Author: Don Guthrie

Re:Verse reading–Acts 20:17-38 (day one)

“And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me. . .that bonds and afflictions await me.”–v 22-23.

It was not going to be easy.  Paul’s next assignment.  The past years had often been hard, painful, taxing.  The next chapter looked like more of the same.

Inspiring, isn’t it!  These men.  Bond slaves of Christ.  Willing to suffer, to face any hardship so long as they knew He was with them.  Tradition says that Paul was eventually beheaded.  Peter was crucified upside down.

A sign of spiritual integrity and maturity.  Obedience to Christ is the goal.  It is never measured against personal peace or comfort.  Dangers are faced.  Fears denied.  Friends left behind.  All for love of Christ.

The world is better because they were willing. What is His next assignment/duty for you?

Re:Verse reading–Acts 17:10-12, 16-34 (day one)

“Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness”–v 11

“Well, I ain’t first class, but I ain’t white trash, I’m wild and a little crazy too.  Some girls don’t like boys like me.  Aww, but some girls do.”–Sawyer Brown.

An early discovery comes to those who move out to make disciples.  Some people won’t listen to your message.  They may even hate you for it.  But, and this is the joy, some people will listen.  And believe.

Acts 17 has a bumpy beginning.  The people of Thessalonica form a mob and make continued work there impossible.  So, Paul and team move to Berea and find an entirely different mood and mind!  Sincerity/spiritual hunger rather than anger/resistance!

Aren’t you glad Paul didn’t quit because the first group “didn’t like him”!

“In due time we will reap a harvest if we do not grow weary” Galatians 6:9

Re:Verse reading–Acts 16:11-34 (day one)

“So putting out to sea from Troas, WE ran a straight course to Samothrace.”–v 1.

Important sentence in Acts.  Easy to miss.  In Acts 16:8, Luke says , “THEY came down to Troas.”  By v 11, he begins to speak first person “WE”.  Subtle shift?  Not for Luke, it wasn’t!

It is one of the great moments in spiritual development– you stop being a spectator and become a participant.  Stop talking about “the church” and “their goals”.  Start talking about “my church” and “our mission”.

Paul knew the strategic importance of always adding new talent.  He was constantly enlisting new people to help.  We don’t know how/when he met Dr. Luke (see Colossians 4:14). We do know at some point Paul invited him to come along.  It was an invitation that changed Luke’s life and the world!

Know anyone you could ask to help you do Kingdom work?  There is great gospel potential in the word “WE’.

Re:Verse reading–Acts 15:1-29 (day one)  

“If you cannot go back to your mother’s womb, you better learn to be a good fighter.”–Anchee Min.

“I have fought the good fight”–the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:7)

It happened in the early church.  It will happen (has) in our church.  We will come to a point/place of disagreement. About truth.  About direction.  We will need to fight.

We will need to fight fairly.  Work hard to address issues and truth rather than personalities and feelings.  The same skills we use in marriage.

Acts 15 will serve as an example.  We will engage in honest and courageous debate–v 2.  We will seek wisdom from the apostles–v 3 (our application will be to “search the scripture”).  We will give testimony–v 7-12.  We will submit to our leaders–v 13-22.

I don’t know which is harder to teach.  The courage to fight for truth or the kindness to do it fairly.  For Christ-followers, neither is optional.

Re:Verse reading–Acts 13:1-52 (day one)

“Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”–v 2.

It will be a great day for you.  Among the best.  In His own way and time, the Lord will call you to the work for which He made you.

It will be His idea.  Not yours.  It will fit into a larger plan that you probably won’t be able to see.  And somehow the expectation of reward or recognition will matter less than it did before.  His approving nod will be all you desire.  You will do this work out of love for Him.

The deepest need of the human heart is to be useful.  God knows. Children who never learn to contribute become petty and anxious adults.  God doesn’t need my work.  I need it.

As you trust and follow Christ, He will call you to the work for which He made you.

And it will be a great day.

Re:Verse reading–Acts 11:1-26 (day one)

“I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’  But I said, ‘By no means,Lord’ “–v 7-8.

God never changes.  However, circumstances do.  Often.

Like a quarterback who comes to the line of scrimmage, sees the defensive line up and exercises his prerogative to change the play, the Father, in Acts 11, calls an “audible”.

For 1500 years, the Jewish nation observed “kosher” laws that symbolized their “separation” from the nations.  It was a strict law.  Rigid custom.  No wonder (no excuse, but, still, no wonder) that Peter resisted the change.

With this vision, the Father opened a new chapter of salvation history–years of gospel expansion to all people without regard to race or ethnicity.  All foods are clean.  All Gentiles are welcome.

Will you be ready when God brings  a new chapter and gives you a new assignment?  Are your ears tuned and heart soft to an audible from God?

Re:Verse reading–Acts 9:1-22, 26-31 (day one)

“Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord”–v 1

It is a memory Paul carried for the rest of his life.  Shameful.  Cruel.  Convicting.  Obsessive. (“I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent man” he would say years later in 1 Timothy 1)  A reminder to him (and to us) how lost people are without Christ. Even religious people.

Did he ever wonder?  I wonder.  As he watched Stephen die with love and forgiveness, did Saul have a moment of self-doubt?  Did he momentarily recognize the demonic power of hatred at work in his own heart?  How empty and angry he was?

Years later, this same man (reborn) will plead with others.  “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves.”–2 Corinthians 13:5.  Maybe, as he wrote those words, he was remembering how easy it is to think you are one thing and actually be another.

Re:Verse reading–Acts 6:8-10, 7:54-58, 8:1-5, 26-38 (day one)

“Do you understand what you are reading? “–8:30

In 1975, Bill Hybels started Willow Creek Community Church in a west-side suburb of Chicago.  A church designed to be “seeker sensitive”–aware of the questions and concerns of people who do not yet know the Lord, with church activities and services shaped around the mindset of “seekers” (Hybel’s word).

In AD 33, Deacon Philip gave us a different version of being sensitively aware of “people not yet reached”.  Both seeker sensitive and Spirit sensitive, Philip got near enough to the Ethiopian Eunuch to hear him reading scripture (aloud, as was the ancient practice) and offered help in interpreting the meaning.  Brilliant.  Kind.  Considerate. Philip’s offered friendship became, for this man, a door into light and life.

MANY  are “white unto harvest” said Jesus in John 4, prepared  by the drawing work of the Spirit.  Are you being sensitive to them?  Are you ready to speak when your opportunity comes?

Re:Verse reading–Acts 4:5-31 (day one)

“Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”–v 13

As a young person, with some regular relapses even now, I suffered from a deep lack of confidence.  Who I was just didn’t seem to be enough–that’s how it felt, anyway.

A few years after receiving Christ, I discovered this scripture and the comfort of it.  Confidence comes from “being with” Christ.  Learning His mind.  Resting in His life, approval and protection.  If that is where Peter/John found it, I could too!

In Matthew 11, Jesus promises to give us rest.  In Acts 3, he promises to give us confidence.  Not available anywhere else.  Attractive and noticeable, even to those who don’t believe.

“The wicked flee when no one  is pursuing, but the righteous are as bold as a lion”–Proverbs 28:1.

Re: Verse reading–Acts 3:1-20  (day one)

“Therefore, repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”–v 19

It was not something I heard when I first followed Christ.  Still recovering what was lost by this partial gospel.  Jesus preached repentance and faith. (See Mark 1:15)   Peter, in Acts 3, faithfully repeated the wisdom.

The word meant to “change your mind” (metanoia).  Referred to all thoughts in a person’s mind.  About God, about self, about priorities and values.  Unconscious ideas, mainly, but vitally important.

As we believe in God, these ideas have to change.  They are abandoned. Rejected. Repented.  Without it, the head is so full of false that True cannot take root.

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”–Proverbs 23:7.

“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”–Romans 12:1.

What thought do you have in your mind that is not true?