Tag: Boldness

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God, You Decide

Daily Reading

Acts 14-15

Daily Thought

Paul and Barnabas arrived at Iconium and spoke of Jesus in the synagogue and many believed, both Jew and Gentile, “but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds” (Acts 14:2) and the city became divided. Those against threatened to stone Paul and Barnabas, so the disciples fled to Lystra, where they spoke again of Jesus, and did miracles, too. The people began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes and worshiped them rather than the Savior they spoke of and the gospel of Jesus was drowned out by the people’s passion for their own Greek gods. The Iconium Jews, who had chased them out of their own city, caught up with them here and persuaded the crowd to stone Paul and so they did and dragged him out of the city and left him for dead, but he got right back up and went right back into the city. Like the Energizer Bunny, these disciples kept going and going, traveling from Derbe to Pisidia to Pamphylia to Attalia, finally to Antioch, where they ignored what the cities had done to them and “declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27).

Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, is the Savior of the world, and the disciples took the message out of Israel to one city and one nation after another. Like David against Goliath, it never dawned on the disciples they were too small to win the world, so they kept going and people kept believing and the good news of Jesus Christ spread “from Jerusalem to all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). If you decide you cannot do something, you will be right every time, so leave those decisions to God and do whatever he says. You will be amazed at what gets done. 

Daily Prayer

My God, may I go as long and as far as You lead, and keep going because You keep leading. Give me the passion and boldness to enter open doors and knock on closed ones. May I burn with the memory of what Your salvation did to my life and fan that flame so Your fire for this world never dies within me.

Keep me encouraged and enthusiastic, faithfully living and speaking grace and truth, and trusting You for changed lives. God, I will stop listening to what I think I cannot do, but listen to what You say I can!

Amen

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Audience of One

Daily Reading

Acts 7-8

Daily Thought

Stephen was dragged into the council room, placed before the court, and asked questions about Jesus. He answered by opening the Scriptures and giving the chief priest and elders a lesson from their own history, from Abraham to Joseph to Moses to David. He then accused these “stiff-necked people” of following in the footsteps of their forefathers. “As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” (Acts 7:51-52). Their fathers killed the prophets, the council killed the Son of God, and now for his insolence, they would put Stephen to death.

As they picked up stones to throw at him, Stephen looked up, and heaven was opened; and “full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).

Go back a couple months, to the night before the cross. Jesus was on trial, in the same council room, before the same court, and the high priest asked if he was the Christ, the Messiah. For an answer, Jesus announced, “From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69). But he wasn’t sitting now; he was standing. Stephen endured the wrath of the council to stand faithful before his Savior. Now his Savior stood for him, perhaps applauding, for Stephen stood before an audience of one.

Daily Prayer

My Lord and my God, You have my allegiance. I am Your ambassador, and will stand on earth and represent You with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. I love You that much. At least I want to. My love fails at times, but You never fail, so strengthen me. I will stand, but please pick me up when I fall, hold me when I weaken.

You began a good work in me, and I trust You to complete it. May I cast aside anything that slows or stops the progress. I long to see You standing, to hear You say, “Well done.”

Amen

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God Bless You

Daily Reading

Acts 4-6

Daily Thought

For those who question whether Jesus is the only way to salvation, Jesus wondered as well, praying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me” (Luke 22:42). But there wasn’t another way and there isn’t another Savior, and only Jesus died for our sins. Peter properly proclaimed, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The Jewish religious leaders thought they had silenced Jesus in death, but only stirred up his followers, who saw their Savior rise from the tomb, “and every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching” (Acts 5:42).

Now the leaders sought to silence the disciples, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name” (Acts 5:28).

For 80 years, the graduation ceremonies of Washington Community High School included a prayer, until 2001, when a lawsuit was filed and the court ruled, “No, you may not pray.” That was the year prayer was silenced. Almost. Ryan stood at the podium, the final student speaker. Quiet for a moment, he then opened his mouth to speak, but instead, “Ahh-choo,” he sneezed. From out of the graduating class of 2001 came the response, students united in a simple prayer, “God bless you.”

Peter and John answered then as we must answer now, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20). When Jesus rose from the dead, he made it clear, the world cannot cancel the Truth.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” ~John 14:6

Daily Prayer

Lord God, I shout Your Name because You are worthy of praise. And if I don’t, the rocks will cry out. Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Creation itself declares loudly Your wonders, Your wisdom, Your beauty and grace, Your majesty.

Lord, may I be bold, may I say Your Name aloud because it is the Name of salvation, and because the world needs to be saved. How can I not speak of You? You are the good news of salvation to a lost world.

Amen