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!

So the verses I liked today were 17-21

17“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 20that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

What God was telling me in this passage was that even though stuff that happens is crappy, like the people condemning Jesus to the cross instead of a murderer(which was preeetty crappy at the time), He can use that as part of His plan. Those people had to turn against Jesus and send Him to the cross or else we would not have the salvation in Him that we have. All of that needed to happen to Jesus to get Him to the exact place where God needed Him to be. So, if stuff that is crappy is going on in my life, it’s probably stuff that needs to happen to get me to where God ultimately wants me to be. Christ didn’t have it easy in His time on earth and me, being someone whose goal is to be as Christ-like as possible, will probably have to deal with crap along the way in my walk that sucks, and hurts. I just need to keep in perspective that God’s got somewhere he wants me to be, I just need to keep following Him to get to it.

So chapter 2 of Acts is a pretty amazing chapter. I can’t even do this the way Mike said to do it cause there was just so much that I want to talk about. The whole beginning section verses 1-13 is huuuuge for me. I know a LOT of people think that speaking in tongues is something crazy and while some don’t agree with it others think that not everyone is given the gift. I believe, and this is just my personal opinion, that everyone can. I can do it and Ive seen countless others come to speaking in tongues..and it doesnt have to be something scary! I even know of a case of a man i know going to a different country, speaking in tongues, and a man from that country knowing what the man was saying. God gave him the ability to talk to someone who doesn’t know the same language! I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty darn cool to me. In this case though, when the holy spirit came down on the people, that was the first manifestation of it. It wowed the crowd which really helped Peter lead the unsaved people to Christ! That is what tongues is for. It’s a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in us. But enough about that I just always have to talk about it when I get the chance.

One other super cool part of this chapter was towards the end verses 42-47. I even like the title of the section! It’s called “The fellowship of the believers”. Everyone got saved, came together and were on fire for God. They did all this crazy stuff that is listed really fast and stuck right in the middle is this short part about how everyone just up and sold everything they had for the work of the Lord. I know that weekly I am getting pressed by God to give more when I get my paychecks, and I know that it’s the fellowship that we have with the church that makes me want to give. Basically having everyone around me so sure about Jesus and so sure about this church makes my faith in God and in what we are doing so much stronger! It makes me want to give more! Who knows if that makes any sense when it’s not in my head but lets hope.

I know this is a crazy way of doing this but im in a weird mood today so here’s my weird post.

Lord I pray that my faith in You can continue to grow and that my desire to give gets bigger all the time. I pray that I can stand firm in my beliefs, even the ones that may sound crazy, and never take the gifts You’ve given me for granted. Amen.

So I know this is really late at night, but i didn’t get onto the computer until now. I did read it before 2 AM though! haha way before! People should actually be proud that I didn’t spend my life on the computer today lol.

So I read Acts 1 today. The verse that stood out for me was:

Acts 1:7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

I feel like right now this is a big thing for me, and a lot of people I know. Everyone, especially me, is in a rush for things that they want to happen. I think it may be one of the hardest things for a christian to actually try to wait for God’s timing, instead of thinking that our timing is the right one. I know that personally I get upset when the things I pray for don’t happen immediately. And I get discouraged when it takes a while to maybe get through to someone about God. I’ve been told all my life though that we don’t need to worry about that, but still it’s hard for me to grasp most of the time. The reason why this verse jumped out at me was that I was just talking with a good friend of mine about how he needs to wait for God’s timing in the situation he is in. The more I talked about it with him, the more i realized that there are areas where I need to do the same. Isn’t that crazy? That God can tell us something from us telling other people? It’s just funny to me.

I was just looking up verses for my friend and I found this one that goes with this.

Psalm 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

Lord I pray that I can be more patient. That I can wait for Your timing for any need I may have in my life. I pray that I can see when I am being impatient and not trusting that Your timing will be WAY better than mine. I know that Your plan for me is amazing, there’s no doubt in my mind. So I thank You for loving me enough to give my life a plan. AMEN!

I hope that I did this right! Mike tell me if I messed up! haha