Author: jma47

The ‘Acts’ of Acts 8

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At the end of chapter 7, Stephen was stoned to death. Verse 58 says that the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 8:1 says that Saul was consenting to his death.
 
Persecution arose against the church and they all scattered. It was the fulfillment of Jesus’ words to His disciples in Acts 1:8, “…you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
 
The scattered believers went everywhere preaching the word (8:4). Listen to what Saul was doing. Verse 3 says, “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”
 
There was another man mentioned in chapter 8. Phillip was one of the seven chosen to serve the widows. Phillip had the same character qualifications as Stephen. Verse 5 says, “Then Phillip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.”
 
Listen to the response of the multitudes. Verse 6 says, “…with one accord heeded the things spoken by Phillip…” Then verse 26 says says that an angel told him to go south to the desert.
 
Verse 27 says that he arose and went. A man of great authority, a eunuch under Candace the queen of Ethiopia, was sitting in his chariot reading out loud from Isaiah the prophet.
 
Verse 30 says, “So Phillip ran to him…and said, Do you understand what you are reading?” He asked Phillip to sit with him. Watch now. Verse 35 says, “Then Phillip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.”
 
I want to highlight two things. Phillip instantly obeyed. He did not question God’s instructions. When the time came, he opened his mouth, and the Lord filled it. His obedience facilitated a man believing in Jesus.
 
1 Peter 3:15 says, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who ask you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”
 
2 Timothy 4:2 says, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season…” Phillip was ready. He watched what the Lord was doing and then joined Him.
 
Right after the Ethiopian eunuch was saved and then baptized, the Spirit caught Phillip up and transported him to another region. Phillip didn’t miss a beat. Acts 8:40 says, “But Phillip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.”
 
The Lord will put folks in our pathway. He will lead us to hearts that are prepared to hear the gospel. Listen to what is being said. Watch how the Lord is working in their lives and join Him. Let’s be ready and yielded to the Holy Spirit.

3 FREE EBOOKS

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I have 3 FREE ebooks on Amazon today and Sunday
 
Redeemed Patience: equipping for ministry
Emotionally Free: processing the present with the Holy Spirit
God’s Masterful Purpose: conformity to the image of Jesus

Character of a Bondservant Part Two

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Paul often started his letter with, ‘a bond servant of Christ.’ We are bondservants, not only to our master-employers but to our Master Lord. Ephesians 6:5-6 says, “Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”
 
Character is a heart issue. I was just working on the compilation of my fourth paperback yesterday and came across this. Great reminder.
 
“Proverbs 2:2 says, “So that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding.” The word incline means to listen favorably. That involves our heart. You can discipline a child who will comply on the outside. Unless you gain their heart you will have rebellion on the inside.
 
Why do I know this? I was like that. As a man-pleaser I complied on the outside, but my heart was not submissive. I gave ground over to satan in my life through my stubbornness. It clogged my ears from listening to instruction favorably, my heart was hardened through my rebellion, and it made me hesitant to obey the Lord willingly. It stunted my spiritual growth.”
 
I remember standing in my front room in 1967 saying: Lord, I don’t know who I am. I have to be this for this person, and this for that person. I had a lot of expectations put on me as a preacher’s kid, that actually caused me to lose my own identity. Don’t worry. The Lord had many trials in store for me that He used to build my character over the years that followed.
 
Our trials are like the disobedient lamb. The shepherd breaks its leg, and then carries it on his shoulder until the leg is healed. That little lamb never strays again because it has bonded with the shepherd. Our trials bond us to the Lord as His bondservant.
 
Here is the joy of a bondservant. John 14:21 says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
 
We sing, ‘Just a closer walk with Thee. Grant it Savior if You please. Daily walking close to Thee. Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.’ We bondservants listen attentively to every word our Master says. We do His biding.
 
John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Intimate communion with our Shepherd cannot be equaled or compared to anything on this earth. Our heart leans in to hear every whispered word, and we breathe in the atmospheric joy of basking in His Presence.

Character of a Bondservant

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Stephen was a man of character. His words and actions were the same. He spoke boldly and cut to the heart of the matter. Let’s follow him as he addressed the council.
 
He was intentionally falsely accused. Yet in the face of the accusations, his gaze was upon the Lord. Acts 6:15 says, “And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.”
 
I love Psalm 34:5 which says, “They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.”
 
Stephen was focused on the Lord. How do you react when falsely accused? It is human nature to want to defend ourselves. Stephen is a great example for us.
 
Acts 7:2-50 recorded Stephen’s verbal historical account of the children of Israel. He was speaking things the council knew to be accurate. They listened until he addressed their personal hearts. Verse 54 says, “When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.” They were beyond furious.
 
Stephen was so focused on the Lord that he told them what he was seeing. Verse 55 says that he was full of the Holy Spirit. Verse 56 says, “…Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
 
We know, from Scripture, that Jesus sits at the right hand of God. He was perhaps standing up to receive Stephen. The council’s reaction was to drag Stephen out of the city and stone him to death.
 
In all of the accounts of Stephen, he never once flinched. He was not intimidated. He did not shrink back. He spoke out of the integrity of his heart. He never reacted in the flesh.
 
Galatians 1:10 says, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

3 FREE ebooks

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I have 3 FREE ebooks on Amazon today and Friday

Resolving Trust Issues: freeing the heart

Interior Heart Decorating: following God’s blueprint for grace

Breaking The Yoke: setting the captives free

Wisdom’s Irresistibility

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In Acts 6, seven men where chosen to serve. Here were the qualifications. Verse 3 says, “…seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom…”
 
Stephen was one of the seven. Verse 8 says that he was full of faith and power. Some of the Freedman (former Roman slaves) took issue with him. Verse 10 says, “And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.”
 
Paul was another who spoke with wisdom. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 says, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
 
Paul prayed for the saints in Ephesus. Ephesians 1:17 says, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
 
He prayed for the folks in the church at Colosse. Colossians 1:9 says, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”
 
Two great prayers! When you see someone struggling in their walk with the Lord, pray these Scriptures over their lives. We all need God’s wisdom so we can see our lives through His perspective.
 
I love Psalm 119. Listen to verses 97-99. “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.”
 
Note how the one who wrote those words linked wisdom to his meditating on God’s word. As we meditate on His word, He reveals things we do not know through the power of His Holy Spirit within us.
 
Hidden within our trials is the navigating wisdom that we need. It is only hidden because He wants us to rely on Him. When we ask, He will reveal it. James 1:5 says that we can ask the Lord for wisdom, because He will lavish it on us in abundance. (John 3:34)

Magnify Part Three

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One of the essential ways that we magnify the Lord is through praise, worship, and adoration. Psalm 147:2 says, “While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.”
 
New songs come from within. They bubble up because we are so full from gazing at the Lord. We sing them back to an audience of One. They are a form of heart-worship that is not practiced, nor something thought out nor perfected. The songs bubble like a spontaneous combustion of inner joy. It is the heart-praise-fruit of communion with the Lord.
 
David wrote Psalm 63. I can just imagine him sitting before the Lord, allowing his heart to be filled with wonder and awe. Verse 3-4 says, “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus will I bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.”
 
Verse 5 in the Amplified says, “My whole being shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.”
 
Yesterday afternoon I continued my reading in the book of Acts. I read Gamaliel’s advice in chapter 5:33-40. Verse 39 says, “But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it–lest you even be found to fight against God.”
 
Fact: COVID19 has been allowed by God. He has the power to stop it, but He hasn’t. It made me pause. I asked the Lord how He wanted me to pray about this pandemic. He said: Praise Me. My character never changes.
 
2 Chronicles 20:22 says, “Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes…and they were defeated.” When Judah was about to be overrun by the enemy, the Lord gave specific instructions to the king. Verse 21 says, “…he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness…”
 
Let us collectively spend part of our prayer time praising the Lord for His character that never changes. Psalm 36 5-6 names three of them: mercy, faithfulness, and righteousness.” I would encourage you to write out as many of the Lord’s attributes that you can think of. Then as you gaze upon Him in your quiet time, let your heart be filled with wonder and awe, and express that back to Him in new songs.
 

Magnify Part Two

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David said in Psalm 34:3, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” To magnify is to make something more visible, because it was too small to see distinctly.
 
The Lord is most clearly seen, or magnified, to others as we emulate Him. We may be the only Bible they read. 2 Peter 1:4 says, “By which have been give to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature…”
 
We are partakers or sharers of His nature. In order to magnify Him, we need to exemplify His character. Our trials are His instruments to develop that character of Christ in us.
 
Another way we magnify Him is through our right responses to our trials. Believers and unbelievers are watching how we navigate through difficult or adverse situations in our lives.
 
I think of how the Lord displays His church. Ephesians 3:10-11 says, “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
 
Peter and John magnified the Lord when the man who had never walked from birth was healed. John 3:9 says that all the people saw him walking and praising God. Can’t you just imagine it? Verse 10 says, “Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened.”
 
What about the blind man Jesus healed in John 9? The Pharisees questioned him. The now fully sighted man answered in verse 32. It says, “Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.”
 
May the Lord be magnified in our lives. Right now is our opportunity to practice this truth. When countless are restless and agitated, our right responses would glorify Him. Let us emulate His patience and peace in the midst of this pandemic.

Magnify

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When I was still in grammar school, my two younger cousins taught me the power of a magnifying glass. I first found them huddled over something. To my horror, they were ‘frying’ earthworms!. My loud protests caused them to change course. They showed me how to catch a leaf on fire. That continued until my uncle came upon the scene and my lesson was abruptly stopped. However, I never forgot the power of the sun through a magnifying glass.
 
Psalm 138:2 says, “…for You have magnified Your word above all Your names.” This verse continues to amaze me. Think of the power of Jesus’ name.
 
Remember this scene? The detachment of troops, and the officers from the chief priests and Pharasees came to arrest Jesus. When He said, ‘I am He’ they drew back and fell to the ground (John 18:3-8).
 
Acts 4:12 says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which they must be saved.”
 
Philippians 2:10-11 says, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
 
John 15:16 says, “…and whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
 
The name of Jesus is powerful in every aspect of our lives. Yet, David said that he magnified God’s word above His name. We have the privilege to magnify the Son who is the living word.
 
How do we do that? One way is to make His word our essential. Job did. Job 23:12 says, “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”
 
Jeremiah did. Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
 
His word, when it is magnified in our heart, will expand within to increase our capacity to embrace and practice what He has commanded us to do. It is not a duty, but a supreme honor and privilege to drink deep of His word daily.