“They are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs…”(Acts 21:.20-21)
In Acts 21 Paul returns to Jerusalem and spends time with James, John, and the council telling them all the great things God has been doing in his ministry. They spend a few moments to praise God for these things, but then they push on through it to the more important issue to them: which was not the divine workings of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, but man made workings of their traditions, sentimental items, and customs.
The Christian church had been established in Jerusalem for many years now and existed in relative peace with the Jews there. Paul however, who is also a Christian, comes to the church in Jerusalem and all the Jews want to beat him and stone him. And the and it is Christians and the Christian church itself in Jerusalem that is bringing up charges up against Paul. Why? Why do the Jews want to stone Paul and yet are ok with and leave alone James, John and the council, and the Christian Church in Jerusalem? All of them were followers of Christ like Paul.
Because the church in Jerusalem still followed the law of Moses. These Jewish Christians remained close to and kept their Jewish practices, customs, traditions, sentimental items, and “way things have always been done” after becoming believers. They may now be Christians and believe differently inwardly, but they “blended in” with non-Christians enough to be ”ok” in their eyes.
Paul however, proclaimed a gospel of the free grace of God and forgiveness to all. He may have been ok if he stuck to proclaiming that Gentiles did not need to follow Jewish customs and traditions in order to become Christians. But he started “meddling” and went farther than that. The big issue and charge was that Paul was also teaching the Jews in the Diaspora (Jews dispersed in other regions and countries outside of Jerusalem) that became Christians that they also may abandon the law of Moses and being bound to its required practices, restrictions, customs, holidays, and traditions. It was not Paul’s “meddling” with God that got him in trouble, it was his meddling in church practices, traditions, “look”, style, and sentimental attachments that riled the Jews up enough to want him dead.
We in the church today get riled up in the same way over things other than the Jesus. When I pastored a local church, one Sunday I moved the altar from behind the altar rail you kneel at to in front of the rail to aid in a sermon I was preaching that morning on the Lord’s Supper. I was practically charged with committing heresy for doing it! One Sunday I read the Scriptures from my cell phone and two people left the church because I did not read it from a leather and paper book. Our house church meets on Wednesday evenings. When I tell people this I do not know how many people reply back to me in shock, “You do not meet on Sunday mornings?!?” When we renovated a sanctuary a church it caused a bitter conflict among the partitioners that centered around replacing the “original pews,” modifying the altar railings, and wall colors.
An all- white church I pastored wanted to reach out and invite the the large population of blacks in their community to attend and join their church family. However, they were not willing to change any of their worship styles, Sunday service, or include them in their leadership team to accomplish this. They invited the black people, however they had worship to Casting Crowns, and conform and worship like white people. There was no flexibility to change.
The church in Jerusalem praised God and praised Paul and wanted him to continue efforts to make disciples that imitate Christ, however that praise stopped when he did not follow their traditions and “way of doing things.” The disciples he was making were trying to imitate Jesus, but since Paul did not also teach them try to imitate the Jews as well so they wanted to stone him and take him out. In most churches today this attitude, if not openly declared, is firmly instilled in the polity and DNA of the church. We want you to make new disciples that conform to the image of Christ, so long as they conform to our polity, practices, customs, church structure, and traditions as well. Or else the church will overtly or covertly make it known to you that you have crossed the line.
To Paul, all these other things he denounced as a departure from the purity of the Gospel: of keeping the priority of Christ Crucified, Christ Risen and the forgiveness of sins. Of Simply Jesus. His purpose and outlook was not looking back and keeping things the same and to imitate the church in the past, but looking forward to what changes needed to be made to grow the church and imitate Jesus. We are not called to imitate a church or denomination, we are called to imitate Christ.
Prayers:
Pray over your personal relationship with Jesus. Are there any religious practices you are clinging to, or more importantly requiring others to cling to was well? Are you steadfast in your obedience to Scripture and Christ, yet flexible enough to allow, accept and even join in with others who’s practices and customs differ from yours. Are you open to change from “the way things have always been done?” Paul was flexible enough to worship with Jewish Christians and gentile Christians, and to change styles and formats to grow God’s church, are you?
Pray over any past or current areas in you faith where you have shown prejudice resisted fellowship with, or been hostile towards other Christians, leaders or churches not over going against Scriptures and Jesus’ Gospel of Grace, But because of a difference of personal practices, customs, or traditions. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections on Chapter 21 with myself and others in the comments box. My purpose for writing the daily reflections is to encourage your own reflections and prayers. I would love to hear what God is revealing to you.
Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You!
Good morning Lord Jesus, in this quiet time this morning I seek to know you deeply and intimately and feel your embrace of love..
“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24
Paul was ready to surrender his freedom and, if needed, his life itself for the sake of Christ and his service. Self-preservation and comfort were not a motive which he sought after. His main concern was to fulfill the course which Christ had marked for him to run, sharing in the Spirit’s power the good news of God’s free grace in Christ. Life or death was not the issue that mattered: what mattered most was, as he told the church gathered, that Christ should be magnified in his body.
As the leaders of the church gathered around Paul, he laid on them a weighty responsibility. The Holy Spirit had entrusted them with the charge of the people of God and the church in Ephesus. They now were charged with the sharing of the gospel to the city and caring for the them as shepherds care for their flock. Their responsibility was great in that the flock which they were commissioned to tend was no other than the church of God which he himself had purchased for himself with nothing less than the life-blood of his beloved Son.
Paul then looks forward to their future and the prospects for the Ephesian church was not completely promising. He tells them the sheep will have to be guarded with unceasing vigilance, for ferocious wolves will try to force their way among them and ravage them. As in the Jesus’ parable of the good shepherd in John chapter 10, here it is the leaders of the church who are called to be the good shepherds of their flock. They are called to protect the church from false teachers, here described as wolves, because of the spiritual death and havoc they cause. Yet it is not only wolves from the outside that will try to intrude the church but that false teachings will come out of their own ranks and arise to try to seduce their followers away from the fold. Later in John’s writings in Revelations the Ephesian church is chastised for abandoning her first love. Foreseeing these happenings, Paul urges the church leaders to be vigilant and follow his example: To maintain their course God has set them to run; to share the good new of God’s free grace; to shepherd and show compassion and concern on new converts; to be ready to surrender freedom and life; as all that mattered was that Christ should be glorified in their body.
My family, I pray as you read this chapter and my reflection, you understand that you are now one of the leaders of the church today. You are now called to be the good shepherd over the flock in your city, the church that God purchased with the blood of his Son. You are now called to keep the wolves out. And together as leaders, we are called to maintain our course God has set us to run; to share the good new of God’s free grace; to shepherd and show compassion and concern on new converts; to be ready to surrender freedom and life; as all that matters is that Christ should be glorified in our bodies, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections on chapter 20 with us in the comment box below.
Please support and partner with my self and my family as we serve those God crosses our path with in our community with your one-time or monthly financial gift by clicking link below.
Good morning Lord Jesus, Father and Spirit, Silver and gold I do not seek this morning, but the gift of your presence in my life.
The song, "There is power in the name of Jesus, to break every chain..." came to my mind as I read this chapter. There is power in Jesus. In the battlefield of spiritual warfare, claiming the name of Jesus, claiming the power of Jesus, claiming to be in Jesus through the presence of the Holy Spirit in you is the ultimate weapon. But the Holy Spirit is a consuming fire. He is not a lap dog that you can beckon to come and go, and there is nothing domesticated about Him. So you do not "play" with Him or flippantly throw out the name of Jesus. Like handling a powerful, explosive weapon, there is a sense of awe, respect, and fear involved.
Acts 19:13-16 (NASB)" 13But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded."
When I went to Darfur, Sudan, the region was then and still is now an extremely dangerous and violent region. Some team members requested permission to carry a hand gun. We were told you can bring a hand gun, but once you carry one, in the view of the rebel military forces in the area you are no longer a civilian on a mission trip, you are a soldier on a mission, and the rebels do not play around. You do not carry it for show. If you are going to carry a gun, you better make sure in your inner being that you are prepared and willing to use it, without any hesitation or fear, to shoot and kill another human being because the Islamic military personnel you will face will not even blink an eye at using their weapons to shoot and kill you.
What you need to understand, is that when you accept Christ's call to follow Him, claim to be His disciple, participate in a church and choose to carry a cross, the way you are viewed in the worlds eye is changed. You are no longer a civilian in the world’s economic and political system under Satan, the Ruler of the World, complacent, and selfishly withdrawn and docile. You are viewed as a soldier under the command of Jesus your Lord. When you choose to carry The Cross, you are choosing to carry a weapon. You enter into the battle field of spiritual warfare. And just as real and plain as my Darfur illustration, is the seriousness and the life and death consequences of your decision. Christianity is not something you “play with” or “dabble in. You do not claim to be a Christian, carry a cross and follow Jesus for “show." You don’t stand on Sunday morning and raise your voices and hands and sing “Mighty To Save” without expecting to encounter the enemy you just sang you were saved from later on Sunday afternoon. We are trying to take back territory and communities from the enemy. We are trying to liberate families and individuals from Satan’s rule. We are part of the revolution of Christ. If you are going to carry a cross you need embrace the serious military and warfare implications of Ephesians 6:10-18. Take seriously its call to put on the full armor of God and arm yourself with the sword of the spirit. For there is an enemy who has come to kill, steal and destroy (Jn 21:25) who also will not blink an eye in using all it’s weapons at his disposal on you. He wants nothing more to see good hearted people get hurt and hurt each other. Press into Jesus who's battle it is and who's victory it is. So when the evil spirits look at you, with terrified eyes they will see Jesus, and tremble with fear.
My family, if you were one of the 7 brothers in the story in vs 13-16 and spoke out the name of Jesus, and the evil spirit looked at you, would he recognize you as a true disciple of Christ?
I Pray you meditate on your full understanding of your baptism and your answering the call to carry a cross and follow Christ. Pray on an understanding of the new view as a cross bearer for Christ you now have in the world's eyes.
Acts 19 begins with Paul ministering in Ephesus. So I turned to Paul’s letter to the church in this city. Read Ephesians 6:10-18, pray yourself into the full armor of God. Then close your eyes and visualize the victorious Christ reigning in your family, your neighborhood, and Huntsville and Madison.
Read Ephesians 6:19-20. Pray those two verses over yourself, and each member of your church Pray them also over 5 people you know who are Gospel bearers, in Jesus’ name. Please pray them over me. God bless you my friends!!
Please share your reflections on your time in Acts 19 in the comments box below.
I have included Ephesians 6:10-20 below. I added to it other verses in Scripture that support its message. Read through it and meditate on it as you have time today and over the weekend.
Ephesians 6:10-20 (in italics) with corresponding Scriptures inserted.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
“No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” Romans 4:20-21
“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” 2Tim 2:1
“I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” 1 John 2:14
Put on
“I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.” Job 29:14
“The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Rom. 13:12
the whole armor of God,
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” 2 Cor.10:4
that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
“so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” Eph 4:14
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” Col. 1:13
but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
“When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53
"in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” Eph 2:2
Therefore take up the whole armor of God,
“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” 1 Pe 4:1
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
“making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Eph. 5:16-19
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,
“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” 1 Pet. 1:13
“Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.” Isa. 11:5
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,” Isa 61:10
“He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.” Isa 59:17
and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation,” Isa 52:7
“And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Rom 10:15
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith,
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” 1Joh 5:4
with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.“ Heb 4:12
“He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.” Isa 49:2
praying at all times
"And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart" Lk. 18:1
in the Spirit,
"But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit" Jude 1:20. "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." Romans 8:26
with all prayer and supplication.
"Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak" Col 4:2-4
To that end keep alert with all perseverance,
"But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake." Mark 13:32-34
making supplication for all the saints,
"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people," 1 Tim 2:1
and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth
"At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—" Col. 4:3. "Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you," 2Th. 3:1
boldly to proclaim
"And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness," Acts 4:29
the mystery of the gospel,
"how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly." Eph. 3:3
for which I am an ambassador
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" 2Cor. 5:20
in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."
"For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.” Acts 28:20
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You!
Good morning Lord Jesus, I begin my day long in my time in your Word and prayer to hear your story and to make it mine as well.
I love Acts 18 as Acts 18 is a chapter on discipleship. In this chapter we meet Aquila and Priscilla. A couple that took Paul in and were discipled by him for 1 1/2 -2 years in Corinth. And where did he disciple them? At work. “because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade” v.3. Paul discipled them in his workplace. He shared his faith with them as they worked together. The result was that that when Paul left Corinth for Ephesus, it was not Barnabas, Timothy or Silas that accompanied him on his trip, but Aquila and Priscilla.
While Paul was in Ephesus, God led him to witness in his neighborhood. “And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God who’s house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.” v, 7-8. Paul prayer walked his neighborhood and made disciples of his next door neighbors. And Paul took Aquila and Priscilla with him as he walked his neighborhood. They watched him, learnied from him, shared their faith as well and were themselves being deeper discipled by him as he discipled others. The results of this was that after Paul spent time in Ephesus, he left but Aqulai and Pricilla stayed behind, as long term missionaries and they helped plant and birth the church in Ephesus and making disciples.
We then see later in 18, how Aquila and Priscilla took Apollos into their house, and discipled him for a time, then sent him out to Achia to grow the church. “But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” v. 26. Discipleship, changes individual(s) to go out and change the world and to go out and make disciples who make disciples.
The Lord spoke to Paul, ”Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." vs. 9-10. The Lord said there were many in his city that were “his people”, people who the soil of their hearts was good and ready to receive the seed of the gospel if Paul would just go and sow it in them. The Lord is speaking the same to you and I. Put your name and city in that verse, “Do not be afraid Gary, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in Madison and Huntsville who are my people."
So who are you discipling now? In your workplace? In your neighborhood? Who are your Aquilas and Pricillas that you are pouring into and giving them real access to your lives so they can watch you, learn from you, and become disciples? Real access does not just happen. Real access does not happen and can not happen in a Sunday morning church service or Bible Study, text message, or Facebook post. Real access to your faith requires a personal intentional investment of real time
My family, we are called to grow our churches with discipleship making at the core of what we do. Many of you reading this have invested decades: 10, 20, 30, 40 years or more in your faith going to church services, Bible studies, and praying. You are the ones Jesus is directly speaking to in the Parable of the Talents found beginning in Matthew 25:14. Read it. You are the ones not just given 5, or 3 talents, but hundreds of talents over decades of being a Christian. As the parable declares one day you will stand before Jesus and he will settle up your account. The first question he will ask you is what have you done with the talents I gave you? How many disciples did you make from my investment in you? Are you going to say you you buried them in the ground? Remember Jesus commission to the church in Matthew 28? “Go and make disciples…. “ Discipleship requires investing personal and intimate time with other individuals. This flows out of us individually from investing more personal and intimate time with God. I pray that God will strengthen your resolve to invest time in Him by daily reading our chapter in Acts, fasting one day a week, spending one solid hour a week in prayer, meeting weekly in a Band group for accountability.
I pray that you will today intentionally form a Band Group to allow “Pauls”, “Aquillas” and “Priscillas” to pour into you and you pour into them.
Pray that as your church moves forward and you will invest more in each other, that true discipleship among you will occur. Pray for unity among us.
Pray as we move forward we will invest more in others by inviting them into our houses, inviting them into a Band Group, prayer walking, and other discipling ministries and increased fruits in those you are discipling now. and that God will start sowing seeds into those our church will disciple.
Think of two or three people you know who need discipling in their walk now and pray that God will give you the love to step into their life. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections on chapter 18 with us in the comment box below.
Please allow me to intentionally give you access to my life!
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches, organizations, or groups understand the how and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Please support and partner with my self and my family as we serve those God crosses our path with in our community with your one-time or monthly financial gift by clicking link below.
Good morning Lord Jesus, you are my Lord, my God, my creature, and my life. Use me today for your glory..
“These people who have stirred up trouble throughout the world have come here too, and Jason has welcomed them as guests! They are all acting against Caesars decrees, saying there is another king named Jesus!” v. 7
“This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” v.3
"Paul had also proclaimed the word of God" v.13
"because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”v.18
I love Acts 17. It is a chapter of proclamation! It is a chapter on the revolution of Christ! It is a chapter on the spreading of the Gospel and the claiming people and places as part of God’s Kingdom on earth!
We too are called to join in today and proclaim there is another King named Jesus! Paul tell’s us, "For in him we live and move about and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, For we too are his offspring."(17:28) If this is true, then our very lives should be proclamations of our King Jesus, and as his subjects, that the Kingdom of God is at hand! “Throughout the world.” v. 6 Notice how some of those present in Thessalonica had knowledge of what had happened elsewhere. Word about Paul and his companions and their message was spreading. The gospel was turning the world upside down! and Paul says, ““He now commands all people everywhere to repent” v.30. God was now asking all mankind to turn to him. No nation or race was excluded. This includes all of Huntsville. Madison, Birmingham and your city, your neighbors, your family, and yourself.
John Wesley said, “Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God; such alone will shake the gates of hell.” We are called to join in shaking the gates of hell!
We are called to radically join in this revolution! We are called to stir up trouble, up-set the world, and turn the world upside down and declare in the face of all the idolatry in our cities, ”There is another king named Jesus!” v.7. Everywhere Paul preached in Acts 17 he was driven out of town. John Wesley once said that if after sharing the gospel he wasn’t driven out of town he feared he did not share it well enough. The gospel is radical message. C.S Lewis said, “A man who first tried to guess 'what the public wants,' and then preached that as Christianity because the public wants it, would be a pretty mixture of fool and knave”
My family, I pray you will come to understand, "Nothing great happens when you hold back." I Pray that God will remove from you today anything that is "holding you back" from proclaiming Jesus is King. Pray this over yourself.
If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Martin Luther said, “Delay is the sharpest arrow in the enemies quiver.” Pray over your immediate obedience to share the Gospel.
Pray right now that the Holy Spirit will lead and put in your path today the un-avoidable and obvious opportunity to share the gospel with one person today. Pray over this with sincerity and expectancy, and then walk out your door expecting and searching for it to happen.
Pray that your life today will boldly and joyfully proclaim Jesus is the King!
Pray for those you know: friends, family members, co-workers, who as Paul refers to in Athens, that are worshipping an unknown god or gods. Pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to them the existence of the one true God.
Pray for the cities of Madison, Huntsville, Brimingham, and your neighborhood, that the proclamation that Jesus is Lord will be the chorus heard through out it! In Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections on Chapter 17 in the comments box below.
Please support and partner with my self and my family as we serve those God crosses our path with in our community with your one-time or monthly financial gift by clicking link below.
Good morning Lord Jesus, I seek your leading this morning deeper into Your Spirit to be led throughout he day to those who need saved by Your Spirit.
“The leg does not feel the chain when the mind is in the heavens.” (Tertullian)
“Well, no soldier comes out to the campaign laden with luxuries, nor does he go to action from his comfortable chamber, but from the light and narrow tent, where every kind of hardness, roughness and unpleasantness must be put up with.” Tertullian.
“And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.” Act 16:23-26
Today we are on Acts chapter 16. In it we read where Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten and scourged for their faith and sharing of the Gospel. Being a Christian for Paul, Silas, and all who called themselves Christians was not easy. They lived in a time of hostility towards those who proclaimed Christ. Christianity was not a comfortable practice of getting up on Sunday mornings, getting dressed in nice cloths, being greeted at a door, fixing a cup of coffee in the fellowship area, sitting in a comfortable chair for an hour, then going to get a nice lunch. There was an actual cost and commitment involved. There was an actual cross involved.
Yet as the passage in Acts 16:23-26 reveals, no matter what trials, no matter what prisons, no matter what persecution the early Christians found themselves in, they rejoiced in praise. Today I am going to let Tertullian, who was an early founder of the faith and theologian who live in 155-240 AD, speak to you in this blog. The excerpts below are taken from a Letter of his “To the Martyrs.”
“Though the body is shut in, though the flesh is confined, all things are open to the spirit. In spirit, then, roam abroad; in spirit walk about, not setting before you shady paths or long colonnades, but the way which leads to God. As often as in spirit your footsteps are there, so often you will not be in bonds. The leg does not feel the chain when the mind is in the heavens. The mind compasses the whole man about, and whither it wills it carries him. But where your heart shall be, there shall be your treasure…
Grant now, O blessed, that even to Christians the prison is unpleasant; yet we were called to the warfare of the living God in our very response to the sacramental words. Well, no soldier comes out to the campaign laden with luxuries, nor does he go to action from his comfortable chamber, but from the light and narrow tent, where every kind of hardness, roughness and unpleasantness must be put up with. Even in peace soldiers endure themselves to war by toils and inconveniences— marching in arms, running over the plain, working at the ditch, and engaging in many arduous labors. The sweat of the brow is on everything, that bodies and minds may not shrink at having to pass from shade to sunshine, from sunshine to icy cold, from the robe of peace to the coat of mail, from silence to clamor, from quiet to tumult. In like manner, O blessed ones, count whatever is hard in this lot of yours as a discipline of your powers of mind and body. You are about to pass through a noble struggle, in which the living God acts the part of superintendent, in which the Holy Ghost is your trainer, in which the prize is an eternal crown of angelic essence, citizenship in the heavens, glory everlasting. Therefore your Master Jesus Christ, who has anointed you with His Spirit, and led you forth to the arena, has seen it good, before the day of conflict, to take you from a condition more pleasant in itself, and has imposed on you a harder treatment, that your strength might be the greater…
Let the spirit hold convene with the flesh about the common salvation, thinking no longer of the troubles of the prison but of the wrestle and conflict for which they are the preparation. The flesh, perhaps, will dread the merciless sword, and the lofty cross, and the rage of the wild beasts, and that punishment of the flames, of all most terrible, and all the skill of the executioner in torture. But, on the other side, let the spirit set clearly before both itself and the flesh, how these things, though exceeding painful, have yet been calmly endured by many,—and, have even been eagerly desired for the sake of fame and glory; and this not only in the case of men, but of women too, that you, O holy women, may be worthy of your sex.” (Tertullan)
Now read and pray over these Scriptures.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-7)
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1Peter 5:6-11)
My family, I pray you will spend time re-reading the words above and reflecting over how these readings bring light and revelation to the trials and “prisons” you may find yourself in the past, present, or in the future.
Pray over your church and your ministries that you may remain “firm in your faith” as we embrace our same call as The Church today to spread the gospel and make disciples.
Pray over those around the world and the “kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world”
Pray all this in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same over me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections from Acts 16 in the comments box below.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You!
“My commandment is this - to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this - that one lays down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13
Memorial Day was Originally Decoration Day, started to commemorate the deceased of the Civil War. Most southern states refused to recognize the day officially until after WWI. It was Declared Memorial Day by President Johnson in 1966. With the Red Stone Arsenal and the strong military presence here and the many military families that live in the in this area, Memorial Day impacts allot of these families in our area.
I love our country, I am so blessed to live here.
It is a country born out of a desire for freedom.
Born out of a desire for justice in the face of oppression, and tyranny, both religious and political.
Born out of a desire to be a people free to worship God
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The USA was born out of sacrifice of life.
Those who left country and home and travelled into the unknown.
It was formed out of blood and loss of life in the American Revolution.
And for us today who are blessed to wake up this morning in America, we have had tens of thousands of men and women pay the ultimate price and give their lives to grant you and I the freedom and privileges we now live in as citizens of the USA.
This memorial day, as we remember those who committed their lives in service, some paying the ultimate price for our freedom, justice, peace, Let’s remember who we are as a US citizens, and honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice of theirs lives, by giving of ourself to bring peace, justice, compassion, hope, joy to those around as today.
My family, as we gather today to enjoy the company of family and friends, also remember to sat a prayer over those families who’s gatherings today will include going to the grave of a loved one, and be a solem remembrance of honoring a family member who payed the ultimate price for you and me, In Jesus’ name. God bless you my friends! God bless America!
“My commandment is this - to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this - that one lays down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13
This Memorial Day weekend, please share your reflections from you time in the Word, and any revelations or calling The Holy Spirit has given you. I would love to hear from you.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You!
When I read Acts 14, verses 21and 22 stand out to me. " After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch. Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." vs.21-22
“But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers” v.2
“When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled…” v.5
“They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead…” v.19
Paul and Barnabas went to the cities to strengthen and encourage the young churches just recently planted there. The members of those churches needed to be encouraged. They had seen Paul and Barnabas violently assaulted and driven out. They had seen Paul stoned. And Paul was their leader, their pastor who was asking them to follow in his same path and expect to experience the same suffering when they do. They themselves certainly had to endure some measure of persecution. It is almost taken for granted throughout the New Testament that tribulation is the normal experience of Christians in this age, the normal experience of the church. It is those who suffer for and with Christ now who will share in his glory. "No cross, no crown" (Rom 8:17, 2Tim. 2:12).
In Acts 14, Luke indeed records the irresistible progress of the gospel, but he does not do so in triumphant spirit. In K.C. Barrett's words, "Luke make it clear that the road his heroes were traveling was the way of the cross."
My brothers and sisters, understand this, that we are called to walk this same road, that leads in ONE DIRECTION, to the cross. That is why we named the church we planted One Direction Community. We are called to be a community, a church called to support each other as we walk together in the one direction of the way of the cross. We all must remember, both as individuals and collectively as churches, we are all to be cross bearers of Christ. You are going through Acts with me, praying and fasting hopefully because you understand your need to be pressing into becoming true disciples of Jesus. However Jesus tells us, “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” ( Matt 10:38.) Cross bearing and discipleship are in-separatable.
My family, pray:
The NT, reveals that early Christians and The Church understood that tribulation is the normal experience for them. They completely realized and accepted with joy where the road they were walking down would lead them. Pray that we can come to understand this as well. Pray for us a renewed realization, acceptance, and joy in our calling to suffer for and with Christ. To be cross bearers.
Pray thanksgiving to God for those, who's willingness to bear Christ's cross in the past and in the present, have witnessed to you and strengthened you like a Paul and Barnabas did to the early church, and brought you to this place where you now find yourself walking the same road with them.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to bring to mind those you know that are going through suffering and tribulation right now and pray for them. Give them a phone call, text or email of encouragement. Be a source of strength and encouragement in your family, workplace, circle of friends and those in your circle of influence you will witness to today.
Pray that The Holy Spirit will raise up out of the lost cross bearers to walk the road with us.
Pray all these prayers in the name of Jesus, Please pray the same for me, God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections on Acts 14 with me and others in the comment box below.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You! .
“Then, after they had fasted and prayed and placed their hands on them, they sent them off.” (Acts 13:3)
The church in Antioch was planted by believers who fled the persecution of the Jews following the stoning of Stephen which we read about in chapter 7. A stoning that Paul (Saul) participated in. Now we read in chapter 13, Antioch, the church that was formed by Paul’s persecution of Christians, that he tried to stop from coming into existence, is the church that commissioned him as a Christian, and sent him out unto the nations to build up and launch more Churches of Jesus that he tried to destroy! God is so awesome!!! Satan is such a loser!!! What and who Satan tried to use for evil, God redeemed for good and used for good.
I thank God for all the ways God has redeemed things in my past and in me for his good. All the things the Satan has led me into, I allowed my self to participate in, and the stones I have thrown at people, Jesus has covered under his blood. And he continues to do so today when I confess my sins. Just like Jesus changed Saul’s identity to Paul when he encountered him, Jesus changed my identity when I encountered Him as well. So that now I can be a source from which his church will be birthed. God is so awesome!!! Satan is such a loser!!
What was the source of the "Antioch Church" missionary outreach plan? Was it a study of Acts or one of the four Gospels? No, as they were not written yet. Was it a 12 step program on Evangelism, a sermon series, or a mission training? Nope. Its source was fasting, praying, and the laying of hands. (13:2-3) They were sent out as we are commissioned and sent out, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says The Lord of Hosts" (Zech. 4:6) They were sent out by the Holy Spirit. (13:4)
And what was Paul and Barnabas's missionary strategy? Preach Christ crucified, (13:28,29) Christ risen (13:33) and the forgiveness of sins (13:38). With all the books, trainings and conferences out there today on church planting, discipleship, and growing a church, with all their strategies and complex methods they contain, Paul’s and Barnabas’s strategy sounds pretty basic and simple. Go out and preach Christ crucified, Christ risen, and the forgiveness of sins. Simply Jesus. I think we need to remember our first love (Rev 2:4), and get back to simply Jesus. That was all Paul and Barnabas had and relied on:
and the church multiplied so walls could not contain it,
and disciples made disciples who made disciples,
and the gates of hell could not prevail against them,
and the enemies stoning of Stephen only fanned the flames of the church and it spread.
Read Acts 13, then reflect on all the ways Satan deceived you and used you in the past and the way that Christ has redeemed you and is now using you for his good. Look at all the ways he has changed you identity, and is changing your identity once you encountered him. Take a minute to thank Him.
Pray that your ministry, pray for your church's ministries you serve in together with others, that what ever they are unto, will be founded in a sending by the Holy Spirit, founded in a return to our first love, founded in simply Jesus.
My family, I pray you claim Christ crucified, Christ risen, and the forgiveness of sins over your life. Then I pray you take up your call to be sent. Pray right now that the Holy Spirit will lead one person into your path today that you can share this simple message with them.
Please share your thoughts, comments and verses that spoke to you in your time in chapter 13 in the comments box below.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You! .
Good morning Lord Jesus, I thank you for your love and grace that you lavishly pour into me.
“About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also… “ vs.12:1-3
Jesus told James in Mark 10:39 that he would drink from his cup and share in his “Baptism.” All of his disciples ended up drinking from his cup.
Persecution and suffering of the 12 Disciples
· Peter: There was a large fire that swept through Rome while Nero was emperor, He blamed Christians for causing it and began persecuting them. In 60AD, Peter, was crucified. He is stated to have said he was not worthy to be crucified the same way as Jesus and asked to be crucified upside down. He was crucified with praise coming from his lips
· James: Son of Zebedee, faithful, and he was beheaded for his faith. The martyrdom of James is recorded in the New Testament of the Bible, in Acts 12:1-2. He was executed, with a sword, by order of King Herod Agrippa I in the year 44 AD:
· Phillip: "He labored diligently in Upper Asia, and suffered martyrdom at Heliopolis, in Phrygia. He was scourged, thrown into prison as a cripple, and afterwards crucified, A.D. 54."
· Matthew: served in Parathia and Ethiopia, among the cannibals. In the latter country he suffered martyrdom, being slain with a halberd (large spear) in the city of Nadabah, A.D. 60."
· Andrew: the bashful brother of Peter, he did not end up bashful. He became a missionary to many lands. He was the first missionary to Russia and The Cythians, probably the most barbaric people of the first century. Andrew might have been martyred in Achaia or Patrae, both of which are places in the western part of Greece. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "It is generally agreed that he was crucified by order of the Roman Governor, Aegeas or Aegeates, at Patrae in Achaia. Taken under arrest and scourged by 7 men with rods. And then he was bound, not nailed, to the cross, in order to prolong his sufferings. The cross on which he suffered is commonly held to have been an X shaped cross, the decussate cross, now known as St. Andrew's Cross. When Andrew was brought to the cross he replied to the cross, “Oh precious cross. Thou has been consecrated by the body of my Lord, adorned with his limbs, I come to thee exalting and glad. Receive me into thy arms. That he who redeemed me by thee, may receive me on thee.” And he was crucified. His martyrdom took place during the reign of Nero, on 30 November, A.D. 60); and both the Latin and Greek Churches keep 30 November as his feast."
· Thomas: Called Didymus, Doubting Thomas, no. He preached the Gospel in Parthia and India, where exciting the rage of the pagan priests, he was imprisoned, tortured by the priests, and martyred by being stabbed repeatedly with spears.
· John: ministered in Emphasis for many years, founded churches in Smyrna, Loudiosia, Thia, Pergamous, Philidelphia, and others. He was Captured by the emperor who threw him into a pot of boiling oil. Miraculously he escaped with scars.. The emperor was superstitious of him. So he put him on The Island of Patimous where he was haunted and hunted by enimies for his faith. Only apostle we believe to die from natural causes.
· Bartholomew: According to Eusebius, Bartholomew traveled to India to preach to the people there, leaving behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Bartholomew was martyred by King Astyages in Armedia: He ordered the holy apostle Bartholomew to be beaten with rods; and after having been scourged, to be beheaded."
· James son of Alphaeus: according to Foxs' Book of Martyrs, was beaten, stoned and clubbed to death.
· Judas: Judas Iscariot was not a martyr. He killed himself after betraying Jesus.
· Thaddeus (Jude): was crucified, "Jude, the brother of James, was commonly called Thaddeus. He was crucified at Edessa, A.D. 72."
· Simon: Surnamed Zelot, preached the Gospel in Mauritania, Africa, and even in Britain, in which latter country he was crucified, A.D. 74.
I don’t know what your future is, and I do not know what mine is. We may see a day when we are called to pay for our faith with our own blood. However, I know one way you can pretty well make sure you won’t be called to martyrdom. That you won’t be persecuted, that you won’t endure suffering. How can you avoid persecution and suffering?
Do nothing.
Continue to adhere to and follow the other idols in the world as well as Jesus.
Continue in materialism like drive new cars, but put an Ichtus fish on the rear bumper.
Continue To build and live in “temples” to yourself: large, nice, comfortable homes with back decks, but hang a cross on an interior wall.
Continue not to invite others into your nice homes for fellowship, Bible studies, and sharing your faith.
Continue Keeping your guest rooms empty instead on inviting in the poor, widows, and orphans.
Continue in isolation and social distancing, away for the body of Christ and those who need the love and support of that body
Continue to invest, in wear, and advertise materialism to the world, but wear a gold cross hidden under your shirt.
Continue to believe that “church” is a building and being a “disciple of Christ” simply means attending that building once a week.
Continue in to be silent in conversations when Christ is being mocked or sin is being exhalted.
Continue to be silent in sharing your faith and talking about Jesus to your co-workers, classmates, family, and friends.
Continue to turn you head and not see; and hoard and cling to your resources when confronted with injustice, starvation, homelessness, and suffering in the world and your neighborhood.
If You continue to do all these things, I can almost guarantee you will never be persecuted or suffer for your faith in Jesus.
But then nothing will ever come of your faith.
Everyone of those who were martyred Exhibited Immediate Costly Radical Obedience (IRCO).
Everyone of those who were martyred, were active in their faith.
Everyone who died was an “all in” disciple of Christ.
Everyone who was martyred could have avoided it.
No one had to die! None had to go through Persecution or suffering for their faith.
Everyone that did, went through it because they knew Jesus is worthy of it.
Hypothetical question:
If Jesus in some way spoke to you and told you the name of someone you did not know. And told you that person you did not know, was lost, unsaved, and was going to spend eternity in hell. And Jesus said He wanted to use you, and could use you to “save” him, but it would cost you your life, Would you lay down your life for that unknown person? How about if it was a bus full of people? What about a city full of people? How about a family member? If Jesus said you are blessed, because by your suffering, persecution and laying down your life this person or these persons are going to enter the kingdom of God for all eternity. Would you be excited and praise God for using you, or would you step back in horror?
It comes down to the struggle of loyalty to the world, and the Kingdom of Heaven. We say this is not our home, that God is better than anything: our health, our wealth, our reputation, our lives; but when pressed, we hesitate, we back down, and don’t “walk what we talk.”
The Apostle Peter was bold and brash disciple of Christ. He proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, he drew a sword and cut off a man’s ear in the garden trying to protect Jesus. But when he was faced with the possibility of persecution and suffering for his faith, he bailed and three times he denied his faith. He chose life and his personal comfort over his character and life with Christ. Because if Peter did not deny Jesus three times, there is a good chance there would have been four crosses on the hillside the next morning.
Yet a few weeks later we read in The Acts of the Apostles chapter two, Peter boldly, in the face of great persecution and suffering, openly declared his faith and he shared the Gospel of Christ and thousands came to faith in Christ. And we also read that Peter with joy received beatings and imprisonment for his faith. And he was crucified upside down, joyously for his faith. What changed in him? What instilled in him the complete understanding that God is worthy of all and any suffering he might endure for his faith? The power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit that Jesus breathed into him and his encounter with the risen Christ. As bold, strong and determined as Peter was in his flesh, in and by his flesh alone he was too weak to stand firm in the face of persecution. And what is true of Peter, is true for me and you.
We cannot on our own, no matter how religious we may try to become or what restrictions we place on ourselves in our flesh, without the indwelling of and pushing deeper into and receiving the Holy Spirit personally into our lives, form a heart and soul that truly trusts, risks all, obeys, and believes that God is worthy of all and any suffering and persecution we may endure for our faith.
My family, I pray pray you will seriously pray today that you as individuals and we as a church can lives out a faith in which Jesus is worthy of it all. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what that looks like in your life and us as a community of faith, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends.
Please share your reflections to this post or the verses and reflections the Holy Spirit led you into in Acts 12.
Please support and partner with my self and my family as we serve those God crosses our path with in our community with your one-time or monthly financial gift by clicking link below.
Good morning Lord Jesus, In you alone I want to align my all my heart, mind, soul, and strength as I begin my new week.
“Now those who had been forced to scatter went around proclaiming the good news of the word. Philip went down to the main city of Samaria and began proclaiming the Christ to them. The crowds were paying attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the miraculous signs he was performing.” (Acts 8:4-6)
I was almost excited when I read chapter 8. The early church in Jerusalem, was forced to scatter, to leave the only "church" they knew. This scattering, caused them to proclaim and share the Gospel to new people, new neighbors, and plant new churches. “The Church” became a movement of God as it was created to be! Later in chapter 11 we will read:
"Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch" (11:19)
Those early disciples were forced to leave their "Home church", this led to planting of other churches, including the great church in Antioch! The persecution and scattering the enemy meant to destroy the church, God used it to grow and further establish His church.
As you start your day and go through your week and set to fulfill your plans you have made, remember God has set his plans he has made for you and needs you to fulfill as well. His plan is to release you and I, ordinary people in the church out into our communities to do extraordinary things in the kingdom. Just like in Acts 8:1. It was ordinary, un-named Jews, just some people, that scattered and spread the Gospel, lead others into salvation, made disciples, and grew churches.”
God’s plan this week includes the scattering and sending of you and I. People are saved, disciples are made, lives are restored and churches grow not primarily through programs and Sunday services, but through ordinary people spreading the Gospel. Spreading and sharing the Gospel is not about bringing people into a building to hear someone speak, but sending people out of a building to speak it into the world. Armies of ordinary people in the church, empowered by the extraordinary power and presence of the Holy Spirit, speaking life, truth, and transformation to those they encounter in their day.
Lets all commit to get rid of any spectator mentality we may possess about our role in Christ’s church. What ever is the name of the church you attend, what ever is the last name of your family, let that name be known in your neighborhood not because of its seating capacity, but its sending capacity. Because I believe at the end of the day that is how God is going to judge the church.
A change in spectator mentality won’t happen accidently. Just like setting aside and scheduling time in your day and calendar is required to fulfill your plans for the week, setting aside time and creating margins in your day and calendar is required to fulfill God’s plan for you to do extraordinary things for his kingdom. It requires intentionality.
Read Acts 8:1-8, 11:17-22. Then I challenge you this morning to open your calendar for the week and look at where you have scheduled times to release yourself in your community and spread the Gospel. I challenge you to write in your calendar dates and times you will spend in release, sentness into an area of your community with no prescript expectation or outcome but sharing your testimony and the Gospel. Schedule in times to prayer walk, go to a Waffle House, a bar, th mall, a college campus, Walmart, a hospital waiting room, a laundromat…ect. If you do not have times set aside and scheduled for this, for fulfilling God’s plan for you, it won’t happen. Luther said, “Delay is the sharpest arrow in the enemies quiver.” Don’t delay.
My family, I pray you will schedule on your calendar at least one day and time and an action you plan to do to be sent out in some way into your community, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us n the comment box below.
Please help us share the Gospel into our community by a commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.
Good morning Lord Jesus, you are the potter, I am the clay, mold me, bend me, break me, conform me to your image…
I read Acts 7 last night and again this morning before heading out. Acts 7 is a remarkable chapter. Stephen’s standing up to and response to the High Priest and his counsel is amazing. It is full of confidence and power. This is because the story he is telling them is God’s story of the redemption of mankind. His confidence is real because he really knows God, knows the Scriptures, knows God’s story, knows his place and participation in God’s story, and his whole reply to them centers and focuses on the story of God in the lives of the Jews. You have to have spent much time in prayer getting to know God and much time reading and taken to heart Scriptures to reply with the confidence, power, and authority of Stephen. How deeply do you know God in prayer? How thoroughly do you know God’s story in the Bible? Could you reply with confidence if asked like Stephen?
After I re-read Acts 7 this morning, I was strongly led into time of personal repentance and reflection over my life that will carry out throughout the day. I reflected over how well I know God and his story. The areas in my life that still are not conformed to God and his story. The thoughts in my head and desires in my heart that are not of God. I said I was sorry for my failures as a husband and father. Places where pride still exist. I said I was sorry for my areas of disobedience and unfaithfulness to God. Where my passion and ministry was directed by me and not God. Where I backed away from visions and responsibilities because of the cost. Where I neglected or placed on hold needed time in spiritual disciplines of prayer, searching Scriptures and fasting. Times I spent doing things for God without first being with God.
I reflected over stubbornness in my life and ministry as Stephen called out to the council. v.51 "You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors did!" I reflected on which areas of my life am I resisting The Holy Spirit.
I reflected on, “Yet the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands," v.46-48.” And I repented from the things "made in my hands”: idols, degrees, resume, house comforts, buildings, career;: things I use to box in God. "
I repented for any lack of authenticity in my leadership. Any lack of confidence or authority from God. I prayed to be more like Stephen. I would like to be more like Stephen. And I know what it takes to be like Stephen. Stephen’s faith and confidence was forged in many hours outside the celebrity or public eye, prioritizing time set aside praying and reading God’s Word.
Read Acts chapter 7 again. Share your reflections and feelings after reading it with us in the comments box below.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You! .
Good morning, Lord Jesus. In Your grace and from Your embrace, I seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness, as I begin my day in the intimacy of Your Presence - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God.
"Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue ... and others from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke" (Acts 6:8-9).
I love the story of Stephen because he was like you and me and we can be encouraged from him. Stephen was not one of the 12 apostles; he was simply like you and I, a servant of Jesus. He was not a learned scholar; he was a student of the faith. He was just a person who sought to live his life in "good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom ... a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit" (v. 6:3-5). Yet the Holy Spirit anointed him and empowered him, and did "great wonders and signs" through him. And the Holy Spirit desires to do the same through every one of us in the authority of the name of Jesus and the power of the Spirit -- "through those who believe" (Mark 16:17-18).
Father God, lay Your hands upon me today. Fill me afresh with Your Holy Spirit today. With the authority of the name of Jesus in my words and the nature of Jesus growing in my heart, do great wonders and signs of Your love and grace through my life. Just like Stephen, I'm Your servant and I'm Your son -- a child of God, being filled up to overflowing with the same power and the same nature that raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11). Display the glory of Your power and love, Your wisdom and grace, through me today -- "Christ in (me), the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you will ask the Holy Spirit to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit, full of God's grace and power, for the Father to display His glory, His great wonders and signs, through your life today, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friends!
One Direction Community is fasting today, the first Monday of the month emphasizing and seeking the “spiritual food” to grow our faith. We will fast through our gathering tonight from 6:00pm-7:30pm of a time of simple, secret prayer. You are welcomed to join in and fast with us today and attend if you are in the Madison. Al area.
Help us continue our ministries to those “no one else wants” in our community with a fear end one-time or monthly financial gift by clicking link below. Donations by checks can be made out to "ODC" and mailed to: One Direction Community, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.” Acts 5:1-6
Acts chapter 5 begins with the story of Ananias and Sapphira. In it Peter, who had so recently experienced the forgiving and restoring grace of God after his denial of Jesus in the high priests palace outer court, speaks words of unforgiveness and death over the couple. Try how we may, we cannot imagine Christ acting towards sinners as Peter here is represented as doing.
The selling and giving of goods to the community of the early church was voluntary. The piece of land belonged to Ananias. He could keep it or sell it as he pleased, and when he sold it the money he got from it was his to use as he chose. Ananais and Sapphira retained part of the sale price for their private use which of perfectly fine and they had every right to do it. The problem was that they lied and stated the balance they gave to the church was the total purchase price that they received from the sale. Ananias tried to lie and deceive Peter and the church into thinking he had done an extremely pious act. A higher standard of character and honesty must prevail among the followers of Christ. Ananais, in an effort to “look good” and gain a reputation for greater generosity than he had actually earned or deserved, tried to deceive the believing community. However, in trying to deceive the church, he was really trying to lie to and deceive the Holy Spirit, whose life-giving power created, flowed through, and maintained the community. A lie told to Peter on a separate private transaction though it would be a sin, would not have been as condemning. But this act, whether Ananias knew it or not, was a lie told to God, something prompted as Peter said, by “Satan filling his heart” and he became an adversary to God and humanity.
The desire to “look good”, be respected in by others, be known for and/or gain a higher reputation than one is due for generosity, an act of humility, service, or some other virtuous act is not so uncommon among us that anyone of us can take a self-righteous attitude toward Ananais. Instead I believe we are called to deep self-reflection on how we may have or are currently lying or deceiving our community of faith, or more importantly ourselves personally about our level of generosity, tithing, giving, and our complete surrender to Christ. What ways are we building ourselves up in our minds and the minds of others of our level of generosity and obedience to build up or maintain a reputation, while in reality we are withholding and deceiving others, deceiving ourselves, and more importantly trying to deceive God and the Holy Spirit. Are we attending church on Sundays to look good and give the image that our lives are “all in” with Christ. Are we calling ourselves and telling others we are Christians, disciples of and followers of Jesus, when in reality it has been months or years since intentionally went out and shared the Gospel of Jesus to our neighbors. We say Jesus is our Way, Truth and Life, yet it has been forever since we opened our Bible on a daily basis to read, study and meditate on His Word. We say we believe in the power of prayer but we can’t look at our calendar in the past or future and see where we intentionally blocked out an hour to simply pray or prayed with any daily consistency. If Peter were to ask us on our level of tithing how would we have to honestly answer? Are we tithing our first fruits and sacrificing, or just giving Him our extras? All of this is a lie as in actuality we are withholding most of our life from Christ if one were to look at the true level of our discipleship, cross-bearing, and sharing the of gospel.
Satan filled Ananais’s heart with pride; a desire to be well thought of and known, a high reputation, a person of position, and to be thought of as special and important in the great movement of the Holy Spirit and movement in the church. His deception however was one that tried to cause the movement of the Holy Spirit in the church to stumble. How often do we see a movement of the church that is growing and revival and power being seen and present be hindered or derailed by pride and deceit of a leader or member. Is your level of discipleship, tithing, and the Lordship of Jesus over your daily life if you honestly looked at it helping or hindering the movent of the Holy Spirit in your church?
My family, This year we are reading, praying and reflecting through the New Testament and currently The Book of Acts. We are doing this to discern through God’s Word direction, vision and a revival of a movement of God in our lives. Take time today to pray into the honesty of your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal ways you are deceiving others, yourself, and God. Don’t lie to yourself and take 30 seconds to glance at your soul then carry on your day and pretend you gave it your all. We are covenanting to read a chapter of the Bible each day and spend time in reflection and prayer on the chapter. Try to spend a solid hour in prayer a week and fast one day a week. Reach out and contact people to form a band group. If we want to see a movement of God, we need to be all in, not withholding anything. This week take time to honestly re-commit to you level of participation. Please pray for the Holy Spirit’s revelation of this to me as well, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Your participation is important in this time together. Please share your reflections in the comments box below.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You! .
Good morning God, As I begin writing this devotion now,, “Set a Fire” by United Pursuit started playing in the background. I claim your fire over my life and my reflections.
I love Acts chapter 4! It is a proclamation and testimony to the power of the resurrected Jesus our Lord and Savior! All throughout the chapter you can sense the presence and power the resurrection of Jesus provided in his believers. It is a picture of people and a church that have confidence in Christ. They have an expectancy that God is and will do great signs and wonders in their midst. It is a church filled with boldness derived not in themselves, but in the living Christ. It is the picture of a church filled with the anointing and presence of the Holy Spirit. A church that prays. A church that has complete unity of purpose that is radically meeting each others needs and affecting lives. It is a church that is on fire with the power of God! It is a church I so long to re-establish and be part of.
I read this chapter on the power and presence of God in the resurrected Christ and the Holy Spirit in the church. The church is exciting, expecting, and seeing healings, signs and wonders. It is boldly standing up to powers and principalities, removing social barriers and injustice, and boldly spreading the gospel. People are banqueting together and participating in life together. And I so long to be part of that church. Why do I long for that church when the same resurrected Jesus is alive and now present? The same Holy Spirit full of power moves among the earth today. The same kingdom of God is now at hand.
I was ordained and Elder in the UMC Church. In 1786, the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, looked back on the revival begun during his lifetime. He seemed to think that it was well enough established that it would not immediately vanish after his death. However, he was not content with the survival of a lifeless sect that hung around, but failed to renew souls in the image of their creator. He wrote in “Thoughts Upon Methodism” : “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out." These words haunt me. It is as if Wesley continues to challenge all who call themselves Christians to continue to have the zeal to “spread Scriptural holiness” that the early Methodists had. I can’t read this quote without asking myself the obvious question, not just about the UMC, but the church in America in general: Is the church in America a dead sect that has simply the form of Sunday morning services and religion without the power? Where is the conviction to hold fast to the doctrine, spirit, faith and discipline with which the early church we read about in Acts 4 first set out? Where is the passion, longing, zeal, fire, expectancy, and sacrifice the church had at its creation? The early church was unstoppable, not simply at it’s weekly gatherings but all throughout the week as Christians daily shared the Gospel with others and served their neighbors. Why is the church today so stoppable?
My family, I hope you, as well as I, also long to be part of a church like that in Acts 4. Long to be part of a church that others will look at and long to be part of, because it is full of the power and presence of the resurrected Jesus! Please pray over and into this today! I pray God’s fire falls with conviction and power over you. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Pray the power of the resurrected Jesus over yourself, family, and church.
its power to save humanity vs. 4, 12,
Its power to heal. vs.9-10, 14. 22, 30
its power to provide us and fill us with the Holy Spirit v, 8, 25, 31,
Its power to fulfill prophesy, and sovereignty over time and our lives vs.24-29
Its power over all creation v.24
Its power to give us boldness in proclaiming the Gospel v.29
Its power to give us the ability to heal and do signs and wonders. V. 30
Its power to give our prayers power in and through the Holy Spirit v. 31
Its power to bring God through the Holy Spirit tangibly into our midst. “The place where they were assembled was shaken” signifies this. V.31
its power to unify us into one body v.32
Its power over all we posses v.32-36
Its power to fill all our needs v.34
You received the power of the Resurrected Jesus at you baptism. Pray into that power, ask God to reveal to you people, places, possibilities for your church.
Please as a community share your thoughts and reflections on Acts 4 with us today in the comments box.
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Lord Jesus, thank you for your love, grace and mercy that constantly surrounds me..
“And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God…. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all” Acts 3:5-8, 16
“The faith that is through Jesus”. Note how this verse explains how the claim to "faith in Jesus' name" works and what it means. To appeal to the name is to point to the person, Jesus. Just saying, “In the name of Jesus” is not a “magical” phrase that brings miracles. But it points to the person Jesus, that by faith the one speaking has positioned his life relationally with and can “introduce” Jesus into the situation and speak with his authority.
It is not clear that the lame man expressed faith before the miracle. So it was not by his faith he was healed, but by that of Peter and John’s. This could well be a "grace-faith miracle" where God grants power through the apostles to picture how much a gift life is (Luke 17:11-19). In Luke Jesus heals 10 lepers not by their faith. I sometimes hear in the church, even in my small circle of friends it said about someone who is ill or going through some trial, “We prayed for them, but if they do not have faith or believe, there is nothing we can do for them.” Or “I heard recently, “Their mother practices Wicca and as long as that takes place in the house we can’t do anything.” I cringe when I hear that. First of all THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO FOR THEM, IT IS ALL JESUS!! Only he can heal/change/restore their situation. And so by saying that, you are now speaking for Jesus and limiting who he can heal, how he can heal, why he can heal, and his power of restoration, to your limited human capabilities or understanding.
Peter and John did not ask if the man had faith faith before they healed him. They did not ask him if he understood the doctrine of Justification by faith or the need for repentance or if he was baptized. They simply pointed him to, and introduced him to Jesus. And our Christology (understanding of Christ) is that grace is at his core. And his grace is emphasized here in this passage. All throughout our day Christ graciously provides for us, heals us, restores us, and provides for us, Not because we deserve it or earned it any more than the crippled man at the gate and not because we asked him out of deep faith. And if we are honest, most days we do not even thank him. But he does it out of his love and grace towards us.
Lord, help me to be gracious towards those in my life: my wife, my daughters, family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and others. Even harder, help me when I encounter those lame, diseased, broken, abusive, addicted, and foul, dumped by the gate. People who may even reject you Jesus, that I do not withhold or try to limit your grace towards them, but bravely embrace your amazing grace and in the name of Jesus, point them to you. Help our church be a family of faith that just as grace is at the core of who you are Jesus, grace will be at the core of who we are as well.
My family, I pray today you do not limit the power of Jesus and who you share Him with by your limited understanding of Him. But, introduce Jesus to everyone you meet today. I pray you ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind anyone you have refrained from offering grace to out of religious piety or personal judgement, and seek them out, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God Bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts of my post above or your reflections from your reading of Acts chapter 3 with us in the comments section below in the comments box.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You!
Good morning Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I begin my morning in thanksgiving for your love grace and mercy that you rain down on me..
This morning for my morning reflection I used The S.O.A.P.S method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer, Share) of reading a passage of Sripture and gleaning what it is speaking ito my life through: Observing the context, setting and background in the passage. Then reflecting in the Spirit it’s Applications to my life today. Praying the passage back to God and over me. And discerning how I am to Share what I gleaned with others. Using SOAPS daily is good way to soak and self-feed yourself on the Word of God.
1. SCRIPTURE: Acts 2:22-36 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know - this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. But God raised him up, having released him from the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held in its power. For David says about him,
ʻI saw the Lord always in front of me,
for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced;
my body also will live in hope,
because you will not leave my soul in Hades,
nor permit your Holy One to experience decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of joy with your presence.ʼ
“Brothers, I can speak confidently to you about our forefather David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, David by foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his body experience decay. This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it. So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you both see and hear. For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says,
ʻThe Lord said to my lord,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”ʼ
Therefore let all the house of Israel know beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.”
2. OBSERVATION: I observed that Peter's evangelistic message to the crowd contained nothing about him and his works or his efforts, but only Christ's death and resurrection, and his Lordship. And that Peter included Scripture in the message he shared to allow the Word of God to be the authority of his messaged to allow God to speak into the hearts of those listening.
3. APPLICATION: As I attempt to lead, grow and make disciples in my church, be a spiritual leader in my family, and each my neighbors who don’t know Jesus Christ,, my success has nothing to do based on my boasting, clever speech, on works or efforts,. But just like Peter, my success will be based on my loving them enough to tell them of Jesus and His saving works on the cross and the sharing of Scripture with them.. If I leave that out, no matter how nice I may be to people, my popularity may increase, but my ministry will decrease.
4. PRAYER: Jesus, just as I could not initially save myself but my salvation was only made possible through my claiming you as my Lord and through your works of redemption, I cannot continue in my salvation today without claiming the same. I cannot lead and grow a church by my pulling a lever or by my efforts or means. My “job” in your church is the relentless pursuit of who God has made me to be. And anything else I do is sin and I need to repent of it. It is only in my relentless pursuit of who God made me to be that I can become everything my church needs me to be. I cannot lead people somewhere I am not trying to go myself. I don't have to have arrived. I don't have to be perfect, but I do have to be on the same path. And that is why for so many the church experience has been so shallow, because so many leaders have never descended into the depths of their own souls. Help me to descend Lord to where all that is left is you Jesus.
5. SHARE: Help me proclaim simply Christ, Christ crucified, Christ resurrected, to those I meet today. Especially those at the WH this morning.
Please share your reflections and prayers on my blog in the comment box below.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I worship You and welcome You into my heart and into my day -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. ...
"While staying with them, He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. 'This,' He said, 'is what you have heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.... You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth' " (Acts 1:4-8).
Lord Jesus, just before You ascended to Heaven from the Mount of Olives with all your disciples looking into the sky, You told them to wait for the promise of the Father, for the coming of the Holy Spirit. They knew You personally in their relationship of faith and they believed in Your resurrection as the Son of God. But there was more. You commanded them to wait for more.
They were never meant to go to work for the kingdom of God in their witness of faith without the power of the kingdom of God at work within them. Though they had great faith, though they had a personal relationship with You as Lord and Savior, You told them they needed more. You told them they needed to wait. They needed to wait to be empowered by Your Holy Spirit, to be baptized, saturated, immersed, and filled to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit. You said, "See, I am sending upon you what My Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49).
Your first disciples were to wait with hungry hearts and expectant faith for their baptism with Your Holy Spirit. And so are we. We need You and we need Your power at work within us to be Your witnesses wherever You send us -- whether across the street or to the ends of the earth. We need to be baptized, saturated, immersed, and filled to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit, clothed with Your power from on high. We are to be the body of Christ, filled with the Spirit of Christ, continuing the ministry of Christ in this hurting, broken, and fallen world.
So as we remember and embrace The resurrection of Jesus and move towards Pentecost Sunday in May, let us open wide our hearts every day for the coming of Your Holy Spirit. Baptize me in Your Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus. I embrace Your promise, my Heavenly Father. Come, Holy Spirit of the Living God. Baptize me afresh today and everyday with Your power from on high. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family,I pray you will embrace the promise of the Father and be baptized with the Holy Spirit to be empowered to be a witness of Jesus everywhere He sends you each day, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
As we begin the next 28 Days reading through Acts here are some thoughts to pray on:
Pray over and into your personal, and church’s collective "Baptism of the Holy Spirit." v.5
Pray into the the power each of you received by the Holy Spirit in your baptism. v.8
Pray over your personal and our collective call as a church to witness to your community, the surrounding communities, our state and country, and unto the nations.v. 8
Pray for the return of Jesus. v.11
Pray that every member of your church will take seriously and embrace this call to pray and fast, and we will seek with one mind God's anointing and calling on us. v.14
Pray over your personal call to be a witness to the resurrection of Jesus. v.22
Pray over the leadership role in your church God is calling you to take up and step up into. v. 24
Pray over your commitment to embrace the 5 items I listed in yesterday’s post.
Please share your reflections and prayers on my blog in the comment box below.
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You! Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. All that I have and all that I am, I entrust to You today.
Here are my reflections and prayers The Holy Spirit gave me from this time with Him.
"Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.'... They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, 'Children, you have no fish, have you?' Then answered Him, 'No.' He said to them, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you fill find some... When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea" (John 21:3-7).
In the face of persecution and out fear of crucifixion, Peter denied Jesus three times after vowing he would never denyJesus. Naked and ashamed, stripped of his pride and still hurting inside, he went back to fishing along with Thomas and the other disciples. I'm sure he still wrestled with forgiving himself for failing You. And in the dark night of his soul, he caught nothing.
But "just after daybreak," he heard Your voice again. Like the dawn of a new day, Your voice broke into the darkness of his soul. He remembered Your voice and remembered his past when he'd heard You call him to cast his nets on the other side of the boat before. He knew it was You. And though he had failed You, You had never forgotten him. So he jumped into sea and swam out of his self-pity to the shores of Your grace. And there by the warm fire of Your tender mercies and unfailing love, You restored his identity and released him into his destiny (v. 15-19).
Thank You Jesus, that through my thoughts, actions and words in life I have denied you way more than 3 times. I also have wallowed in self pity. Yet You've never given up on me. Thank You for the dawning of every new day, when You remind me of Your faithfulness in the past and encourage me with Your faithfulness forever. Your love never fails and Your mercies are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness! Great is Your love! Great is Your power to redeem and restore! In the fire of Your spirit You confirm my identity as a child of God and release me into my destiny as disciple of Christ. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My Family, with tears in my eyes as God is wrecking me right now, I pray as you begin a new week, you may first be overcomed and the experience the dawn of a new day, remembering the faithfulness of Jesus whenever you may struggle with failure or lack of faith. I pray you may hear the voice of Jesus calling you back to the shore of His grace, experience the endless waves of His mercies, soak in the oceans of His loving embrace, and emerge dripping in the water of life, redeemed and restored! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Please partner and support myself and One Direction community in reaching out into our community with the saving grace of Jesus through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758.
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Arise in Your resurrection power in my life today.
"Then He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'" (John 20:22).
Breathe on me, O Breath of God. Let Your Spirit fill my lungs with praise. Let your Breath fill my mouth with Your words. Let Your Presence abide in my soul.
Breathe on me, Lord. Breathe new life, fresh passion, renewed determination to seek Your face, to follow Your ways, to be the child of God and disciple of Christ You created me and called me to be--not in my strength but in Your power, not in my goodness but in Your righteousness.
Prayer is the life breath of a Christian. Physically we breath air or die. Spiritually we pray or die. When I fail daily to set aside time to “breath” in prayer, my spirit suffocates. The anxieties and fears of this world choke me. I desperately need You Jesus and Your breath of life! I breathlessly await You. Increase my capacity to breathe You in as You breathe on me. Fill me afresh that You can overflow anew through me this day and this next season of my life in You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you set aside time this morning to “breath” in prayer as if your life depends on it, because it does. I pray you seek to be filled afresh with the Breath of God to overflow anew with His life and love flowing out of you, in Jesus' name!. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
