Time to Acts – Part 25-28

Thanks for reading this, it is the last post in my Time to Acts series and is about the last 4 chapters of Acts. This is the most chapters that I have squeezed into a post, but it is a lot of repetition, re-telling of old stories and Paul appearing before rulers, telling his story. There are a few points that I would like to make though, let’s take a look.

Firstly, in Acts 28, at the beginning, Paul is bitten by a snake. This is after he has warned the soldiers not to board the ship, and he has reassured them that they will not die at sea. They all end up shipwrecked on an island after all of his good work, Paul gets bitten by a viper, and because of this, he is assumed to be a murderer. Then, when the viper’s venom has no effect on Paul, he is assumed to be a god. It shows just how people can change their minds based on what they see. Paul fixes his eyes on the Word of God and not what he sees around him. See the difference? Paul then goes around the island healing people, in fact scripture implies that everyone who had an illness came and were healed. This is one of my issues, I can’t find a single time in the Bible where anyone was told that they couldn’t be healed, or that God didn’t want them healed, so why do we do it today? I don’t understand this, it must be something that we are not doing right, and not the fact that God doesn’t heal anymore. I’ll leave that with you to think about.

Next we hear Paul plead his case, and again, there seems to be one thing in particular that gets everyone upset. This is not the first time that we have seen this statement get a reaction, let’s take a look at it. Acts 28 – 28&29, “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.” Why do people tend to get upset when it is said that someone else may also be entitled to their benefits? It seems that it is not enough that we have something, we want others to go without in order to give us the advantage. If everyone in the world was given a BMW, most people who already drove one would be really upset. It is not the fact that they have a BMW, it is more the fact that others don’t. This is rather sad. This needs to be the exact opposite in the Kingdom of God. What you have is worth nothing unless you give it away, you being able to heal is useless if you don’t heal. Being a prophet is useless if you don’t prophesy. This is the same with all aspects of the Kingdom of God, we need to be telling others about it, and giving it away, otherwise it is pointless. Completely the opposite to what the Pharisees were up to, trying to have it all for themselves. This is what Paul has been trying to teach us throughout the book of Acts (thanks to Luke for writing it).

Thanks for joining me for Time to Acts, that is the end now. The posts will continue, but I will write about various topics as God leads. Thanks for reading this. Let me leave you with a question.

What have you been given to use for God’s glory? What are you doing about it? We don’t all have to be TV evangelists, in fact if everyone did what God had called them to do, we may not even need TV evangelists. Let us all discover what God has called us to do, and what He has given us to contribute. If we all bring what we have, and do what we have been called to do, God will move powerfully through his people and we will see the revival that we all desire.

God’s power, our actions.

Be blessed.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 23&24

Here we take a look at 2 chapters, and see Paul stand trial and eventually go to prison. All because he taught people to follow Jesus. When I read scripture like this, it does make me wonder what I would do in a situation like this. I face mild persecution, nothing like what Paul went through. Now I am not saying that we should go out looking for trouble, but we should preach the Word, and not be afraid of what may come our way. Let’s take a look at some parts of chapter 23 and 24.

We first see Paul up against the Pharisees and Sadducees. Paul gets them arguing with each other, so much so that the commander gets Paul out as he fears that Paul may have been killed in the process. This inspires a group of 40 Jews to get together and make a pact to kill Paul. It always amazes me how people will go to such great lengths to keep the Truth quiet. We see this kind of thing happening today in countries all over the world, and it is rather sad. Christians getting killed for preaching the Word of God. Those of us who live in countries where it is safe(er) to preach the Word, do we do it? It is even sadder that we have an opportunity to reach others and we often don’t take it.

Paul is then taken away, for safety, by the commander. He ends up in a prison at Herod’s quarters where he awaits a trial. Later on, he is brought out and asked to plead his case, which he does, he says the following: “But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets. 15 I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. 16 Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people.
17 “After several years away, I returned to Jerusalem with money to aid my people and to offer sacrifices to God. 18 My accusers saw me in the Temple as I was completing a purification ceremony. There was no crowd around me and no rioting. 19 But some Jews from the province of Asia were there—and they ought to be here to bring charges if they have anything against me! 20 Ask these men here what crime the Jewish high council[c]found me guilty of, 21 except for the one time I shouted out, ‘I am on trial before you today because I believe in the resurrection of the dead!’”

Paul is then put back in prison, and ends up staying there for 2 years! Here is the thing, the Lord spoke to Paul in verse 11 (of Chapter 23) and told him that he would be going to Rome. Now he is in prison for 2 years for doing nothing wrong. How many of you have felt that you have heard from God, but it is just not happening? How many of us are waiting to see prophesies come true in our lives? Keep believing, keep trusting, and keep doing what God has called you to do and you will get there. I think of some things in my life which hasn’t happened quickly enough for me and how frustrated I get because I get impatient. Paul spent 2 years in a prison, waiting for God’s word to happen. Could you do that? I don’t know if I could. I need to learn from this and be patient. Yes, take action (if God has called yo to), pray, speak positively, keep believing and meditating on God’s Word, keep reading the Bible and praising God… But don’t lose faith. Don’t let the unbelief sneak in. I am not teaching this from a point of having done it well, I am talking to myself here as much as I am talking to anyone else.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 21&22

Acts 21 and 22 sees Paul set off on his mission, after he was warned that he would be bound, beaten and possibly killed. Paul decides to go anyway. Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ is more important to him than his own life even is.

Paul then gets warned again by some women who prophesied that he would be bound and beaten in Jerusalem. Once again Paul decides to go anyway. As predicted, he starts off by upsetting some people who take him outside and start beating him. When the soldiers arrived on the scene, they stopped beating Paul, and the soldiers took him away. It was good for Paul, as the people planned to kill him. Paul then told the commander that he was a Jew, so the commander allowed him to address the crowds.

Paul goes on to tell the crowds what had happened to him on his travels, to which the crowd listened intently. At least until Paul mentioned that God had also sent him to the Gentiles. This really upset the Jews as they didn’t hold the Gentiles in high regard, especially when it came to God’s anointing. This caused them to get angry again and call for Paul to be beaten again. This time, Paul asked the Roman soldiers if they were allowed to beat an uncondemned Roman (knowing full well that they weren’t allowed to). The soldier was shocked to learn that Paul was a Roman, and it saved him from a beating.

When Paul then faces the council, his story causes a split amongst the members. Some believing that Paul should be put to death and others believing that he was of God, and should be left alone. This is what the first group decided to do. And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. 13 Now there were more than forty who had formed this conspiracy. 14 They came to the chief priests and elders, and said, “We have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul. 15 Now you, therefore, together with the council, suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him; but we are ready to kill him before he comes near.” This is what I believe was the thorn in Paul’s side. These kind people who followed him around trying to kill him. Persecution. Not an eye illness.

The Romans get wind of this plan to kill Paul, so they send soldiers to get him and take him to Antipatris. This is done effectively, so Paul eventually ends up in Herod’s Praetorium, awaiting his trial.

I know that I have covered that section very quickly, but that leaves us with Paul in a bit of a predicament, awaiting trial. The point of this is to show you that Paul knew what he was getting into, and he chose to go anyway. Now we can question his intelligence, and his strategy, but we can’t question his commitment to what God had called him to. What has God called you to, and how committed are you to it? This is the question that I am asking myself.

Think about it. Make the right decisions.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 20

It is time for Acts chapter 20. I was originally going to combine this with the next few chapter, as it really is one big story, but there is so much to learn in each chapter that I ended up splitting them. Please do take note of the common story and theme throughout the next few chapters.

First of all, there is a fellow sitting in a window, who falls asleep and falls out of the window. As you would expect, he dies, but then Paul goes outside and raises him from the dead. How cool is that? We often ‘limit’ healing for people who have had no choice (like an illness which the person didn’t cause themselves). How many people would say that falling out of a window is a tragedy but you shouldn’t have been in the window in the first place (I hear my mother asking us why we would do such a silly thing). Here is the question. If this happened today, how many of you would actually attempt to raise the person from the dead? Probably not many. Then we ask why we don’t see miracles like this anymore.

Now Paul is trying to get to Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost, but he knows that it is going to be a difficult time. He states the following in verses 20 – 24. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. 24 But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Wow. I’m not sure if I will be saying the same thing there. I mean I know that what I teach will often generate a reaction, and people have said some pretty hurtful stuff to me because of my faith, but I have never really been in any physical danger (that I know of). Paul knew that he was going to be locked up, very possibly beaten, and even potentially killed. He went anyway. Spreading the gospel was more important to Paul than his life. Where does our calling from God fall in our priorities? I’m not suggesting that we all give up our day jobs and move to North Korea to preach the gospel and risk our lives (unless god calls us to do so), I’m just asking how important it is to you. What is more important to you that what God has called you to? Your free time, family, job, money, or even your life? Preaching the gospel was more important than all of these things to Paul. You see, so often people use verses like this to try and guilt us into doing things. That is not my intention. I believe (I’m still working on getting my actions to match up) that God’s way is best. I believe that God has got better things in store for us than we could ever achieve on our own. He is a good God, He doesn’t want to drag us off to a place where we won’t be happy, He has created us for a purpose, and we won’t be truly happy until we step into what He has for us. If you make it into heaven one day (I hope that you have accepted Jesus as your saviour and will do), ask Paul if he regrets going to Jerusalem. Paul will have some regrets, but I doubt that this was one of them. God has the best in store for our lives, but we settle for less because we don’t trust God. This is the bottom line. I’m not condemning anyone, I include myself in this too, but I am always deciding to trust God more and more. It is a decision, not a warm fuzzy feeling. Join me in deciding to make the right decisions.

Join me for the next posts, where we continue to follow Paul’s journey and learn from it. Think about what has been said here, and how important God’s calling is to you. Think about what decisions you can make to allow God’s power to flow through your life. The Bible says that it is better to give than to receive, but it also says that if we prove ourselves with a little, we’ll be given much. The more you step out for God and trust Him, the more He’ll do through you. Who knows, you may be the person raising someone from the dead one day, or leading many people to the Lord. If so, it would all have started because you started trusting God more and more, and deciding to do what He has called you to do over what you want to. This is my mission. Make it yours.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 19

It is time for chapter 19, and as usual, there are some lessons to be learned here. Let’s take a look and see what this chapter has to say.

The first part is showing that it is necessary to be baptised in the Spirit and in water. I grew up in a baptist church, and I now attend a church that does believer’s baptism. I believe that when people make a decision to follow Christ, they should get baptised in water as did Jesus. I don’t believe that this should be done as a baby, but only when you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Having said that, baptism in the Spirit is just as important, if not more so. Baptism in water is an outward expression of an inward change, you are merely showing everyone there that you have been born again. It is not magical, the water is not blessed, or anything like that. It is merely an act of obedience that shows that you are born again. Being baptised by the Spirit is powerful. There are very often immediate signs that follow, like speaking in tongues, prophesying or the like. This is what I believe releases you into your ministry, this is what equips you with the power of the Holy Spirit, to do what you have been called to do. I don’t think that anyone should go into any ministry without being baptised in the Spirit. You can do it, but you won’t be as successful as you will be with the Holy Spirit. So how do you get baptised in the Spirit? Paul laid hands on the people and they were baptised by the Spirit. Ask someone who has been baptised by the Spirit, and they can lay hands on you to receive the same.

The next part is interesting. God worked so powerfully through Paul, I’d love to have pieces of cloth that I have touched, healing people. That would be awesome. I am not as dedicated as Paul, but I still want to see people set free from illnesses of all sorts. Then we have a word of warning, the Jewish exorcists trying to do the same thing. Trying to cast a demon out in the name of Jesus. There are so many movies nowadays about demons and exorcisms and they are mostly rubbish. If you think that what happens in these movies is true, you’re mistaken. The only authority over demons is the authority that we have been given by Jesus. No amount of garlic, ‘good magic’ (there is no such thing) or chants are going to help. Jesus name is the only thing that works, but not everyone can use it. The seven sons of Sceva tried, and they came off second best. A distant second at that. Jesus’ name is not a magic word that we throw around, there is power in it because of what He did, and He has put that power in the hands of those that follow Him. The problem is that we have people who don’t know Jesus, posing as the ‘authority’ on ghosts, the afterlife, spirits and the like, when we as Christians are scared of them. I think that it is time that we deal with the demonic and answer the tough questions. Imagine if we all used our prophetic and word of knowledge gifts, there would be no need for psychics. Imagine instead of ghost hunters on TV, we had Godly people educating us about evil and how to avoid it. Imagine instead of dressing up like a zombie for halloween, your child was filled with the Holy Spirit. Imagine how much better off we’d all be.

Next we have some more issues for Paul, as if he hasn’t had enough already. This time it is over money. The people who make the idols, make a fortune from selling them, so they don’t want the people to stop worshipping them. I wonder how much of this goes on today. Why do governments try to stop things like ‘healing in the streets’? Why would they want to stop people getting well? Why would they not want us to heal illnesses, handicaps, mental illness, pains, disabilities and the like? Is it because there is so much money generated through medicine, doctors and hospitals? Who knows. Ask yourself this question, they are always going on about how bad smoking is, but they never ban it. If you drive drunk they ban you, why not ban smoking if it is so bad for people? Money. This is what it so often comes down to. People worship money and not God. So here is a personal question. What have you compromised on because of money? This is not to condemn you, just to make you think about your priorities. This has been a hard lesson for me of late, I’ll share more with you after this series on Acts.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 18

Each and every chapter of Acts has taught us something, and this is no exception. In fact, this one shows us some things that we have not seen before in Acts, so let’s get started and see what it has for us. Read Acts chapter 18 and then take a look at my thoughts.

Firstly, the first paragraph is so important. Let me spell it out just in case there is any confusion. WE ARE ALL CALLED TO FULL TIME MINISTRY, REGARDLESS OF WHAT OUR JOB IS. Get it? So often I hear people say that they are not called into full time ministry, now I know what they mean, but I think we all are. Yes, we pay some people to be a pastor or take up a ‘position’ in the church, but that is the exception to the rule. If the others didn’t work, how would we pay the pastor? I have been called to teach, heal, prophesy, lead and deliver people, and I have a full time job. In fact, I have my own business (there is a link to the right of the blog post if you want to see what I do). I see my ministry as just as important as my business (if not more so), even though I don’t get paid for it as such, God provides me with everything, so I do what He calls me to do.

Secondly, we see Paul stop teaching and leave when people oppose him and blaspheme. This is a tricky one because we often refuse to ‘give up’ on someone who does not want to hear the gospel. We keep on trying to teach people who don’t want to hear. Now I am not saying that we give up the first time they disagree with us, but what I am saying is that there are people out there who will just not believe. These people often look for a fight and blatantly come against anything you have to say. Paul just walked away and left them to it. I often have the same attitude. There are so many people out there who want to know the good news, I’d rather be teaching them than getting frustrated trying to teach someone who isn’t interested.

Now here is the next point, and I have a funny feeling that this may upset some people and I may get some comments about this, but that has never stopped me before. Look at what happens next, God appears to Paul in a dream and tells him to speak boldly and that he will not be attacked here. That is so different to the rest of Acts where Paul gets beaten almost every chapter. Why does God say this? I’m not sure, but let me give you my theory. God says, “for I have many people in this city.” . I believe this to be the reason. I have said it before, I don’t believe that being sovereign means that you always get your way (Sovereignty of God). I believe that God is sovereign, but He doesn’t always get His way. God wants everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), but we all know that not everyone is (Matthew 7:14). I believe that our free will can (and usually does) come against (and often prevent) what God is doing. Because God had many people there, the chance of His will being done was greatly increased. God did not want Paul to get hurt, but He won’t oppose free will (Paul’s Thorn). This gives us more responsibility, are you sitting around waiting for God to do something, or are you allowing God to do something by using you? We have a responsibility and we have the authority (in Christ) (Our Authority in Christ) to do it. God works through us. Now before you get all upset and start writing to me, I am not saying that we are more powerful than God, I am merely saying that Jesus gave us the authority, and now God chooses to work through us. God has intervened in the past, but I believe that we need to do our part. If the boy didn’t come forward with the loaves and fish, would Jesus have still fed the 5000? I don’t think so, in the following chapter He feeds 4000 and again calls for any food that people have. God’s power, our actions.

So I hope that this has been an interesting chapter for you too. We have got the authority to do what God has called us to do, and if we bring the little that we can, God will do the rest. No matter what your job, find what God has called you to do and step boldly into it. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Walk in the blessing.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 17

As we continue on in Acts, we get to chapter 17. This is a tricky one because as I read it, I immediately saw a pattern, something which I wanted to talk about. Then I went away and thought about it, and I started to re-consider. Why? Fear. I was scared of what people may think. I know, that doesn’t sound like me, but it has been rather pleasant not to have any direct, aggressive opposition for a while. I then thought about something that Andrew Wommack once said, if you don’t have resistance from the devil from time to time, it may be because you’re travelling in the same direction. The last thing that I want is for my posts to become watered-down and irrelevant, so here goes, brace yourself.

In this chapter, Paul moves from synagogue to synagogue, preaching the news of Jesus Christ. This, as you can imagine, causes some issues and ends up with a group of angry people following Paul, stirring up the crowds to come against him. Now Paul doesn’t give up, he moves on to the next place and does the same thing. Paul has a desire to see people enter into a relationship with Jesus, and nothing is going to stop him from preaching the Word. He doesn’t get discouraged when people come against him, he just keeps on doing what he is there to do. I would like to be the same. I have had similar experiences, although I have never set foot in a synagogue. I have had this experience in churches!

Let me make it clear, I am not trying to convert people to Christianity, I am trying to get them to follow Jesus. Not everyone who claims to be a Christian actually follow Jesus. I know that sounds absurd, but it is true. I have been asked to leave churches (on more than one occasion) for doing things that Jesus did. Healing the sick, casting out demons, making disciples, preaching the Word. If you do these things (the very things we are called to do) in many churches and ‘Christian’ religions, you may well be shown the door. Does this mean that we give up? Did Paul give up? No. If you have been asked to leave a church because you are following Jesus’ teaching, you are in good company. If you have never been asked to leave, you’re either in a good church, or you’re not doing it properly :-). Paul was not concerned with what people thought, or did. The gospel is bigger than that and the gospel was Paul’s focus. It should be ours too. Dare I say that ‘religion’ (the practises that we do) have generally overtaken the relationship that we have with Jesus. It is sad, but there are so many people out there who do so much ‘religious stuff’ without actually experiencing the love of a Saviour. This breaks my heart (similarly to as it must have broken Paul’s). I will not stop preaching the truth. I am in an excellent church now with the pastor’s backing and others who believe as I do, so I shouldn’t get thrown out of this one any time soon, but I am quite prepared to be asked to leave another church should God move me on. When the Bible says go out and make disciples, to save the lost. Many of those ‘lost’ are sitting in churches on a Sunday. Difficult to believe, but true non the less.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that all of our efforts should be within the church. I am just as keen to get out into the world to bring God’s Kingdom into every situation, but sometimes we need to get our house in order before we can get others into it. Paul went from synagogue to synagogue preaching the truth. The truth is seriously lacking from many of our churches today, maybe it is time to preach it again. If you are stuck in a ‘religion’ and you really want a loving relationship with Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, invite Him in. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Do it, and then trust Him as your saviour. Get hold of someone who has this kind of relationship with God and tell them that you have made this decision. Read the Bible, think about what you have read, and then ask God to show you how that applies to you.

If you have made this decision, take a look at some of the other posts in this blog, and follow it. I will continue to teach as long as God asks me to do so.
You are blessed!

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 16

This is one of my favourite passages of scripture (Acts 16), so let’s take a look at what we can learn here.

We start with a rather awkward part. Paul decides to take Timothy along with him, but they are going to a place filled with Jews, so Timothy needs to get circumcised. Now Paul speaks about the fact that we no longer have to get circumcised, so why did he circumcise Timothy? I believe that he did this to overcome any barriers with the Jews as they were going to minister to them. I’m not going to spend too much time on this, but if Timothy scarred his body to overcome a hurdle of engaging the people that he was ministering to, what do you do? Do you try and adapt to fit in with the people that you have been sent to minister to, or do you expect them to bridge the gap? What were the chances that someone would see that he was not circumcised? Yet he still did it. I hope this makes you think about what hurdles you need to overcome to minister to the people that you have been sent to. Just remember, this is NOT an excuse to sin, we are called to be in the world, not of it.

As we read on, we see Paul, Silas and Timothy get lead to Macedonia, with some saved on the way. It doesn’t take long for the demons to get upset, and one decides to interfere. A woman that is demonised starts following Paul saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” I have heard people say that demons can’t tell the truth, that they have to lie. I have even heard people say that if you do the opposite of what they tell you, you’re on the right track. Please let this verse show you that these statements are complete rubbish. They will tell you whatever they need to to cause you to stumble. Don’t listen to them at all, listen to the Holy Spirit instead, you can’t go wrong doing that! Paul gets upset and tells the demon to leave, which it does as it has to listen to us when we command it in the Name of Jesus. This doesn’t go down well with the ladies masters. They made money from her fortune-telling, now without the demon, she can’t do it anymore. I hope that this is also clear as to where fortune-tellers get their power from (see Difference Between Prophets and Fortune Tellers). As per normal, the guys get falsely accused, beaten and thrown into prison. Again.

Now this is the part that really encourages me. Paul and Silas are praising God. If you were beaten and thrown into a high security prison after doing the right thing, would you be praising God? I’m not sure if I would. Next thing, there is an earthquake and the doors swing open and the chains fall off. Freedom! No, the guys stay put. That is what astounds me, they could have run, would you not see the chains coming off and the doors opening as a chance to run? I would. Paul and Silas decided to stay where they were. Look what happened. The guard decides to kill himself as he will be killed if the prisoners escape, and he thinks that they are gone. Paul calls him and tells him not to do it. Next thing, we see that the guard and his family are saved and baptised! The guard then helps Paul and Silas by cleaning their wounds and feeding them. If Paul and Silas had run, they would have been fugitives and the guard would be dead. Now they are on their way to being freed and the guard and his family are saved. This is what happens when you listen to God and not do what you think you have to. This also shows us that when we have (figurative) chains holding us down, we can break them (in Jesus Name and by worshipping God), and they will be broken. This doesn’t necessarily mean that our circumstances will change, it just means that instead of our circumstances dictating to us, we (with the power of the Spirit) dictate to our circumstances. The chains will go but our situations may not change, but once the chains are gone, our situations will work for our good. I hope that this passage encourages you as much as it encouraged me when I read it. This is the God that we serve!

One last thing, even after this, Paul still refuses to leave the prison. He (and the others) were put there after doing nothing wrong. Paul knew this, and he wanted to magistrates to sweat a little. Only after they came down and apologised to Paul, did he leave. That is the advantage of taking the high road.

God’s power, our actions.

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 15

Here is almost an entire chapter about people who don’t agree with each other, people with different opinions. In fact there is even a split amongst people who had ministered together. Sound familiar? This is ripe amongst Christians today. Let’s take a look at what Acts chapter 15 has to say.

First of all we have the issue of circumcision. Some were saying that the Gentiles should be circumcised and others were saying that they didn’t. If you replace the circumcision with just about any other ‘religious practise’, it sounds very similar to the kinds of discussions that go on today. I have said before that Christians will sooner accept non-Believers into church (which they should) than fellow believers with a different theology. We don’t like it when other believers don’t agree with us, do we? This is also a tug of war between grace and works. Grace that Jesus has given us by dying for us, and the works that we are called to do. Now I am pro works and grace. You may have heard one of my favourite sayings, “God’s Power, Our Actions”. Unfortunately, some people think that we don’t need to do anything, and others underestimate God’s grace. This is also about being ‘religious’. Religious, not as in being a Christian, but as in doing what were told to do just because we have been told to do it. There are things that we have been told to do, which I do. I do these things because I understand why we do it, and why God has called us to do it, not just because ‘that’s what we do’.

Peter gives what I believe to be the best answer in verses 8 – 11, So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9 and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.” The law was there to show us that we fell well short of God’s standard. Then Jesus came and made a way for us to get to God, through faith in Him. We now do what pleases God because we love Him, not because we have to do it to get to heaven.

Then we see a common modern day experience. Paul and Barnabas had been doing ministry together for a while, and then they split. Over a disagreement. Now this passage doesn’t really give too many details, but they split because Barnabas wanted to take a guy John, called Mark along, and Paul didn’t. Verses 39 and 40 say, “Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God.” Sad, but I guess that it happens.

What do you think about situations like this? I personally think that it is better to go your separate ways and partner with people that you agree with. I think that we are called to love each other, but we probably won’t agree with everyone all of the time. I don’t think that this is a huge problem, as long as we deal with it correctly. The thing to remember is that even after this ‘sharp contention’, God still used them. God wants to use us, and wants what is good for us, no matter what we do. Us doing the wrong thing may stop us from receiving what God has for us, but it doesn’t stop Him from providing it. It may effect us and the way that we see God, it doesn’t effect God and the way that He sees us. When He looks at me He sees what Jesus died for, and for that I am eternally grateful!

Be blessed!

Richard

Time to Acts – Part 14

Acts chapter 14 is really the final part of the story of chapter 13. This is the continuation of that same mission. Chapter 13 was very interesting, chapter 14 also doesn’t disappoint. Read Acts chapter 14 and then take a look at my thoughts.

We pick up the story as Paul and Barnabas were still doing what they were called to do, and still attracted some ‘unwanted’ attention. This time instead of being thrown out, they found out about a plot against them so they fled. This is a lesson for us today. We may be tempted to see fleeing as a weakness, but God still used them after they fled. In fact, God used them so much, that you may be inclined to think that God caused the persecution in order to make them flee to get them where He wanted them. This is not true, God doesn’t send bad things, only good. He is just so good at turning things around, that we sometimes mistake the initial bad happening, as coming from God.

Paul then finds a lame man. Have a look at verses 9 and 10, “He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.” Firstly, please note that there is no talk of a prayer meeting, Paul didn’t ask God if it was His will that the man be healed. He saw that the man had faith to be healed, so he told him to stand up.. and he did. This is what I believe and where I want to get to. Jesus wants us healed, it is us and our actions that prevent healing. Now I know that some of you are getting ready to write a scathing comment, just hold on. When I have finished this series on Acts, I will post a post of 12 barriers which stop you from receiving healing, you can keep your comments for that. The other interesting part here, is that the man only seems to have the faith after he did something specific. He listened to Paul. Paul was probably teaching, and this man was listening. I reckon that the man’s faith was building as he listened to Paul teach, then he got to the point where he had the faith. What teaching are you listening to? Are you reading scriptures that relate to healing? So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17.

Paul and Barnabas then had people trying to make sacrifices to them. Even after all of what they taught, people still tried to worship them and not God. They even went out and explained to the crowd again, but the people still thought that they were gods. The interesting part, is that soon after that, the Jewish leaders managed to change the people’s minds and got them to the point of stoning Paul. How do people go from thinking that someone is a god, seeing miraculous healing, and then having the person stoned. Let this be a lesson to us all. We often see TV evangelists today, even though most of them point to God, we still put them on a pedestal. We then hear something about them (that may or may not be true), and then we bash them down. We can do this to all Christians, not just celebrity ones. Be careful of this, you can see how easy it is for the enemy to change our minds if we are not rooted in the Word of God.

Here is one of my favourite bits. They think that Paul is dead, but after the disciples ‘gathered around him’, he got up and left. Now, it doesn’t actually say what happened hear, but if I may be so bold, I would like to suggest an option. Could Paul have actually been dead? Could the disciples ‘gathering around’ have been them raising him from the dead? Possibly. Either way, this is pretty awesome. To escape a stoning (whether he died or not) and have the people leave assuming that you were dead, and you to get up and leave, is pretty cool. If he did die and was raised from the dead, that is even better. Paul and Barnabas then return to Antioch, from where they started this mission at the beginning of chapter 13. One thing that I have learned here is that when Paul fled, and when he was stoned, God still used him and God was still working things for his good. He either avoided a beating and preached the word, or he survived a stoning to go on and preach the word.

Glory to God!

Richard