Acts FOURRRR

Helloooooooo

I like the story in this chapter. Two of Jesus' disciples, Peter and John, were arrested by the officials for they were spreading the Gospel. They were constantly persecuted and threatened by the officials, but they couldn't do anything, because the people were starting to really like these guys and abide to Jesus' teachings. It must have been really hard for these guys to continuously serve God amidst all the persecution and troubles they had to go through. But it shows what a great teacher Jesus was. Although He wasn't there, He was there in Spirit (literally) and helped out his disciples. And look in the beginning of the chapter! The numbers of followers grew to 5,000 people -- incredible. And I don't imagine the population back then to be millions. The population of Israel was probably in the thousands. I looked this up out of curiosity, and in Jesus' time, when the Romans were occupying the land, the population was less than a million (of the whole area, which is pretty big). Thus, 5,000 believers must've been a great number. That's tremendous.

So through this chapter, we're seeing many changes occurring and we see that the Church is getting bigger and bigger. All the believers were starting to unite as one, as we see here: "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had."

Imagine if all the Christians in the world came together and shared what they had. Sounds a lot like communism but I think it's fair to say that if it is done right, God can perform so many miracles. I think there are SO many believers out there, but they're too shy to come out and share their love among each other. Think about all the people that you walk by every day. How many Christians do you think you encounter daily without knowing? If you knew all of them, and worked together daily to help the homeless, to talk to strangers about God, etc., it would be amazing.

So, what can you do? Show your faith by what you do! Just like we talked about in the first discipleship class: You need to display the grace of God through your actions and words.


Roh

Hello hello. Im at the library studying but i thought i would take a break and write my devo.

I love how Peter and John just stand there strong willed and confident in Jesus. And when they are questioned they boldly respond with just Jesus.
I like this verse " 'the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone"
It really embodies what Jesus was (and still is) to this world.

Also Roh makes a good point. 5000 is HUGE back then. Also at the end of the chapter it says "....but they shared everything they had" We as a praise team should be like this. We are so blessed to have everything that we own. And many of us have plenty of something. So when we see one another that is in need, we should share what we can.

Have a good wed-nes-day! See you Friday.
p.s Steven you didnt do your devo! I dont have your number, so i couldnt call you. But catch up! This is a new book so dont lag on like in the other books.
E-Sek OUT!

Acts 4

13When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

That was awesome...how the Sadducees try so hard to accuse Peter and John of doing something wrong, and they couldn't find any legitimate faults in what they did. They miraculously healed the man, the people had already witnessed it and praising God, and they weren't saying any more or less about Jesus then what they simply had seen and heard...Slap to the Sadducees. They got schooled. Hahaha, kidding.

Anyways, I like verse 13 about how it says that they saw that they were just unschooled, ordinary men, but they exuded a courage like no other. And by what power but the Holy Spirit did they do what they did? And I remember how God has made the Holy Spirit something that every believer can access should they have faith in it and accept it into their hearts..so it makes me wonder just how capable we can be in changing this world, if we just plead on the Holy Spirit to fill us..It's clear that all through history God's used the weakest and most "ordinary" of citizens to carry out some of His greatest works, so in and each and every one of us, He's planted that potential, I think.

Blah I don't know...These days, the idea of the Holy Spirit is constantly pressing upon my heart or running through my mind when we do these devos...The idea of its immeasurable potency versus its almost-paradoxical easy accessibility to any believer who has faith and calls on it. Verse 8 of this verse, before Peter makes his courageous speech in front of the Sadducees, it says he was filled with the Holy Spirit. As Jesus wasn't physically present, when they told the crippled man in front of the gate to get up and walk, it was through the Holy Spirit that it happened. So, I guess God's really challenging me to rely a lot more on the Holy Spirit. To recognize what an awesome privilege it is to have it there to work in every aspect of my life, should I so ask for it..That's a pretty amazing gift. So my personal challenge over the next little while will be to develop a kind of dependence on the Holy Spirit in all that I do..

I need to buy flats.

- H

flats for Semi? aha
I have a math unit test and i'm going to pull an all nighter. aha i went up 6% in Math.

Hannah, Isaac and Roh said it all for me on this one. Courage isn't courage unless you have God. But one thing i would like to point out for all of us is that it says in verse 12 "salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven gievn to men by which we must be saved." IF you honeslty think about it, we're pretty damn lucky. To know Jesus CHrist and have the priviledge to accept him, thats' a honour and a reward that is everlasting. "I am the way the truth and the life" Jesus says...
He says he is THE way and not A way, so it's pretty sad to hear about people who don't accept Jesus, but thats where we come in. Everything we do should be done to glorify God, to make his kingdom known. So lets pucker up some courage and just tell People about him. Street missions was a good way to start, we should go on street missions with our praise team taht would be sick, and play, get money and give it to the homeless ahahaha

Steven do you devos.
Roh-Check
Hannah- Check
ima be momma pissed if you dont do your devos! AND i have late start tomorrow so i got all morning to call you !!

THis verse really reminded me to be humble -
When they were questioned "By what power or what name did you do this?", Peter automatically responded that it was Jesus. Now this seems kidna obvious that he would say that.. But when you think about it it's not as easy aas it seems.
Sometimes we do good things - maybe its not as good as healing the crippled, but things like - I brought my friend to church or I did well on the math test.
But it's really easy to pretend that it was becuase of how awesome WE are that these good things happened - we often forget to give the glory to God, but give the glory to ourselves instead.. But Peter, who was filled with the HOly Spirit, recognized that it was all Jesus - we are instruments of his good will, but it is through the power of God and only him that miracles or good deeds happen
V 32: "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had"
This verse is just very lifting - it really reminds me of the one body of Christ that Christians should be - These people really understood this and lived it out, and thus they had no sense of selfish desires: instead, they wanted to share everything becuase what's mine is yours - the suffering of somoene esle became the suffering of themselves, and so they wre compelled to share.
If we try to share and give without having our h eart in this state, it becomes really hard. But we require a heart that recognizes that we are one first - lets remember this for Christmas time


PS, i studied for my math test for like 9hrs straight last night
AND I STILL BOMBEDDDD IT. BOMBED IT BAD
ohh well. fingers crossed for the next test?

Have a great wednesday!
OH YEAH, AND I HAVE A PA DAY ON FRIDAY, FINALLY! TAKE THAT, TORONTO SCHOOLS!

hmm thats a good point cathy, we should recognize that in the end, its Gods will that we wake up in the morning.

I actually pushed my math average up 20% with the test i got back today soo happy!! Shanks Rohan for helping me study all last week!!!

From this Chapter I learned about standing up for myself.
Also I learned about the power of eloquence, which I definitely do not have lol
The guards were surprised that though Peter and John were uneducated, they could still speak so boldly, so I realized through this that being smart is for some reason restricted to academics when it should really be about how one is able to represent himself through language.
Let's take Isaac for example here, our Isaac, I keep hearing him talk about getting bad grades, but when I talk to him I'm thinking to myself, "How the heck is this guy getting the grades he is getting," then I realize he's one of the biggest slackers I know, and that is why.
So basically what I'm saying I learned is that people may look down on you because of the degree of "education" that you have or hte grades you're getting, but seriously they're just numbers and papers that show you how much time you dedicated to learning the textbook material.
Yep, Im gonna try to do my devo in the morning, but i'm pretty slow in the morning so iunno i'll try tho

SLACKKKERR? yea.. i am

ACTS 4

v.20 "For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

I really like this book because it encourages us to stop thinking about what other people think. John and Peter were approached by the high people of their society, and yet they didn't want to give up God because they were so eager to tell everyone about all of their experiences with Jesus. This verse just shows that, once John and Peter recogznied the mercy and love from Jesus, they couldn't help but spread the Word.

I don't know if it's because times have changed, but I think that a lot of Christians are hesitant to spread the gospel, myself included. I mean, it's a very difficult thing to do for us, who are very afraid of what other people think and the negative responses we might get. It will take time, but I do think that it's possible for us to take baby steps in evangelizing if we continue to read the Word and become more confident in answering questions because, for me, I'm scared that I wouldn't be able to answer someone's question in regards to the Bible.

-D