Month: September 2012

RE Verse reading–Acts 4:5-31  (day four)  “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed”  (vs 25-26)  One thing is certain.  The gospel will meet resistance.  We should never be surprised or discouraged by this inevitable fact.  God’s plans will be opposed by political and spiritual forces.  Christians recognized this early.  In Psalm 2 they saw their own struggles.  When Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles (Romans) and the people of Israel conspired together against Christ, it was just the beginning of a conflict that continues to this day.   The world (as a whole) will always oppose the gospel.  To receive Christ as Lord is something that mankind is unwilling to do.  “We do not want this man to rule over us”  say the citizens in Jesus’ parable (Luke 19:14)  It is what the world has been saying all along.

RE Verse reading–Acts 4:5-31 (day three)  “When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.  ‘Sovereign Lord’, they said, ‘you made the heavens and the earth and sea. . .You spoke by the Holy Spirit. . .now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ‘ ”  (vs 24-25, 29)  We learn to pray by listening to people pray (those who know how).  Notice the God-focus of these prayers.  They address God as “Sovereign Lord”.  They reflect together that He is the God of the Spirit and Scripture.   Nothing is focused on the problems that they face. Everything is an expression of praise and confidence in God’s ability to accomplish His own plan (the point of prayer) even in the midst of difficulty.  Their only request is for power to be obedient to the will of God as they understand it  All else is left in His trustworthy hands. What great instruction for us!

RE Verse  reading–Acts 4:5-31  (day two)  “Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness”  (vs 29)  Jesus had prepared them well.  Before He died, Jesus spoke often about the persecutions that would come.  “They will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name”  (Matthew 24:9)  He also promised that the Holy Spirit would give them words. (Mark 13:11)  As a result, they were unafraid when the opposition began.  We are impressed with the way they prayed.  Rather than ask for safety or a quick end to the danger, they asked for power to do God’s will.  Not popularity but power–not safety but Spirit was their cry.  May we learn from the Lord and His men.  Opposition is inevitable.  Power is available to us through prayer.  Difficulties do not change our duties to the One who carried the cross for us.

RE Verse reading–Acts 4:5-31 (day one)  “When they saw the courage (boldness) of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished.”  (vs 13)  When the Scripture speaks of boldness, it translates a word that means “all speech” (parrhesia).  It describes the person who is not intimidated, does not hesitate to speak the truth for fear of the consequences, a person who says all that God has given them to say, no “punches pulled”.  Most of us know how easy it is to be silenced by the potential of negative reaction.  We tip-toe around conversations rather than offend.  Little do we realize the disloyalty this is to the God who filling us and giving us words to say.  James 4:17 says “to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin”.  Our text this week applies this truth to us when we know what should be said.

RE Verse reading–Acts 3:1-10 (day seven)  “Then Peter said, ‘Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee”  (vs 6–KJV)  Left to his previous ambitions,  Peter would have likely had money to give this needy man.  Just a few years earlier, he had been the owner of a fishing boat(s), well positioned to make a good living for himself and his family.  At the command of Christ, he had left his nets and followed.  Now, years later, Peter is telling the truth.  He doesn’t have any money to give.  He does have, however, something of even greater value–the healing power of God in his own life, and the authority to give it away to others.  Have we been through a similar training of soul?  Have we been willing to do without some things that we might experience the healing presence of Christ in our own minds/hearts?  What we receive, we are able to give away.

RE Verse reading–Acts 3:1-10 (day six)  “When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money”  (vs 3)  It is ironic.  The man asked them for money.  What he really needed was healing.  He just didn’t know that healing was possible so he never allowed himself to hope or ask.  Aren’t we the same?  We fix our hopes on a vacation when what we really need is inner peace.  We pray for our kids to be OK when what our kids really need is parents who example the way to walk with in the Spirit.  Maybe we think it selfish to ask God for the “big thing”.  Maybe it seems more realistic to ask for “just enough to get by”.  The Bible says the opposite.  “Call unto Me and I will answer.  I will show you great and mighty things”  (Jeremiah 33:3)  Most of us don’t want too much from God.  Most of us don’t want enough.

RE Verse reading–Acts 3:1-10 (day five)  “Peter looked straight at him. . .then Peter said, ‘Look at us!’ ” (vs 4)  As a preacher, I am familiar with this necessary step.  Part of helping someone is to gain (ask for) their attention.  Most of us don’t know too little, we know too much!  Like the lame man, we live in a steady, disorienting stream of information and people.  Our defense mechanism?  Process little.  Who has time or energy?  For God to work in our lives, we have to learn a new skill.  Turn off the noise.  Be still.  Ignore most things,  concentrate deeply on others.  So Peter’s words had nothing to do with ego.  His request was motivated by concern for the man, not his own need for attention.  One thing that the church must always teach is the necessity and value of being still.  “You shall meditate on it day and night”  (Joshua 1:8)  When we learn to pay attention, good things happen.

RE Verse reading–Acts 3:1-10 (day four)  “Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful”  (vs 2)  The contrast must have been stark.  I wonder whether anyone noticed.  A lame man–destitute and helpless, sat beneath a gate called “Beautiful”–crown jewel in Herod’s temple renovation project, made of Corinthian brass, artistic, breath-taking.  One a symbol of all that man can do.  The other a symbol of all we cannot do (apart from God).   It is humbling to admit.  With all the progress in science and technology, there are many left behind, many for whom society simply has no answer.  Winos and homeless people still sleep in the doorways of  sparkling skycrapers of our big cities.  Broken families live in quiet desperation.   Peter and John were brave enough to notice this man and his needs.  Believers who pray (where John and Peter were going) begin to see God possiblities.  If my people will humble themselves. . .

RE Verse reading–Acts 3:1-10 (day three)  “Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg”  (vs 2)  Thank God for kind people.  The lame man could not have survived without them.  No telling how many times his friends/family had carried him to the temple.  They were doing it again the day that he saw Peter and John.  It is a paradox–a truth held in balance.  All of us need to be carried at times.  No one is self-sufficient.  Even so, the deepest (most appropriate) longing of the man’s heart is to stand on his own, to not have to be carried.  The church has a responsibility to teach both truths.  We are to accept help that we need.  At the same time, we are to desire to be the helpers, not the helped.  “Bear one another’s burdens. . .each one should carry his own load” (Galatians 6:2, 5)

RE Verse reading–Acts 3:1-10 (day two)  “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer–at three in the afternoon.  Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg”  (vs 1-2)  The cross/resurrection/ascension/Spirit (post-Pentecost) changed many things for the disciples.  One of the things that it didn’t change was their confidence in group prayer/public prayer.  Jesus Himself had exampled a life of regular attendance and participation in the Temple and synagogue.  The days of prayer before Pentecost must have convinced them even more.  God wills for his children is to meet together for prayer.  See Matthew 18:20.  Enroute to a prayer meeting, Peter and John encounter a man in need and “know” what to do.  Why is it that people who pray (both privately and publically) seem to understand the power of God and its proper use?  If my people. . .