Acts 1-3: MY DEVOS

Heyyy guys! Sorry I had a slow start to this book, but I've been reading. So, I decided to put the three chapters together into one devotional. I hope you all had a great Monday and are already looking forward to Friday because I am!


Acts 1-3:

This book contains all the events that happened right after the ministry of Jesus. It's interesting to see what the disciples did after their fearless Leader had left them. I kind of imagined them to be different as soon as Jesus left. Maybe fall out of their faith and not do as well with their lives. But no, they picked up where Jesus left off and carried on with their lives and Jesus' ministry. I find it the most appealing how Peter, the one that doubted Jesus three times, decided to serve Jesus even more after that incident. Being confronted by Jesus himself, I would've been a little discouraged and maybe even lose my passion for God. But rather, Peter was motivated to make a difference and work even harder for the Lord, and that's exactly what's shown in the first couple books of Acts where it shows that Peter was definitely among the leaders. I like his speech when he "rose up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd." His last line was definitely comforting: "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." All we need to do when we need him is to call on his name. Like we learned in discipleship yesterday, prayer is important and God wants us to communicate to him in every possible way.

I actually rediscovered my love for punk rock recently and I've been discovering some new songs. They're pretty good. You should really listen to some of these. I think it has a bad name for it portrays guys wearing black make up and what not but it's actually really good One song that I've been listening to a lot is called "Lifeline" by Angels and Airwaves. There's a part that I really like and it goes like this:

"If you wish it, wish it now;
If you wish it, wish it loud;
If you want it, say it now;
If you want it, say it loud."

And how does this relate? I listened to this and remembered how many times I want to tell my friends or family certain things but I don't. Either because I'm lazy to pick up my phone and do so, or because it's just hard to do that for many different reasons. Sometimes, your mommy needs to hear that you love her. Sometimes your friend needs to hear that you appreciate her. Sometimes God needs to hear that you love and appreciate him. God wants to hear you out! Guys, please make prayer your priority and pray to God whenever you can. It's very important. How can you have a relationship with God if you don't talk to him? It's just not possible.

One of the most inspiring speeches from the Bible:

"I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will live in hope,
because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence."

These verses are very comforting, once again. It tells us that God is always by our side, and that he will never abandon us. It tells us that he fills us with joy and makes our hearts glad. Imagine living a life like that every day. I pray that every single one of you will discover that.

I really got a lot out of these three chapters and I hope you guys did too!

Check your emails maybe tonight or tomorrow for the song list will go out, explaining what's going on for the retreat as well!


Roh

Nice Roh, I'm catching up today as well!

I remember Sam talking about this....
Sam said that the beggar guy was there even when Jesus was alive and He Himself was walking into the temples.
So Jesus did see this beggar plenty of times while He was with us in the world. But Jesus did not heal this man Himself because He wanted Peter and John to do it.
Everybody plays a part and has a purpose here: 1. the beggar was there so that he could be healed by Jesus' disciples strengthening the belief of Jesus' disciples and of the beggar 2. the onlookers would see the beggar walking around and they too will be amazed by what God is capable of doing through us and our belief in Him.
So I learned from this Chapter and through Sam's explanation that with belief comes endless possibilities to help others.
But you really do have to mean it and believe it.
Also, we see the people carrying out these miracles as being special or as being the people who are actually responsible for the miracles.
However, it is ultimately God that is working through those people and making the miracles happen.
We should not look up to the people carrying out the miracles, but we should look up to their spiritual strength and solemnity in God.
All caught up... now I feel at ease
Hopefully I won't skip tomorrow, sometimes I just don't feel like doing these devos and I don't want to be forcing myself to do them because that's not really beneficial...
But still! I'll try to do them every night

Try waking up 15 mins early and doing them in the morning!
I'll do that if you do it.
Starting tmrw?

i do them as a stress reliever so i do it at the end of the day. But you should find a time to do it, and regardless of whats going on DO IT! like you wouldnt go to sleep without brushing your teeth right? so make it something like that

Acts 3

Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."

This is one of my favourite stories from the Bible.
The unfathomable power of the Holy Spirit? The smaller parallel I interpret of how we request things of God, but He almost certainly always gives us so much more than we deserve or ask for? I don't know, I like this story for a lot of reasons.
Like Miguel mentioned, I like how God used ordinary men to carry out this miracle. I mean, sure, they were disciples, but I'm prone to believe that since it was byway of the Holy Spirit, whom God has made available to each and every one of us, with the right kind of faith, this could've been a possibility for other believers. This really challenges me to never underestimate the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, and recognize what a joy and blessing it is that we have the power to be filled with it, should we simply ask and believe in good faith that it'll be given to us.
Secondly, on Sunday, during our discipleship classes, Pauline talked about how in Evan Almighty, God explicates that when we ask for something, God doesn't simply hand it to us on a silver plate like some dispenser, but He gives us opportunities to attain it. And it's so true. With the physical absence of Jesus at this point, the disciples were having to learn how to be more independent and evangelize and give their own personal testaments to the power of the Spirit, etc. So God gave them an opportunity to do just that, by exercising their own faiths and carrying out an amazing miracle. I'd like to see where in my life Gods giving me these kinds of "opportunities"..

Blah. I have such a distinct picture of this scene in my mind. I like it.

- H

Lol I thought I lost my cellphone today, but it was under the couch for like three days. lol
I opened a youtube acount with a video lol YAHH

Acts 3

I rememer well yah eveyone remembers Sam talking about this, and it still does amazes jesus planned this all along. He wanted his disciples to heal him after is passing. Man it's good to see that peter and john has inherited the holy spirit and that they are living the life Jesus has left behind. Their passion has only grown and became stregthened.