November 12 - Acts 12:6-14:20

Good morning everyone,

As we begin this morning, King Herod Agrippa, has started going after some of the believers in the church. King Agrippa is a Roman-appointed, king over the Jews and not totally unfamiliar with the concept of killing Christians. His grandfather, you’ll remember Herod the Great, was responsible for killing all the baby boys in Bethlehem, and his sister Herodias was responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist. Classic example of hate breeding hate. Ughhh!

Agrippa has already put James, one of the Sons of Thunder, to death and has Peter in prison with no less than sixteen guards, two of those physically chained to him. Peter’s execution is scheduled to take place in just a few days but is he worried about it? No, he is sleeping in his prison cell. I love the picture of peace and trust Peter had in the Lord here. Paul once said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” This is Peter living that statement. Though having said that, I have to wonder how one gets comfortable enough to sleep with two guards chained to you, just sayn’. Right?

We’re told, “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell.” Peter must have been sleeping quite soundly because the angel struck him on the side to wake him. Umm, that so made me chuckle, great bedside manner. Nonetheless, the chains fell off Peters wrists, the angel talks him through getting ready and they leave. It wasn’t until they had walked a city block that Peter realized what he was experiencing was really happening, that he wasn’t just dreaming. He was free and he headed over to Mary’s house where his friends had gathered to pray for him.

I’m telling you, parts of Peter’s life just totally crack me up. When he gets to Mary’s house, he knocks on the door, Rhoda peeks through the hole to see who it is. She is so overcome with joy to see Peter standing there she runs right off to tell everyone the news and leaves Peter outside behind the locked door. I so can see him standing there. A fugitive not knowing when the guards would wake and go searching for him. Looking from side to side he resumes his knocking, saying in a half loud half whisper “Hey guys. Can anyone hear me? It’s me Peter, let me in.” 

Well it took a little convincing, but Rhoda was finally able to persuade them to go and see for themselves. We’re told they were astonished. Peter only stayed long enough to ask his friends to spread the news of his experience. 

I think the lesson here is that we need to do more than pray. We need to believe in our God enough to know our prayers are heard and answered. Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” Did you get that? Believe! Where was their belief? It is never just the words we say, it is the faith and trust we have in God Almighty to take our requests and His plan. It is all about Him and His faithfulness. Make sense? The Bible does not teach is to rely on prayer alone. It teaches us to rely on Jesus. Only when we can fully rely on Him can we fully pray believing. We are to believe Him first, and then express that belief in prayer. The faith must be in the heart before the prayer comes out of the mouth. Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..

November 11 - Acts 10:1-12:5

Good morning everyone,

Today’s reading, as Gentiles, is a very exciting read for us. Up until now, the teaching of the gospel had been pretty much exclusive to the Jews. Steeped in Jewish tradition, and filled with certain prejudice, the Jews believed the Gentiles were unclean, the gospel was not for them. Tabu. And then …..

As it happened, Cornelius was a centurion, obviously not Jewish, living in Caesarea. He and his family were God-fearing people who prayed often. One day he had a vision where and angel of the Lord said, “Cornelius!” Now I am going to be honest, that made me chuckle. Seriously? You’re there on your knees having a quiet time and you hear an angel call out your name, punctuated with an exclamation. Now, in my crazy, sense of humor, mind’s eye I can see him looking all around wondering , “What … who said that?” After all, how often does something like that happen? I am quite certain I would have a look of fear on my face, as well. You? Anyway, the angel’s message for Cornelius was to send for Peter. And so he did.

Now, meanwhile, Peter is hanging out at, his friend, Simon’s house. One afternoon he goes up to the roof to pray, he gets hungry and apparently asked someone to make him something to eat because we’re told that while his food was being prepared, he fell into a trance. Not once, not twice but three times the Lord had to show Peter the vision and tell him, “Get up Peter. Kill and eat.” “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Peter was scratching his head. Four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds, clean? It did not make sense to him, it went against everything he had ever been taught. Then the Lord then told Peter to go with the three men who were there to fetch him. So, Peter, God love him, wanders downstairs and says, “Yo, I am the one you’re looking for. And why are you here?” He hears their request and says, “Far out.” (paraphrased) Then off they go.

Cornelius, knowing when to expect Peter’s arrival, gathered together his relatives and close friends. It was a large gathering of people, we’re told. I imagine Peter was a bit suspicious at first, as he said to them, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?” Cornelius relayed his story and then it all started making sense to Peter and he was glad to share the good news. 

While there is so much to be learned from this story, what struck me most were two things: 

1. Cornelius and his family were religious, devoted and sincere, however, they did not know Christ. They had a “religion” not a relationship with Jesus. Hearing the Gospel, how much Jesus loved them and that He died for them would change all that. They would take this love back to Rome and share it with others.
2. When God speaks to us in prayer, or vision or the Bible or any way, we must not challenge or debate Him about it. We are called to be humble and submissive to His revealed truth. Right? Our mentality should be, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” No questions asked! Knowing His plan is perfect we should just trust and obey then sit back and watch His plan unfold. I promise you it will be wondrous.

God's love is the greatest gift we can receive in life. And it's also the key to experiencing the abundant life God has planned for us. In the book of John we’re told, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” And while the Bible doesn't tell us every little detail about what we need to do to experience that in our daily lives, we do have the Holy Spirit to help us with that, through the still, small voice and promptings He speaks to our hearts. Are you listening? I pray we all are. Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..

November 10 - Acts 8:1-9:43

Good morning everyone,

After the stoning of Stephen, we’re told a great persecution broke out against the church.  Saul seems to be on a one person mission to destroy all those “Jesus freaks” (paraphrased), going from house to house forcefully carting off anyone who believed the teachings of Jesus. Meanwhile, the rest of the disciples. who had been scattered, continue to  spread the Gospel wherever they went.

We were told about a man named Simon who lived in Samaria. There he performed so many magic tricks that some of the people in his region thought him to be the Messiah. Right from the very beginning, Satan had his counterfeit "messiah" operating in the Jesus’ backyard. Loser! (did I say that out loud?) Then Philip came to town proclaiming the good news and people were believing him, being baptized. Even Simon himself claimed to believe and was baptized but he didn’t really get it. Outwardly he was a Christian but his belief was only superficial and he was still a pagan at heart. He saw the opportunity of using Christianity to make money and sought to buy the Holy Spirit. Eso es sólo no es bueno. That’s just no good!

Then the angel of the Lord told Philip to head on down the road, and so he did and saw a chariot ahead with a eunuch in it reading Scripture. The Spirit told Philip to go to it so, and I love this, Peter runs to the chariot. He didn’t dawdle, sashay or even walk, he ran to where the Spirit told him to go. When he saw the eunuch was having trouble understanding what he was reading, Philip explained the Word to him. The eunuch was apparently blessed by this for when they saw some water on the side of the road he asked to be baptized. Philip was happy to oblige and the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. But get this, when they came up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord, we’re told, suddenly took Philip away and dropped him about four miles down the road. That would be so crazy. Right. I love how God never lets it get dull for us.

The best story of the day, for me anyway, was Paul’s conversion. Paul as Saul, is still traveling the land threatening and killing Christian’s. In Paul’s defense, he honestly believed he was doing the right thing. He’d grown up in the church. He was student of the Torah, his teacher had been the renown Gamaliel. His intentions, though misguided, were true. Then one day, we’re told, while on the road to Damascus a light from heaven flashed around him and he heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul went blind with the experience, was led into town where three days later, and I am sure some long talks with Ananias, his sight was restored. From that moment on he would arguably become the greatest evangelist ever. His mission to bring the Gospel primarily to the gentiles but to all he met.

Gosh, there is so much that be learned from Paul’s experience. Though, I guess first and foremost is that anyone, no matter how criminal, violent, satanic or anything a life is, that person can at any time say “yes” to Jesus and become a new creation. God can and will remove the scales from a non-believer’s eyes allowing them to see the truth, but the heart has to be willing. Then they must repent, and ask Jesus into their heart. Easy as that, but don’t loose sight of the “willing and true heart” as Simon did.

We all know people who still have blinders on, people who though they may be “good people” just refuse to walk the path of Jesus. I would encourage you to not give up on these also sincere but misguided souls. Pray for these people and continue to pray for these people. Jesus longs for all to be saved, for everyone to be a member in the body of Christ because as Philippians 3:20 tells us, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus tells us in John 16:23, “Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name”. Don’t miss the “in my name” part of that verse. Right? A new car or winning lotto ticket may not qualify, but I am certain someone’s salvation does. So do not hesitate to go to God with your problems and concerns. He loves, loves, loves you more than you understand and wants you to ask Him for help. Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..

November 9 - Acts 6:1-8:1

Good morning everyone,

As we begin this morning, the new church was growing rapidly and starting to experience growing pains. The disciples were quickly finding out there was not enough time in the day to do all that needed to be done. One of the ministries desperate for more attention was the feeding of the widows. So a team of seven men, who were known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom, were chosen to  care for these women. Among the seven chosen was Stephen.

Stephen was more than just a good distributor of food, though. When he wasn’t doing his day job he was a passionate speaker, full of God’s grace and power he performed wonders and signs among the people drawing the attention of the Synagogue of the Freedmen, who we’re told began to, unsuccessfully, argue with Stephen which led to them spreading vicious lies ultimately leading to Stephens arrest.

Stephen was taken before the Sanhedrin where they looked intently at him and saw that his face was like that of an angel. When I read that I remembered that the late, pastor Chuck Smith always had that very same look on his face too. He was so incredibly in love with the Lord, (totally understated) and the peace and rest the came with that was manifested in Pastor Chuck’s outward appearance. So incredibly awesome. From the moment I first saw him , heard him speak it has been my goal to have what he had. Anyway, the high priest asked Stephen if the charges against him were true. Stephen didn’t defend himself, instead took the opportunity to take them on a stroll through history and summarize his teaching about Jesus. Pointing out how they, the religious leaders, were failing to comply to what God had purposed for the lives of the Jews. You can imagine how well that went over. Not well at all. It in fact, infuriated the Jewish leaders.

However, the straw that broke the camels back was when Stephen looked up and seeing the glory of God and Jesus standing right by Him said, “Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Imagine, if you will,  (use your mind’s eye) all the Sanhedrin looking up. They, of course, would not see anything, right? The looks on their face must have been priceless, that is though when they lost it. They rushed Stephen, dragged him outside and began to stone him under the watchful eye of Saul. But get this, it was against the law for the Jews to take the matter into their own hands like that and, having said that, no one was ever charged or punished for the death of Stephen. We are told, though, that while this crazy, angry, out of control mob was stoning Stephen, he fell to his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” With that he died making him the first martyr for the new church. His death marked the beginning of an era during which the early Christians, all except the apostles, fled Jerusalem scattering throughout Judea and Samaria for fear of persecution.

Today, people still persecute Christians. Stephen knew what he believed and was able to defend it. One of the primary reasons believers are defeated is because the enemy catches them completely unaware. It begs the question, are you as well-prepared as Stephen to defend yourself against attacks on Jesus? We are at war, friends and it is a fight for our lives. Oh, not our physical lives, but our spiritual lives. The only way for us to survive this conflict is to prepare for the fight. I would encourage you to look at Ephesians 6, where it instructs us to , “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Each and every day, as Christians, we head into warfare. Suit up! Get dressed for it. Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …… 

November 8 - Acts 3:1-5:42

Good morning everyone,

Oh my, look how Peter has grown up before our very eyes, so to speak. Peter was among the first disciples called by Jesus, perhaps this was why he was frequently their spokesman, for good or bad. Peter was bold but often times in the wrong, he seemed to always be speaking before thinking consequently continually putting his foot in his mouth. Right? You remember Jesus telling him, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me,” when Peter tried to rebuke Him, and then of course more recently, Peter denying Jesus when the guards arrested Him. 

Peter was the first one to preach on the day of Pentecost after being filled with the Holy Spirit and he was the first one to proclaim Christ to a Gentile. We read today of how the Sanhedrin, having thought they had solved their “Christian” problem by killing Jesus, are once more jealous, angry and frustrated with the hearings and wondrous signs the apostles are performing in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. They wanted to put the apostles to death, however, a Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel an honored teacher of the law, in fact was the one who taught Saul of Tarsus aka Apostle Paul, convinced them that if the apostle’s teaching was of men it would go away, but if their teaching was from God they would not be able to stop them. So instead of death the apostles were flogged and then let go. Peter, once a mere baby of a Christian, frightened, bumbling and unsure, had flourished into arguably one of the boldest apostles of all. He willingly suffered persecution, imprisonment, beatings, and even rejoiced at the fact that he was worthy to suffer disgrace for the Lord‘s sake. 

I want to, just for a moment, touch on Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. At that time, Christians were selling their houses, property and a lot of their personal possessions and giving the money to the church. So Ananias and Sapphira, not to be out done, also sold a piece of their property. They kept some of the money for themselves and gave the rest to the church saying “Here is all we got.” Peter knows the truth,though, whether by hearsay or the Spirit, who knows, and he calls Ananias out on the money he kept, telling him, “You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” Ananias heard this and fell down dead. Three hours later Peter repeats the scene with Sapphira, asking, “Is this the price you got for the land?” She says, “Yes” and then also died. Tough lesson!

Now, here’s the thing. It was never about them keeping some of the money for the sale of their property. They had not been told to sell their land, it was their idea and the money they received was theirs to do with as they pleased. Their sin was, they lied. They told Peter they were gifting all the monies they received from the sale when in fact they held some back in secret. Peter told them, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Friends, God knows our hearts and our motives and God most certainly will deal with sin, especially a Christian’s deceit and lack of integrity.

Hypocrisy is never pretty but it is especially ugly on someone who claims to be a follower of Christ Jesus. They think they are cleverly disguised when in fact they are quite transparent. That person casts the shadow of doubt on all Christians and you can believe there will be consequence of choice for that. Friends, if that were not enough, what is so much more sad is “appearance” alone will not get anyone into heaven and it leads to death of spiritual growth, zero spiritual usefulness and stunts relationships between friends, spouses, children. Faking it robs us of joy and God’s abundant blessing. 

God calls us to be a people of integrity. Proverbs 10:9 says, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” Proverbs 12:22 says, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” He is dead serious about it, Ananias and Sapphira found out the hard way. Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Nor can you fool God! The world can rob you of so many things, actually almost everything but they can not touch your integrity. Cling to it. Hang on tight to it. Be who and what you say you are. Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..

November 7 - Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:1-2:47

Good morning everyone,

The truth of Christianity rests heavily on the truth of the resurrection. Would you agree? In 1 Corinthians Paul puts it this way, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith”. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins”. Skeptics, nay sayers, often attempt to explain the events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection with what they consider logically had to have happened; “Perhaps the guards fell asleep”, or “there was a look alike, a twin to Jesus”, along with other bizarre hypothesis, but that’s just not the case. Jesus rose from the grave and walked among the people for forty days. It is not a mistake, it is not fiction, it is the truth.

Those who saw the risen Jesus would include: Mary Magdalene, the other women at the tomb, Peter, the two travelers on the road, the ten disciples behind locked doors, Thomas, the seven disciples fishing, James the brother of Jesus, a crowd of five hundred, and of course, those who watched Jesus ascend into heaven. How amazing would that be to be standing there, receiving a blessing from Jesus, His arms lifted, you can see the scars from the nails on his hands, a glow of peace about Him, and then He begins to slowly ascend into heaven. Wow! Who would be able to take their eyes off that? Not me. Apparently not them either because while they were watching Jesus we’re told two men in white stood by them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”  And that, my friends, is what we are waiting for! 

In Acts Luke tells us that the apostles returned to Jerusalem where they gathered in a room along with the women, Mary the mother of Jesus and with Jesus’ brothers and together they constantly prayed. They spoke to Abba and to their beloved Jesus in the way the Lord has provided us. Can you use your mind’s eye to see their heads bowed, as randomly they called out their praises and their thanks. Can you see the tears of joy in the Lord along with the tears of sadness, for missing Him, roll down their cheeks? How intense, how filled with God’s glory that room must have been. While I can only imagine all they had to say that day to their beloved Jesus, I do know He heard every word they spoke or thought and felt their every emotion. He is cool like that!

We’re told when the day of Pentecost came all the disciples were together in one place when a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house. And really, what would you be thinking if you were seeing tongues of fire separating and landing on everyone? Maybe a little scary at first, right? But they were completely amazed. Imagine their wonder, if you would, when they all began to speak and anyone of any language could understand them. Rosetta stone, eat your heart out :-)

And oh how I love Peter, don’t you? I look forward to meeting him in heaven, I do. We’re told he stood up, with the eleven, and just started preaching it. At the end of his sermon, his teaching, he gave an invitation to, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” winning about three thousand to the Lord that day. Luke tells us that every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. That they hey broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Thus beginning the church of Jesus Christ. 

It is of paramount importance we understand that the church is not a building or a meeting place but rather a group of warm and loving people, who choose to follow the commands of and the examples that Jesus himself gave us. Disciples who go out and share God’s Holy Word by teaching and by example, bring others to the knowledge of Jesus. Brothers and sisters in Christ who look forward to one day seeing heaven’s holy city shinning with the glory of God, where the river of the water of life, flows crystal clear down the middle of the city, and to hearing Abba himself say, “Well done good and faithful servant.” Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..

November 6 - Luke 24:13-43, Mark 16:12-13, John 20:19-23, Mark 16:14, John 20:24-21:25, Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:44-49

Good morning everyone,

Imagine, if you will, a friend, a loved one, someone you were close to, who has died. Oh how you miss them, you would love to share just one more moment with them.Your heart is grieving while memories follow you wherever you go. Then one day, while you’re going about your business, that person joins you in a walk, or pops into your home while you are eating or joins you in a bonfire at the beach. How amazing would that be? Well, that is exactly what happened in the lives of the disciples. 

Today we read that two of Jesus’ followers were walking down the road, talking with each other about all that had happened to Jesus, when He joined them. At first they were kept from recognizing Him as He listened to their take on the events of his death. When they got to town they invited this seemingly stranger to stay with them for the night. Jesus accepted and while there opened their eyes to who He truly was. 

He would  also appeared to the disciples, materializing in a locked room which not surprisingly startled them, frightened them even. Jesus quickly calmed their fears saying, “Yo, guys! It’s Me. I said I’d be back. Check out these scars, it’s Me. I’m hungry, do you have something to eat?” (totally paraphrased) They, of course, fed Him.

Later, He also appeared to the disciples by the Sea of Galilee when they were coming in from a disappointing night of fishing. I love it Jesus, called out to them over the sound of the waves, while they were still a football field’s length away, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” Peter was so excited when he heard it was Jesus, he jumped out of the boat into the water to get to Him. Way cool! I would like to believe I would do the same thing. Jesus said to his guys, “I’ve got a fire going, let’s have some breakfast.” (paraphrased) I love how Jesus loved to eat. Right?

After the meal Jesus has a chat with Peter where three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” Peter answered, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” Each time, Jesus answered, “Feed My sheep.” Jesus didn’t ask these questions for Himself but for Peter, to emphasize the crazy important truth that only love for Christ would sustain Peter in the work that lay ahead. Peter would be going out into the mission field where the work promised to be difficult, at best. Most definitely tiring and demanding work, caring for people’s souls.

Don’t let it get lost on you that Jesus did not ask Peter if he loved “the sheep” but if he loved Jesus. Right? His sheep can be unresponsive, unappreciative, and brutally critical of our efforts to love and to serve them. In the end, we will find ourselves defeated and discouraged. The love of Christ is the only motivation that will enable us to stay on course. 

When you love Christ enough, when your faith and trust in Him is greater than your own will. When you really, really put all self behind and live with Jesus as your number one, (not your spouse), you numero uno (not your kids). When you obey what Jesus tells us is the most important commandment of all, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Then I know and with everything I am believe all else in life will fall beautifully right into place. All the sheep and their attitudes won’t mean a thing, it will roll right off you when you love Jesus the most. Just keep on loving Christ. Amen?

have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..