ACTS 12! (why is there a stupid rule saying that the title has to be a certain length? UGH)

We witness another miracle here! God knew that Peter was in trouble, so he came to Peter's rescue with his angels and brought him out. I like how it mentioned that "the church was earnestly praying to God for him." It wasn't Peter's personal power, or even the angels alone that got him out of prison. Rather, we see the power of prayer. I think that the author of this book really put that phrase in there with a great purpose. He wanted everyone to see that the church prayed for Peter, and as a result, he was rescued.

As as praise team, let's really believe in the power of prayer and exercise it! Like I mentioned numerously, I know all of you are excited about the retreat and want it to go really well for everyone. Just remember that we can't do it without God. Well, let me rephrase that. We CAN do it without God, but that would be simply MUSIC. It won't be worship. Worship has GOD in it and we want everyone to be touched by God in those worship sessions. Let's do our best!

Just spend 5 minutes every day praying for the retreat, for those that are going (and particularly for any people that you know are going), for the praise team, etc. etc. Once you begin to pray, you'll realize how many things there are that need to be prayed for.

I hope you're all getting ready for this Friday! Practise practise practiseeeee


Roh

Acts 12.

v.14 When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!"

v.17 "Tell James and the brothers about this."

In this chapter, I saw that Peter and the girl immediately told other people about the miracle that Peter was led by an angel out of the prison. In all of the characters in this chapter, I realized that they were amazed and filled with joy when they witnessed God's work in Peter. When we see that God works in people in miraculous ways, we should be like Peter and the girl so that other people can become witnesses as well.

Even though faith keeps us in our relationship with God, I think that experiencing God's miracles in our lives pushes us to grow in our relationship with God because we like to have proof. When I tell other people about God, I don't want them to know only about the things He did in the Bible, but also how He works through us currently. That way, they'll be able to see that God isn't some ancient being, but someone who looks over us to this day.

When Peter got sent to jail. People prayed for him, I saw that people pray more when they or others are in trouble.
I think that praying everyday is the best thing to do because if you find yourself in a good position and you dont pray
something bad will happen. It can hit you really hard, you should aways pray when you are in the best situation, always comment sense
to pray when you are going through a hard time.

When the Angel came and helped Peter get out of jail. Peter didnt believe it at first he thought it was a dream. Peter should
of felt really lucky to get saved..

Undercover GT

-Steven Hong

this friday will be sick.
we had another dance session at school today. friggin sick.
anyway for yesterdays devo, i just want to remind us that just like how we spurr others to worship, we should do the same when it comes to serving. The littlest thing makes the biggest difference. Its not the actions that chnge anything, but its the attitude.

ANyway for this chapter.
i agree with what all you gusy said. it was a miracle, that Peter got out. and i would like ot bring this up, everyone wanted to get Peter out right? so why didn't they take action and forcefully get him out?
Instead, they just prayed. I bet for everyone of us, prayer is our LAST option when we're struggling, why not let it be our first? if GOD was GOD, shouldn't we simply ask him first? ie he can do all things? The only reason why we don't go to him first is because we don't believe. We're too caught up and we don't think that God can help us, because first we can't see him, feel him, smell him, so why should we go to him first? But i rememebr what Denise said in her previous devo. " Let's rely on our faith, not facts." ANd it sounds really wierd right, but lets give it a shot. We always happen to let our emotions come over facts, so why can't we pout our faith before facts aswell.?
ALso, what is considered a miracle? I remmebr watching Bruce Almighty and GOd told Bruse "To BE the miracle." A miracle isn't when somethign unbelievable happens, we only think of that as a miracle because oof what this wolrld defines a miracle. When a baby is born tahst a miracle, when someone is protecting someone else from bullies, tahst a miracle. So let US bcome miracles for others so that God's kingdom can be brought forth.

Thats it ahaha
Ciao

Wow great point Jacob. Prayer always seems to be man's last option but it should be our first. Like you said, if God was God then why not go to him first? we say that we believe in his powers and mercy yet we might not believe it 100%.
and about the praying thing. I think its a great idea that we spend 5 min everyday praying. Trust, it will make it so much better. You wont realize prayer is important until its to late (ie; a bad performance). So lets not take that risk and put it up to God and pray for this retreat.
Ill remind everyone everyday, or as much as possible, to keep praying for this retreat.

Field trip tomorrow! So excited. Im going to sit like a Hindu and meditate.

E-Sek OUT!

Acts 12

I feel like everything I felt has already been mentioned today, haha. So I'll make a quick re-iteration, I guess!

The passage is exemplary of the power of prayer! Both Steven and Mountain mentioned how typically prayer is the last thing we turn to, when it should always be our first resort. I've done it so often, as well, and thinking about it, it's pretty silly how oftentimes we'd much rather wallow in our stress and turn to the rest of the world, than make a simple prayer. It's like we're arguing that the world is more capable of solving our problems than the God who created it! I don't know why we do it, maybe it's partially that thing where we don't feel like our God needs to hear about every "little" or "big" problem of ours, but God wants to be there for EVERY part of our lives, He wants to be there for us. Another reason could be a lack of faith in prayer. But this passage shows us what a powerful thing it is. And I'm pretty sure many of us could testify to things we've experienced and witnessed through the exercising of prayer.

So as our retreat is coming up, let's do what little we can and pray, pray, pray!
Likewise for every practise and Sunday that we have!
Because with prayer, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

happy thursdays,
H

Good evening, ladies and gents
So Peter was thrown into jail, becuase things like that just appeared to please the Jews. pffft, ridiculous.
Now he was bound in two chains and was guarded by two sentries. But then the angel came, freed him of his chains and simply walked him out, with no interference from any sort of security.
With the retreat coming up, this reminded me of our theme, "Breaking Free". The world puts so many chains and guaards around us, when it tells us what we should want, how we should live our lives, etc. We don't notice how much of a burden it is sometimes, becuase a lot of people consider religions such as Christianity to be the ones that limit freedom. They say things like 'there are all of these rules that you have to follow in Chrsitianity; how is that freedom?' But I remember Sam preaching that by living by the world's standards, we're settling for less. Even if we think that we're free becuase we're doing whatever we want, we are actually enslaved by sin; the desires and the values that the world teach us. But when we seek Jesus, we break free from those challenges - We realize that it's not important to have to look like Jessica Alba or to have Bill Gates' bank account, but we live a life that is truly fulfilling - thats so much more than what we settle for in this world.
Wow that was kind of a rant and sorta led astray from the chapter, but thats what I got from it
so Break free
im like a bird
ohh i wanna fly away
i dont know where im going.. going
i dont know where im.. i forget the rest of the words

k so i was doing this chapter with my gf.. and i got her to tell me what she learned haha
she said that she learned: no matter what happens, there's nothing to keep you from spreading the Word of God
If you look at all the things that are happening to various people here: Stephen, Peter, etc. this is quite true
They get persecuted to pretty bad extent (Stephen got stoned to death haha... OD on weed lol jks) and Peter got arrested
ya... k...

what i learned from this chapter is that when things happen that seem too good to be true, then it is definitely God who is making that happen. We should always thank God and not question whether this good thing that happened is actually real and pinch ourselves or think that karma will bite us in the ass because this was too good.
on to next devo~