and we are even instructed to pray for our
leaders, yes that means we are to pray for President Obama, but if the law of
the authorities appointed over us collides with the will of God we are to obey
God. For example it is legal in the U.S.
to abort babies but the Bible is clear that all life is precious in the eyes of
God and life is a gift from God. So are we
to obey God or follow the law of the land? We are to obey God of course. If
the U.S. legalizes gay marriage it is still a sin in the eyes of God and we
must obey God. It doesn’t matter what
society considers correct we are to obey God. This is going to win us many enemies but Christ promised us we would be
persecuted for the faith. If you live in
the U.S. and know who Phil Robertson is you know this to be true. He was asked a question about homosexuality
and he gave a Biblical answer. Phil is a
smart guy despite his appearance and I know he had to know the consequences of
his answer but he answered honestly and now those that hate Christ want to
destroy him. It isn’t so much that they
hate him but they hate Christ and anyone who represents Him. We are told in the Bible to try and live
peacefully with all men but at the same time we cannot deny who we are or what
we believe in. We have to be true Disciples
of Christ who are willing to stand boldly for Christ in a world that is growing
every more hostile to the Word of God and those that represent Him here on
earth.
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Thu, Dec 19th - 10:10PM
Acts 4:14-18
Acts 4:14 And beholding the man which was healed
standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15But when they had
commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
16Saying,
What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done
by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot
deny it. 17But
that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that
they speak henceforth to no man in this name. 18And they called
them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
The Jews couldn’t deny a great miracle had been done
but yet they still refused to give God the glory and recognize Christ as His
Son. They were more interested in
protecting their power over the people than they were of seeking the truth so
they try to forbid the Apostles of speaking the name of Jesus or teaching in
His name.
Nothing has changed in 2000 years. The left wants to completely erase the name
of Christ from the public square and if they could get away with they would forbid
the name of Christ rather it is in public or private. The name of Jesus is the great divider of
mankind. You are either a believer in
Christ which makes you a child of the true God or you deny Christ which makes
you a child of Satan. The world hates
the name and I mean absolutely hates the name of Christ because this world is
under the influence of Satan and Satan knows the name of Christ has doomed him
to hell along with his followers.
It is through Christ that we as believers have
victory over death and hell and can have victory and eternity with our Father
in heaven. The world hates the name of
Christ because they know the name of Christ dooms them to hell for refusing to
believe in Him.
It is the name of Christ that divides the
world. See people have different ideas of
who God is. In Eastern religions and in
many New Age beliefs people are taught they are their own god in charge of
their own destiny. The Muslims have a
distorted view of who God is because they have been led to believe a lie. But the name of Christ is the great divider
because all that really matters in this world is rather you have accepted
Christ as your Lord and Savior because it is Christ and Christ alone who died
on the cross as a sin sacrifice for our sins so that whosoever believes in Him
can have eternal life through Him. One
day we will all stand before God and the greatest question of all time will be
rather you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior because as John 14:6
states Christ is the only Way to the Father and as Acts 4:12 states there is no
other name given that we can be saved by. So some day when you stand before God what will be your destiny heaven
or hell? If you don’t Christ than your
destiny is hell.
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Wed, Dec 18th - 10:21PM
Acts 4:13
Acts 4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and
John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished
and they took note that these men had been with Jesus (NIV)
God has a habit of using ordinary men and doing
extraordinary things through them. Every
one of the Disciples was regular guys but God used these regular guys to change
the world. Paul was on his way to
destroy the church in Damascus when God called him to follow Him and through
Paul the Gospel was brought to the Gentile nations. God knows the heart of man. While others might be fooled by a flashy
appearance or a flashy smile God knows the heart of man and knows who He can
use to fulfill His will.
Abraham was an old man and childless when God
promised to make Him a father of many nations, Moses was hiding in the desert
when God told him that He was going to use Moses to deliver the Hebrews out of
Egypt, David was just a shepherd boy when God picked him to be the king of
Israel, and it does end in the Bible. Dwight Moody was a shoe salesman before he became a great
evangelist. Billy Graham was a farm boy
that grew up to be without doubt one of the greatest evangelists of all
time. The one thing all of these men had
in common was they were faithful and allowed God to work through them. These men didn’t do great things but instead
they allowed God to do great things through them. God could have used the rich, the famous, and
the powerful to do His will and sometimes He does but then men might have
thought that great things were done through their own ability but God uses the
lowly and the humble to prove He is the almighty One doing great things through
those that follow His will including you. God has a plan for you to.
One of the things that motivated Dwight Moody to
become the great evangelists that he became was one day he was listening to a
sermon by Henry Varley and Varley said “the world has yet to see what God can
do with one man wholly committed to Him.” Dwight Moody made up his mind to try and be that man and you can
to. Submit yourself fully to the will of
God and He will do great things through you to.
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Tue, Dec 17th - 10:29PM
Acts 4:10-12
Acts 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the
people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye
crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man
stand here before you whole.11This is the stone which was set at nought of you
builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved.
There is no other way to salvation than through
Christ for it was Christ who died on the cross for the sins of mankind that
whosoever believes in Him and accepts Him as Lord and Savior can have their
sins forgiven and eternal life through Him. The Bible says we are all sinners worthy of death but Christ died on the
cross as a sin sacrifice so that we may have our sins forgiven and eternal life
through Him. There is no other way to
salvation or to have our sins forgiven than through Christ. This gift of salvation is not automatic as
the Universalists teach and it is not just for a few people as the Calvinists
teach this gift is for all who repent of their sins and seek forgiveness in
Christ and accept Him as Lord and Savior.
This verse is similar to John 14:6 where Christ
declares there is no way to the Father except through Him. It is Christ that makes intercession for
mankind, not the Pope, or Mary or any saint. Christ and Christ alone is the Way to the Father. Any other way is a false way and only leads
to hell. If any religion denies Christ
as the only way to the Father and salvation it is a false way and a design of
the devil. There are many religions out
there and all of them that deny Christ as the one and only Savior are false
ways designed by Satan to lure men away from the true Way through Christ.
You will never see heaven through any Eastern
religion that teaches self-enlightment. You are not the way to heaven and you will never get there through your
own means and you can never be good enough to earn your own way to salvation. Islam is a copy-cat religion designed by
Satan to lead people away from the true Way through Christ who is the Son of
God which Muslims deny. Judaism misses
the mark because they also deny Christ as the Savior and the Son of God. God hasn’t given up on the Jews as many teach
but they also must come to God through Christ and until they do they are just
as lost as anybody else.
The Bible is very clear salvation is through Christ
and Christ alone. Ask Him to forgive you
of your sins and accept Him as your Lord and Savior so that your sins may be
forgiven and you can eternal life through Him.
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Fri, Dec 13th - 10:18PM
Acts 3:1-10
Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into
the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2And
a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at
the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that
entered into the temple; 3Who seeing Peter and
John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4And Peter, fastening
his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5And he gave heed
unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6Then Peter said,
Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7And he took him by
the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle
bones received strength. 8And he leaping up
stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping,
and praising God. 9And
all the people saw him walking and praising God: 10And they knew that
it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were
filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
Peter and John could have given the man a bit of
money and went their way but this wouldn’t have changed the man’s
situation. He still would have been
handicapped and the next day he would have been back at the gate begging for
money but Peter and John gave him something much better than money, they
introduced him to Christ. Yes the man
rejoiced because He was healed but more importantly he knew he was healed
through the name of Christ.
Money comes and goes, we get tired of possessions
and want something new, beauty comes and goes, our strength comes and goes but the
things of God are forever. The things of
this world are temporary but salvation in Christ is for eternity but yet man
often forfeits eternal salvation for the temporary pleasures of this
world. As Christians we are to care for
others and we are to help the poor and hungry but nothing replaces preaching
the Word of God. If you feed the hungry
every day of your life but yet never tell them about Christ and God’s free gift
of salvation you really haven’t accomplished anything and really have done a disservice
to those you are trying to serve.
The biggest need in this world is Christ. This world is dying of a terminal disease
called sin and Christ is the answer. Christ is the healing this world needs. This world is dying and in a state of decay because sin and all of its
consequences was entered into this world through the rebellious actions of Adam
and Eve but Christ died on the cross that through Him and His sacrifice on the
cross we can have our sins forgiven and eternal life through Him. Rather you know it or not you most important
need in this world is Christ. If you
haven’t accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior than you are died and
on your way to hell and no nothing in this world can save you from your fate
than accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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Mon, Dec 9th - 10:26PM
Acts 2:14-21
Acts 2:14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and
declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be
known to you and give heed to my words. 15“For
these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour
of the day; 16but this is what was spoken of through the prophet
Joel:
17‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says,
‘THAT I WILL POUR
FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND;
AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY,
AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS,
AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;
18EVEN ON MY
BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN,
I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT
And
they shall prophesy.
19‘AND I WILL GRANT
WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE
AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW,
BLOOD, AND FIRE,
AND VAPOR OF SMOKE.
20‘THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS
AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD,
BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.
21‘AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE
WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’ (NASB)
We worship an almighty God and miraculous God and this almighty and miraculous
God is just as miraculous as He has always been. There are many people that would seem to
believe that God stopped performing miraculous, or stopped answering prayers,
or stopped working through individuals in the first century A.D. when the Bible
was written. The same God we worshipped
today is the same God that spoke the world into existence, He is the same God
that flooded the earth in the days of Noah, He is the same God that destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah, He is the same God that parted the Red Sea and led Israel
out of Egypt, He is the same God that raised people from the dead, He is the same
God that rose from the grave, He is the same God that did miraculous things
through the Apostles and the early Christians and He is the same God that does miraculous
things through believers today. God didn’t
stop being the God of miracles in the 1st century.
Do I believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are as valid today as they were in
the 1st century? Yes I do
because I believe that is what the Bible teaches. Paul in fact spent many verses on teaching on
the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Do I
believe there are phonies out there doing phony things? Yes I do but that is why we are told to try
the spirits to see rather they are of God or not (1John 4:1). I also believe there are many prophecies left
to be filled. There is much debate about
what is meant by the term last days and when is the last days to begin and did
they begin already but I think for sure we are living in the last days now and
that some of the prophecies concerning the last days have been fulfilled, some
are being fulfilled now, and many are still to come. So I believe as these verses say God has
poured out His Spirit on believers and some are given the ability to prophesy
and see dreams and vision and I believe God has given others spiritual gifts to
use for His glory and I believe we are living in the last days and there are
signs to come to show that we can expect the return of Christ soon. I believe the book of Revelation was written
so that believers would know what to expect in the last days and I believe that
Christ could return for His church at any time so we need to get hot preaching
the Word of God and fulfilling the Great Commission by preaching the Word of
God to all nations.
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Thu, Dec 5th - 10:02PM
Acts 1:6-7
Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together,
they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the
kingdom to Israel? 7And he said unto
them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath
put in his own power
These verses are similar to Matthew 24:36 when Jesus
told the Disciples that only the Father knows when the end will come and as
verse 7 says these times and seasons God has put under His own power. There is a lot of debate in the Christian
church about how the end will come and it is good to study the prophecies of
the return of Christ but honestly these things are out of our control but what
is under our control is what kind of life we live with the time we are given
and are we bearing fruit for God. Are we
telling others about salvation in Christ? Because while there might be a lot of debate about how Christ will
return and the events leading to His return there is a few things most
Christians agree on and that is the fact Christ is going to return and that
there is a coming day of judgment for all of mankind.
I think verses like Romans 14:10, 2 Corinthians
5:10, Hebrews 9:27, and Revelation 20:11-15 make it clear we will all stand
before God someday to be judged. If you
have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior you have nothing to fear for your
reward is eternity with God but if you have rejected Christ as your Lord and
Savior then your punishment for your rebellion is an eternity in hell. Christ died on the cross as a sin sacrifice
so mankind shouldn’t have to face the punishment of our sins but if we reject this
free gift of salvation through the sacrifice of Christ what is God to do but
gives us the punishment we are due for our rebellion against Him.
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Sun, Dec 1st - 10:14PM
John 21:18-19
John 21:18Very
truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you
wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else
will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19Jesus
said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then
he said to him, “Follow me!” (NIV)
Jesus is telling Peter how he is
going to die in these verses. Earlier
after swearing he would never abandoned Him Peter denied Christ three times
publicly but after restoring him Christ lets Peter know that one day Peter
would die for Him. So the man that
didn’t have the courage to publicly admit he knew Christ during the trial of
Christ would one day publicly die for Him because he would refuse to deny Him.
Before executing Christians the
Romans would give the Christians the opportunity to deny Christ and worship
Caesar as god. If they bowed down and
worshipped Caesar and denied Christ they would live but if they refused to deny
Christ and refused to worship Caesar as god then they were executed in very
gruesome manners usually in public as entertainment to the Roman citizens and
to intimate others into compromising their beliefs. The fact that hundreds of Christians died
during this time testifies to the faith and conviction of the early
church. Church tradition has it that Peter
was crucified upside down because he didn’t think himself worthy to die in the
same manner as Christ.
Every one of the Disciples, except
Judas who hung himself after betraying Christ and John who died of natural
causes after spending many years in prison, died for the faith including
hundreds of early church members including Paul, James the brother of Christ,
Stephen and countless others. But Christ
had warned them to expect persecution. Christ never promised the early believers an easy time. He told them the world was going to hate them
for the message of the Gospel. Satan wasn’t
about to let the Gospel be spread without a fight. And even today Christians around the world
face very real persecution for the faith. Christians are dying for the faith in places like Egypt, Syria, North
Korea, and other places so if some feel good preacher tells you that the
Christian life is all good times and blessings they are lying to you. Christ never promised that we wouldn’t have
tough times. What He did promise was to
be with us during the tough times. There
are preachers that will tell you if you are having tough times it is because
you lack faith but I say those Christians who face trouble and persecution
every day and still refuse to deny Christ they are the ones who knows what real
faith is.
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