The Everyday Prayer

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

Many had come to know Jesus in the recent days…3,000 at Pentecost, 5,000 at Peter’s second sermon.  All of these and more were now disciples of Jesus. What was different about Saul?  God had special plans for Saul…He was going to show Saul how much he must suffer for Jesus’ name sake.  Saul would be a missionary to the gentiles and kings, as well as the sons of Israel.

Saul could have rejected God’s plan for his life, but he didn’t.  He was immediately baptized and began to preach and witness in the synagogues.  Saul was a man with a mission!

What about you?  Has God asked you to do something that you have not yet done?  Are you holding out for a better assignment?  God will not give you a new assignment until you have been obedient to His first command.  More obedience…stronger character…bigger assignment!  Maybe you too can be shipwrecked and imprisoned…like Saul.

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

“Who are you, Lord?”  Think of the irony of this prayer—that these words would come from Saul, of all people.  His résumé: “as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”  Here’s a man who trained and studied and researched and analyzed and inspected every square inch of the received spiritual knowledge of his culture.  He had trained his entire life for this exact work.  The Way of Jesus would stop here.  But all that Saul had studied, he had misunderstood.  Whoever God is, he’s not who Saul had thought.  Even if he had not been blinded by the light, there was no way he would have been able to see anything, because the light by which he saw the world had gone out.  What would happen to you if you prayed—really prayed—this prayer: “Who are you, Lord?”

Re:Verse reading–Acts 9:1-22, 26-31 (day two) The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. vs. 7

This is an interesting element of Saul’s conversion story. During a relatively isolated journey to Damascus Jesus chooses to reveal himself to Saul, but allows others to hear the exchange. This man whom God would use to write the first chapters of the early church was already on a well-recognized path. His conversion clearly rocked the followers of The Way, see Ananias’ reaction in verses 13-14. We often consider how the apostles and the other believers reacted to Saul’s conversion, but what about those who were with him on that road? What kind of story did they tell? They heard the voice of Jesus!

Few of us will ever have the testimony of Saul/Paul, but when God chooses to intervene in our lives, people will notice. Those who know Jesus, and those who knew you before. Has he done that work for you? Is your life bearing evidences of this change?

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 seven) 

We first run into Stephen and Philip in the paragraph preceding our text for today.  It is a famous passage, often used to describe the work of deacons, about the disciples deciding that they could not handle both preaching the Word of God and caring for hungry widows at the same time.  The disciples chose to set aside a group of seven men including Stephen and Philip to bring food to the overlooked widows.

Remarkably we never hear of Stephen and Philip serving food, but we hear they went out preaching the Word of God.  The Holy Spirit filled them up and they continued serving God by proclaiming Jesus wherever they went.  Stephen preaches in Jerusalem, Philip preaches in Samaria, and numbers increased greatly.

It makes you wonder if the overlooked women were ever fed.  Surely they were.  Surely the church worked diligently to care for this need.  The greater story is that Stephen and Philip were not content in quietly serving, no matter where they were or what they did they were going to speak the name of Jesus boldly.

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

Acts 6:54 “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick,” God’s Word had done its task. It had accomplished its purpose. It had resonated deep with the human soul. Sounds like Hebrews 4:12. ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Stephen has “rightly divided the Word of Truth”.  What happens next, is the response. We read/hear the Bible and the Bible reads us. It reveals the condition of our hearts. Each and every time we listen and hear the scripture, we must “check our hearts”. Here are some responses mentioned in scripture:

James 1: Distracted and Insincere- “immediately forgotten what kind of person he was”

Acts 7: Anger and Rebellion “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears”

Acts 8: Humility and Obedience “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

How do we respond to God’s Word? It will be a heart check!!

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

When we face difficult situations, often our first response is to pray and ask God to deliver us from the hardship.  When things are going really great, we often ask God to sustain the good times.  Both of these responses are completely opposite to what we see here in Scripture.  The early Church was facing very intense persecution which began to scatter the believers to the four winds.  What appeared to be bad though, provided for the Gospel to spread across the whole known world.  With the multitudes that were responding to Phillip’s preaching, most preachers would set up their tent and build their numbers and prestige.  Phillip was set on obedience to God though.  Instead of staying with the comfortable, he departed for the desert roads to find his divine appointment.

Whatever our situation…good or bad…we must make sure our response is according to God’s plan and Word.  Phillip chose obedience regardless of his circumstances.  Shouldn’t we?

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

“Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power…”  By grace we are saved.  The mighty acts of power were necessary to push back the rot of a decaying universe through the healing of broken bodies, pointing to a day when all things will be new.  But grace governed that power.  That is why Stephen could use it to reveal God and resist the temptation of leveraging it to gain the upper hand.  It was the grace brimming in his soul that enabled him to turn his eyes to heaven.  It was the grace flooding his spirit that gave him the peace to fall asleep.  And it was the grace radiating from his life that reached a young man named Saul, and began the preparatory work for his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus.

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

Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.”  Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet… 8:29-30a

Philip knew that he would not be on this journey were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit. It seems logical, then, to assume that Philip was very sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance. How did he respond? He ran. There is so much to unpack about the Re:Verse this week, but what has struck me first was Philip’s obedience. He was on a desert road to begin with, also at the Spirit’s behest, and now he has been called to speak to a foreigner. We don’t read of his hesitations, or his doubts. These might have existed, but they are not what drove Philip. He knew had had a reason to be on that journey. He was called, and therefore he felt compelled to share the truth.

We would do well to remember that we are on a journey instigated by the Holy Spirit. When we are called, will you run to or from?