Acts 4-5

I can’t speak for you but as for myself the threat of jail is good enough to keep me from wanting to break the law.  We are fortunate in the fact that we live in a country where we are free to speak about Jesus.  Hopefully we will always have that right and not have to worry about being imprisoned for speaking the name of Jesus.  Now back to the Idea of the New Testament church,  the idea of on heart is awesome but that does come with sacrifice we read here of selling personal things to help your brother in need so that nobody goes without.  Sounds great but yet todays church often bickers amongst each other over the color of carpet while families do without.  This isn’t saying that we all need to sell everything we own and move into a compound together its just the simple principle of if you have the means to help someone than do it.  

We agree that God wants us all to be obedient to what he calls on us to do and I think that Peter sets the bar pretty high.  After an Angel leads them out of jail God tells them to go to the very place they were arrested and continue doing what they got arrested for.  They didn’t question the word or even their personal safety they just obeyed God.  Complete trust is how they lived their life with God, and he took care of them.  If God places something on your heart don’t question it, God has already got the details taken care of.  Prayer, fasting, and seeking God  all your answers are their.

Acts 2-3

Acts 2-3

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like that day in the upper room.  A day that I’m sure started like many before it and then as sudden as someone kicking in the door the Holy Spirit filled the room and then filled everyone their.  As people began to hear them they started coming over to see what was going on and some began to mock and then Peter stood up and delivered his first sermon.  I’ve heard lots of people say they want to be a new testament church, beware that means that you'll have to get out of your comfort zone.  Peter wasn’t a preacher before this day, he didn’t have time to study and prep what he was going to say he simply stood up in front of thousands and told the story of Jesus and about 3000 people were saved that day.  So are you ready to be the new testament church?  

Peter and John just as humble as can be as the crowd gathered at the temple looking at them as the ones who healed the cripple man simply turn the praise and glory straight to God.  Then taking advantage of the gathering begin to preach the story of Jesus and starts off very boldly telling everyone that they killed the messiah that they had been waiting for.  At this time saying something like that could have easily gotten them both killed.  This is the kind of boldness and humility that we need to embrace, I pray for this kind of fearless boldness to go out amongst the world and spread the gospel wherever I go without fear or prejudice. 

Acts 1

Our blogger for Acts is Mark Wright. Take it away, Mark!

Acts is my personal favorite book of the Bible, its where we learn that following Jesus isn’t a spectator sport.  Its an all or nothing journey that  involves us as believers to take action and not just ooh and ah over they greatness of Jesus.

    Acts begins with Jesus heading back to heaven and the disciples going to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit to come.  I can’t imagine what this wait was like for them.  If you think the anticipation for Christmas morning was bad when you were a kid this tops that by a mile.  With most things that we’ve gotten in our lives we’ve had some sort of expectation of what we were getting. Even if we didn’t know exactly we had a good idea, but the disciples had no idea what to expect or even exactly when to expect it.  Yet they all stayed loyal and made a decision to stay the course.

John 21 & Acts 1

So we come to the end of the gospels and enter the story of the first century church. The Acts of the Apostles is the official name of the book, but it is really a story of the acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. Before the Holy Spirit came, the acts of the apostles were to hide in fear, run from conflict and sleep through prayer meetings. But after the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, these same guys were preaching the gospel to hostile crowds, seeing multitudes coming to Christ, seeing miracles on a regular basis, traveling all over the world to spread the gospel, and willingly submitting themselves to beatings, imprisonments and death. And that same Holy Spirit that transformed them is in us today. Are we receiving it in the same way the apostles did? Could there be a book written someday about the Acts of the Guthrie Believers?

John 19 & 20

I love that when Jesus appeared after his resurrection, he returned to reaffirm his commitment to those who had bailed on him during his trial and crucifixion. Rather than getting on them for their lack of faith, he showed that his love for them and his plan for them had not changed. He left the gospel in the hands of those same dysfunctional, messed up people who he had spent his time with during his ministry. None of them were well-connected or influential apart from their relationship with Jesus. Sounds like us, doesn't it? It is regular people like us that Jesus chooses to use to do amazing miracles in his name. And here we are, two thousand years later, still dysfunctional, still messed up, still being loved by God, still being charged with telling the old story of new life in Jesus.

I love to tell the story; 
'tis pleasant to repeat 
what seems, each time I tell it, 
more wonderfully sweet.  
I love to tell the story, 
for some have never heard 
the message of salvation 
from God's own holy Word.  

I love to tell the story,

'twill be my theme in glory,

to tell the old, old story

of Jesus and his love.

John 17 & 18

John 17 is a chapter anyone should read if they doubt that Jesus cares about them. When I read this chapter I usually read it two or three times. It reassures me that even now, in 2012, we are connected to those first believers through a chain of redemption, beginning at Calvary. vs. 20&21 say, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." How wonderful to think that Jesus was praying for you and me on that night before he gave his life as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

After reading this, knowing that everything he suffered was suffered for me, it makes reading the crucifixion story so much more personal. Then when he is betrayed and abused, he is betrayed and abused for me. And for you. And for everyone who calls on his name, now and forever until he returns. What a Savior. Or as the hymn says, "Such love, such wondrous love. Such love, such wondrous love. That God should love a sinner such as I, how wonderful is love like this."

John 15 & 16

It is amazing that Jesus doesn't give up on us. Jesus Himself was talking to his disciples. These were the guys he had traveled with. They had seen his miracles. They had seen his disputes with the religious leaders. They knew that he preferred the company of children and hurting, hopeless people. They had their feet washed by him. He told them that unless they, the branches, abode in him, the vine, that they had no future. He prepared them that the world would hate them because, as followers of Jesus, they were no longer of this world. He promised them that the Holy Spirit would come and guide them into all truth. The disciples say that finally they are convinced that Jesus has been sent from God, but Jesus knows better. He knows that at crunch time they will scatter. But even knowing this about them, he is concerned about them. He finishes up chapter 16 by saying, "I have told you these tings, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."