Angela’s Weblog

Im so behind!!!!! I haven’t been at the computer much lately its lame! So Im gonna do two at a time until im all caught up!

So In Chapter 6 what stood out for me was the first section verses 1-4. It talks about how the one type of jew were feeling less taken care of than the other. Since they didn’t think a matter this small should distract them from bringing people to the Lord, they told them to pick people who they knew were full of the spirit and wise to basically wait tables. Mike talked about this a while ago but its still making sense to me now. I need be willing to do the little things that need to be done in order for the bigger, more awesome thing to get accomplished. I don’t know what that will look like for me, but I have a feeling I will run into a situation like that soon.

Acts 7 is just a crazy chapter. I wish I could have been there when Stephen was saying all of these things to the high priests! He basically gave them a history lesson on things they already knew. But he was trying to show them that all throughout history people disbelieved and even killed the people who ended up being right and the ones God really talked to. He didn’t care what would be done to him because of this, because he had to have known that they would kill him for the things he was saying. Stephen said it anyways though and even in the middle of being stoned to death he asked the Lord not to hold it against them. Stories of martyrs are always so awesome to me. I have a whole book called Jesus Freak about hundreds of documented martyrs. It’s just so amazing the faith you have to have to stand up for Jesus in the face of death. I pray I never have to face a situation like that, but if I ever do, I want my faith to be as strong as Stephens.

These are the verses Im talkin about today!

38So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, 40and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Once again, this is so awesome! First off, the bad part, when the religious man says basically that even though this could be of God, we still won’t believe it! I think that is the way that a lot of unsaved and even saved people are. We hear something that is obviously from God, or we are told about God and we understand that it’s something important in our life, but we are too scared to either listen or to do what God is telling us to do. Those religious men were scared  at that time because they had just ordered for Jesus to be killed a while before that. Peter and John were doing a good job of reminding them of that. But now that Jesus was gone from the earth, the apostles were now doing things like Jesus was doing, in His name! They were probably so scared that they had killed the wrong person that all they wanted to do was shut up the men reminding them of it. At least one of them had enough sense to know that if it really was from God, they would be in big trouble if they tried to stop the apostles. So they just beat them instead. This is another cool part. After being imprisoned and beaten for what they are saying, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. We get upset when people might make fun of us or take us the wrong way when we are talking about Jesus!  They faced much harder circumstances than the average american will have to face in their walk with Christ (unless the end times come and the bible is like banned or something). But they were totally ok with it because they knew that what they were doing meant so much more than their earthly life!

Lord I thank you for giving me opportunities to tell people about you. I pray that I never get scared of what someone may think or how they may react  or of getting treated weird afterwards and that I can rejoice in the fact that the work Ive been put here to do is so important for eternity. Amen!

so let me just premise this by saying that I love Acts and even with all the times ive gone through it the things in it still amaze me! That being said here’s chapter four!

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

So this was really awesome to me. Here Peter and John were, just “uneducated, common men”, and they shut up these supposedly learned religious men! They had nothing to say in opposition because Christ was so obviously working in their lives. The man they healed was the proof. We can’t always do crazy things like heal people but I feel like our lives should be something that leaves people with nothing to say in opposition. I want it to be so obvious to people that Jesus is inside of me that they try to tell me not to tell people about Him!

32Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.

I really like the idea of this. Everyone wasn’t in a different section of christianity, they were all together. They all believed the same thing and so they shared everything with each other because they were all connected in that way. It was the start of the church and I think what God intended for it to be like. I think it would be awesome if we could get to that place again, or at least something close to it.

Lord i pray that I can leave people with nothing to say in opposition of your love being shown in my life. I thank you for the people you have put around me that I can connect with. I pray that the rest of this weekend can be awesome for everyone. Amen!