Tag Archives: Change

Acts, Bible Studies

Acts 11

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Acts of the Holy Spirit

I worked with a supervisor who was very by the book. Every T crossed, every I dotted. Fortunately, I did not report to him, I think I may have done something drastic if I had.

But I remember receiving the occasional email from him.  Like any up and coming member of management, he had a sage, carefully crafted  and hopefully profound (to HIS boss) signature like “Yes we can,” “If you fall seven ties, get up eight,” or as we fantasized with this guy, “The beatings will stop when morale improves.”

His email signature was mundane, engineer-like: “If it’s not documented, it’s not done.” You engineers and other societal outcasts (JK) are nodding in silent agreement. But it never struck me until several years later how true that statement is.

The act of making another major change to the relationship between God and people through the Gospel was and is forever profound. But now, to add salvation to the Gentiles, this blew a LOT of Jewish fuses. The act was to reverberate throughout the rest of the Book of Acts, and it needed to be told (documented) by a teller who was just as flabbergasted.

So what change does God want to make with you that you’re resisting? And will you (and I) be willing to hear that voice, often a friend or trusted one, that’s calling for it?

Acts 11:1-2 –  Through  the grapevine, the news spread fast. They were shocked and stunned, resentful that Peter went to the Gentiles. Change is seldom easy, especially for the pious Jewish believer, who throughout her life, has obeyed the laws and testimonies of the Mosaic Law. So when word of this event with Peter is made known, the natural inclination is to “take issue.”

Acts 11:4 – A parchment or scroll was generally not larger than 35 feet. Books tended to be concise for this reason. So why would the HS inspire Luke to repeat this story? Because it is very important.

Acts 11:10 – Isa 61:10

Acts 11:12 – Peter was wise in bringing six men to be witnesses.

Acts 11:17 – Who indeed,

Acts 11:19 – It took the blood of the martyr to propagate the Gospel. These new Christians are still preaching primarily to Jews, though.

Acts 11:20 – Antioch was the 3rd largest city in Rome with a population of about a half million people, and a center of commerce.   In the mythology the city was dedicated to Daphne, the Goddess of seduction, being seduced by Apollo. It was became the center of the Christian faith after Jerusalem Christians were persecuted. See Acts 6:5, 13:1, 14, chapters 14 & 15, and Galatians 2:11 and 2 Tim 3:11.

Acts 11:23 – Note the effect of the grace of God.

It is the heart that God looks at.

Acts 11:25 –  anazeteo – to seek high and low energetically, used only by Luke here and when Jesus was left back at Jerusalem. (Luke 2:44)

Acts 11:26 – Note the pattern: In v 20 was preaching,  v 23 exhorting v26 teaching by Paul; a perfect troika, all necessary.

Christians – “little Jesus” – what a wonderful epithet.

Acts 11:28 – By meeting in koinonia and being in the Spirit, these Christians didn’t just ooh and ahh from the works shown, non they went on to the practical ministry implied by it. We see Agabus later in the book Acts 21:10 prophesying over Paul’s belt as to Paul’s future.  He here prophesies that a famine from 46 to 48 AD would occur. This gave the saints the opportunity, like Joseph, to prepare for it, and to exercise giving to the saints in Jerusalem, who would be in terrible poverty owing to their being disavowed by the Jewish community for their faith.

Conversation, Devotion

What Are You About?

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It is a conundrum; you may say it’s a tempest in a teapot, but it produces quite a lot of angst, for this reporter. You see, ultimately, it is our goal, yours and mine, to set our beloved country to rights. And how best to do that. We believe the promise and belief in the person promising is the only true solution, the tenets of sacred Scripture, specifically, the promise made to Solomon made 3,000 years ago. We happen to think that God Almighty is good for His promises, and His great Communication, the Bible, is true and sure.

If you disagree, then there isn’t really any point in your staying on the site, perhaps for a good laugh and a pathetic joke; so be it. Really, this place isn’t for you. Enjoy the day.

OK, the rest of us need to make a decision: is America worth returning to her Judeo-Christian roots? Yes, no, maybe so. All right, that’s a starting point. If you count yourself a Christian, may I ask another uncomfortable question? Ready? Do you take the Bible seriously?

“Of course I do, what kind of idiot question is that!?”

An honest one. Really, it isn’t meant to get your hackles up. Let me rephrase the question. Do you think God is good on His promises to YOU? Really. There’s some pretty big ones in there.

Can God give you unreasonable peace? Philippians says so.

Can God free you from want? David says so.

Can God give you rest from your burdens? Jesus says so.

Can God provide for and fulfill way beyond your wildest dreams? Paul says so.

John Morris of ICR once quipped, “If you can believe the first sentence of the Bible, the rest is pretty easy to believe.” If then believe that the Bible is true, and God is able to make and keep great promises, do we then labor to restore America to her great spiritual  heritage (more on that later) by activism, political process and persuasion, or do we abandon the political zealotry and turn solely to God by the promises He made to Solomon and others (more on that too later).

When Jesus came, He presented Himself not as the triumphant Messiah of first century Jewish thinking. We can more clearly see His role as the Lamb of God; and on His return, as righting all wrongs, wiping away every tear, and bringing in the glorious millenial rule on the throne of David. At His first advent, there was no conquering, no admonition to overthrow injustice and ungodliness, save the power of the Gospel to do these noble things as a by-product of the transformed sinner.

So how does the Gospel reconcile itself with the affairs of humanity? How does this “transformation by the renewing of the mind” meet citizen Sam? In his landmark book, The Book That Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization, author xyz quotes Speaker of the House (1847-1849) Robert C. Winthrop:

All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.

– Mangalwadi, Vishal (2011-05-10). The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization (p. 353). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Winthrop answers our question, albeit indirectly. It is then, the transformed mind by the renewing power of the Gospel engaged in the practice of godly self-government that renews and revitalizes society. It is neither monastic retreat to the “holy huddle” of self-absorbed ecclesiology, nor the moral conquer of an unwilling society of religious zealotry.

Therefore, we pray, we seek Him, we confess to God our sins, to others our witness, make disciples, and participate as citizens, die to self, and fully rely on His promise.