Good morning, happy Thursday and thanks for coming along for another day of the 5 minute challenge. If you’re not familiar with the 5 minute challenge, it’s a challenge to read for your bible for just 5 minutes a day, every day for 30 days in a row. Seems doable right? Check out the link below to a past post for all the details. I hope you accept the challenge to spend time in God’s Word every day…it will change the way you walk in this world!
Marge and I had a great day yesterday, we continue to strive for the big four in our daily routine, 5MC time in God’s Word, walk 3 miles, decent diet and good sleep habit. We got them all in yesterday but it’s a little weird to make yourself go to bed some nights. Last night we were pumped because we got a new Amazon Echo Dot and we were having so much fun playing with it we didn’t wanna to go to bed. We did however make ourselves. Sleep time and sleep rhythm is so important as an adult. I shared a few weeks back that one in three adults are sleep deprived meaning they get less than 6 hours of sleep a night. Take care of yourselves, get good sleep, eat well, exercise your body and of course exercise your soul by spending time with your God in His Word every day. You’ll feel better on the outside and on the inside!
Back to the Amazon Echo Dot. We’re probably a bit behind the curve but I finally bit the bullet, spent the $40 and bought an Echo. It delivered in one day with Prime, got it last night, hooked it up and let me just say….THIS THING IS AWESOME!! It’s basically the Alexa interface in a ‘hockey puck’ and you can ask her to do just about ANYTHING! You can ask her the weather, random facts, to set a cook timer, play any music, artist or song you can imagine, set a business appointment, turn you’re A/C up or down, turn lights on and off, she’ll even tell you jokes! It’s a super cool device and its gonna make our lives a little bit easier and alot more fun. Power to Alexa. If you don’t have one, you should, its really, really cool.
But back to our real topic, God’s Word and I’m in Acts chapter 11 this morning. There’s lots of firsts today concerning the church and how its spreading, lets dive in.
Chapter 11 starts out with Peter going back to Jerusalem from Caesarea and his encounter with Cornelius. (If you missed this story we covered it yesterday, backtrack and look at yesterdays post.) When Peter gets back to Jerusalem many in the church harshly criticized him for sharing the gospel with Gentiles (non-Jews.) I expounded on this yesterday but in their day this was a no-no. You didn’t share the gospel with anyone but Jews. So, Peter being in the firing line, defends himself. He tells the church the entire story from beginning to end. He of course finishes with the Holy Spirit coming to Cornelius and his household and them speaking in tongues as a result. This physical demonstration was crucial to both Peter and the church for them to be assured that God’s salvation to the Gentiles was genuine. God knew this would be a huge step for the church and He gave them a big clear sign to prove it to them! Does God know us or what? This moment ‘officially’ lifts the ban on preaching to the Gentiles and now its game on, God’s Word is gonna go out big time to everybody!
Now the stoning of Stephen and the persecution from Saul is still having its ripple effect. The church was scattered all over because of their fear of Saul. What an effect he had on the early church by his hatred of it. Its amazing how God can use anyone and anything for His Glory! A lot of the church ended up way off in Antioch, 300 miles from Jerusalem. (I like long walks but THAT’S a long walk!) Since the gospel can go out to everyone and not just Jews, the church explodes. The church at Antioch is becoming bigger than even Jerusalem and so they send to Jerusalem for help. They send Barnabas. I love how God’s Word describes Barnabas. Acts 11:24, “for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of Faith.” What an aspiration for us as we walk this planet for the Lord. To be described as a good person, full of faith and the Holy Spirit! Wouldn’t it be awesome that on the day you as a Christ follower go to Heaven that this is how you are described before God? A good person full of the Holy Spirit and Faith in Jesus. You just can’t ask for much more than that.
So Barnabas becomes the Pastor of the church at Antioch and “a great many people were added.” (Acts 11:24b) It was growing so fast Barnabas needed an assistant Pastor and he thought of one guy in particular, Saul. He treks over to Tarsus, grabs Saul and hauls him back to Antioch. Now the two of them are a power team and over the next year they teach a great many people. (Acts 11:26) At the end of this verse we also have another first, the first time Christ followers are called Christians. Acts 11:26b, “And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” The name kinda stuck, huh?
The end of the chapter deals with the fact that God gave a prophet named Agabus a vision of a great famine that would hit the region of Judea. In response to this the church in Antioch gathered much and sent it to the church in Judea by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:29-30) What a beautiful picture of how the early church is doing what God built it to do. Serve Him, serve others and teach His Word.
Think about this, because of what we just read this morning we who call upon Christ as our Savior can be assured of a home in Heaven. Because of what we read this morning we can have the living Spirit of God within us. Because of what we read this morning we are saved. I say that because we, my friend are Gentiles. I praise God for His love of not just Jews but of every man, woman and child that has ever lived and will ever live. His love encompasses all generations, all people and all times. His love makes a way.
Praise God today for His unending love of all people of this world.
Share the love of Jesus with someone today.
Comments