Acts 6

N the first part of Acts6 a problem had developed n the midst of the disciples of Christ that could’ve derailed the impact of the 1st century body of believers.For some reason,a discrimination of sorts was developing n their midst.A group of new believers (Hellenists-Greek speaking Jews that were considered outsiders to native born Jews) that were culturally different because of where they were born,were being “overlooked” by some of the “church folks”.A clique had begun to develop in the midst of this 1st church that was hurting the lives of many outside the clique.The people w authority to distribute resources among the 1st church were in essence ignoring those outside their “clique”.Cliques always make those outside the clique feel unloved;unwanted;ignored;unimportant;devalued;insignificant;etc.And those inside a clique will in some way always develop a sense of being more loved;more wanted;more worthy;more important;worth more;higher value;more significant,etc.It is the very nature of cliques to have a negative impact on the hearts of those in a clique,& to do harm to those on the outside of a clique.The Apostles recognized the “hugeness” of these problems,and that “cliques” of all kinds must be addressed with great Wisdom& Discernment.We know this because of the significant qualifications the Apostles require for the men that will be chosen to address the “clique problem”!The Apostles say,”Therefore,brothers,pick out from among you seven men of good repute,full of the Spirit and of wisdom,whom we will appoint for this duty.”(Acts6:3).The men to be chosen would be the best of the best!And! They would be humble servants,serving tables(Acts6:2).The kind of leadership the Apostles were calling for was Wise,Upstanding Character,full of The Spirit,& humble servant hearts!Because of the lives & humble servant leadership of these men, the “clique problem” was addressed successfully,”And the word of God continued to increase,& the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem,& a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”(Acts6:7).Dear Lord,in my heart I have created different cliques....I need Your help in destroying,& ridding them from my life.Forgive me for letting these become a part of my life.And now help me to never let any clique begin to develop again n my life.

Acts 5

At our core,we know when we r being truthful and/or genuine,and when we r not.And we have a natural impulse to hide from these things.Just as all of the dogs our family has had(even the one notorious for being a brat),know & reveal knowledge of doing something bad by the way they tuck their tail when caught...human beings have the same core sense n our heart.We can become so hard hearted and/or narcissistic that we grow insensitive/numb to it.But this is still in us!God created us with this for many reasons,the most important being so we would be made aware of our need for a Savior!But sometimes this need assaults our pride or our selfish desires n such a way that we decide to cover up this need of our heart,& we become hard hearted.This happened with Ananias & Sapphira n Acts5:1-11.They saw others having their lives changed dramatically by their faith n Jesus Christ,& evidently saw this as anything but these people turning to a living relationship w a Living God through Jesus Christ!Ananias&Sapphira acted as if this was a religion w “formulas for membership”,& did not realize that these people were seeking a loving/living relationship w a Living/Loving/Merciful/Gracious God.THIS is why the people around Ananias&Sapphira had lives that were being restored w a love for each other that was from God...lives that were so appealing to Ananias&Sapphira(A&S)!But A&S sought a “formula” nstead of a Relationship,& their hearts became hardened/resistant to Truth. In many ways we r not much unlike A&S!We have all been made aware of something n our lives that should b addressed n ways that we resist.And continued “resisting” leads to a hardened heart n this area of our heart!Just as we can have a small area of our physical heart that is diseased somehow,the heart of who&what we are(our Spirit/our Soul)can become diseased/hardened in small areas.If the warning signs of these small areas n our physical heart are not heeded,we can die.The same thing can happen with our Spirit&Soul if we do not heed the “warning signs”!This is what happened w A&S!Dear Lord,forgive me for the areas of my life that I have allowed to grow cold&hardened because of either my pride or selfishness!Forgive me for allowing myself to act as if YOU are NOT so ALIVE that YOU would know everything about my heart&life!Forgive me for turning from Your Mercies&Graces n these areas of my life,& turning from the restoration & healing n these areas that You desire to bless me with.Please work n my life to renew and as David ask,I ask for you to “Create n me a clean heart O God,& renew a right spirit w/in me.Cast me not away from Your Presence,& take not Your Holy Spirit from me.Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,& uphold me with a willing spirit.”(Palm51:10-12)

Acts 3

N Acts 3:1-16, Peter&John are on their way to a temple when they see a man that had been lame from birth being carried to the gate of the temple.His friends or family would daily carry him to the gate,& lay him there so he could ask for money&support.When he asks Peter&John,they tell him that they don’t have what he is asking for,but they do have something else(“but what I do have I give to you.In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,rise up & walk”.)When Peter “fixed his eyes on” the man,he knew he did not have what he was asking for.But by God’s Sovereignty and through Jesus Christ,Peter had at that moment what the man NEEDED.During their time w Jesus,they had learned that there were no coincidences,& that to see beyond “coincidences” they needed to remember how Jesus interacted w people that were in despair &/or desperately asking for something.Jesus saw what the true need was n peoples live,& addressed that.He heard what came out of their mouths,but He also knew what was the desperate desire of their heart.When a paralytic is brought to Jesus(Matt9:4-5;Mark2:4-5),He sees beyond the physical and into the desperate need n this man’s life,& Jesus says,”your sins are forgiven”.Jesus does end up healing the man’s infirmity,but this was far down the list of significance for this man...this man’s desperate need was to be healed from the eternally terminal disease of sin.Another time,when Jesus is sitting by a well in Samaria,a woman comes by.Jesus knows the deepest need in this woman’s life.She has been seeking to fill an emptiness in her life by having relationships w men.Of course this woman had many other needs,but the most desperate was the emptiness in her soul/her heart.Jesus sees beyond all of her other needs,& goes directly to the PRIMARY NEED of her life(John4:1-44),and her life is turned around.She now has a Hope and an Enthusiasm that changes her life,AND impacts those around her!The Apostles had learned from Jesus,that many times there are more significant needs n our lives than what we may be asking for.That many times what we ask for may not precisely address what we truly need.Many times when we pray over and over about something,and don’t see or hear anything...it might be time that we talk w The Lord about what may be our deeper more desperate needs,& talk w Jesus about deeper heart&soul issues and trueing our hearts&souls up with His Word&Spirit so our ears/heart are more likely to hear His response.Instead,we may grow frustrated w praying...& even disillusioned.Dear Lord Jesus,this is so very true n my life...the many things that r consistently part of my conversations w You,and the fact that I seldom seek beyond these things to listen to what You are saying to me about these or other things that may b more needed/more desperate n my life.!Help me to not get frustrated,nor disillusioned...but draw me to deeper conversations w You about things that may be more important/more significant!

Acts 2

It is important to look into the lives of the faithful men and women in the Bible,as well as those that have had the same faith over the last couple thousand years,if we are to learn how to have our lives shaped and prepared according to what God only knows as BEST for our lives,instead of our lives being “misshaped” by other worldly influences.ONLY God knows THE PLAN for me that INCLUDES the infinitely broad scope including Eternity.No other SOURCE can be trusted with such...all other PLANS will shape my life for “short term dividends” with no Eternal Security!God’s plan for my life includes joys that will give me the encouragement needed through the deepest valleys of life,and a sense of purposes fulfilled that no amount of worldly,nor even pious achievement can satisfy.Therefore,if I desire to have my life shaped in ways that have the BROADER SCOPE of “benefits”,then learning from the truly faithful men & women that have proven lives of these “benefits” is imperative!Shortly after Jesus ascends to Heaven,Peter gives the Sermon at Pentecost,immediately referring to the Old Testament 3 times-from Joel once, and from 2 different Psalms.Over the last 3 years of following Jesus,Peter has obviously become a diligent student of Scripture!Peter(&the other apostles)learned this by seeing how Jesus referred to Scripture over and over during His Life/Ministry!Jesus taught by example how important it is to have an intimate appreciation for God’s Word!So it is not surprising that the 1st sermon after Jesus’ ascension is weaved w scripture,as Peter’s life had become weaved w God’s Word.Over centuries this has proven true!During The Reformation,it was men & women who hungered to personally “know” God’s Word that brought lives back to knowing God’s Amazing Grace,& His Amazing Love!N 1911,Oswald Chambers saw despair overcoming many missionaries, to the point that many were leaving not only their ministries,but drifting away from their relationship w The Lord.Chambers realized this was because of these men&women having a mediocre knowledge&appreciation of God’s Word,so he founded the Bible Training College in England,becoming the primary teacher&mentor at the college.These faithful men & women over the centuries have been very different,& have done a myriad of different things in their lives.BUT,a common thread is their hunger to know God’s Word,& have the Holy Spirit lead them into an intimate relationship w The Lord through their pursuit of God’s character and His promises n the Bible...having their lives weaved with threads of God’s Word.Dear Lord,looking into my life I realize that my life has far to few threads of Your Word weaved into my life&heart.Thank You for using the lives of faithful men&women to reveal the significance of having Your Word increasingly weaved into every aspect of my life.Awaken in me the same hunger&devotion given&stirred n the lives of these faithful,so I will also know the joys that will give me the encouragement needed through the deepest valleys of life,and a sense of purposes fulfilled that no amount of worldly,nor even pious achievement can satisfy.

Acts 1

I always want to know when “what I want” is finally going to come about;when is The Lord going to “come through” with what I have been praying for/waiting for?The apostles had this same “want to know” when they came together in Acts1:6->and they ask Jesus,”Lord,will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel”?The apostles were probably a little excited about what they thought were the next things to come.After all,they had just been through 3 years of many ups and downs as they followed Christ.Additionally, they not only witnessed Jesus perform miracles,but at times they personally were the conduit of the Power of Jesus as they were sent out by Jesus.When they gather around Jesus n the 1st chapter of Acts,they must have been thinking(with all the miraculous things they had seen,especially the last 40 days after Jesus raised from the tomb and walked about to the astonishment of all who saw and heard Him)that NOW was the time that Jesus would set up His Kingdom and they would all have “sweet jobs” as part of Jesus’ inner circle.As Christians,we tend to have the same preconceived notions & expectations because of our ideas about our “personal faithfulness”->just like what might’ve been what prompted the question,”Lord,at this time...?”(Acts1:6).We allow ourselves to be “set up” for “let downs” because of our expectations that are rooted n somewhat of a entitlement attitude.And attitude that because of “MY struggles & MY faithfulness....when is Jesus going to come through with the “dividends” of MY faithfulness”?Jesus addresses this by what He says,& by what happens in Acts1:7-11.1st,Jesus says,”It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,& you will be my witnesses n Jerusalem & n Judea & Samaria,& to the end of the earth.”Jesus tells them to b careful about taking their eye off the ball,because of their expectations!Actually,Jesus is telling them that all they have been through (all they have experienced & all they have done) has been preparation for the mission ahead,& that each of their “missions” will expose needs in their lives that only The Holy Spirit can help with(Acts1:8,”But u will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon u..”).Up until this time,each of the apostles probably had a more temporal perspective for life than an eternal one.Jesus knew this,and timed his statements n Acts1:7-8 perfectly,so there would be no doubt about which perspective was the only one to have for life!Jesus sets the stage perfectly for His apostles to have what He just said to them be referenced to the RIGHT PERSPECTIVE,leaving no doubt about how their lives needed to be taken from a temporal paradigm of thinking/living,to one that was far far beyond the temporal and into the Eternal ways of Thinking&Living!Acts1:9-11 says,”And when he had said these things,as they were looking on,he was lifted up,and a cloud took him out of their sight.And while they were gazing into Heaven as he went,behold,two men stood by them in white robes,and said,’Men of Galilee,why do you stand looking into Heaven?This Jesus,who was taken up from you into heaven,will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven”.When they saw and heard these things,each of them must of had “their worlds shaken”...their ways of thinking about life and what in life is important!They saw into ETERNITY,when they witnessed the ascension of Jesus.And then they saw and heard angels point to the promises of the Bible about Eternity when the angels said that Jesus would return in the same way that he left.All of the sudden,what Jesus had been teaching,and what Jesus had been referring to in the Old Testament began to come to life in their hearts/minds/lives,in ways that made them each become “Eternally Perspective” about life!They knew that their life n the here and now had purposes that rippled into Eternity! And that the here and now is fleeting,with eternal reason&purpose for their lives->REASONS & PURPOSES that would be realized in Eternity,& not in the here and now!This turned their paradigm for life and their expectations inside out & upside down!Their lives would never b the same!They would have joys in the middle of the most severe of earthly challenges because of their ultimate HOPE being in the TRUTHS of Eternity!They would have confidences and power that were supernatural because these confidences and power were “reinforced” by God’s Word & The Holy Spirit!Dear Lord,I suffer from a temporal perspective of life that ultimately yield disappointments and emptiness no matter what.I know better than this...but need Your help to draw me away from the strong pull of temporal things.I pray for You to use Your Word and Your Spirit in mighty ways to restore in me the Hope and the Eternal Purposes that You want to give me through Your Mercy &Grace.