Our God Is Worthy: Will I Speak Of It? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Acts 4:27-30,

“Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

After being threatened by the chief priests and elders of Israel, Peter and John went back to the disciples after their release. They reported all that had happened to them in being jailed and threatened for healing a cripple and teaching the people about Jesus at the temple.

The above few verses are the last part of the disciple’s prayer to God upon hearing the news from Peter and John. It is not difficult to hear the appreciation and gratitude in this prayer: the appreciation and gratitude of folks who have had their sins paid for and freely given acceptance with the Creator of “heaven and earth and the sea, and everything in them”, verse 24.

As I read this prayer, I ask myself this morning if I have the same sense of appreciation and gratitude for God as these believers did… After all, have I not also received from our wonderful God all these folks had received? The same God has done the same things for me as he did for these believers in the early church. I note in the context of threat, these believers wanted God to bring on even more opportunities for sharing their faith.

How much greater should my appreciation and gratitude for our wonderful God be expressed by my own eagerness to pursue opportunities to share my faith in the absence of the kind of threat they faced?

I am greatly moved by Peter and John's statement, "As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." Verse 20.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

Our Intolerant God - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Acts 4:12,

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Peter tells the religious leaders of the day that the man they had crucified, Jesus Christ, was in fact the only one through whom salvation could be found.

This tells me our God does not tolerate alternatives to his plans. I suspect if I were God I would be as intolerant as he is. Imagine the lack of political correctness! No Mohammed, no Joseph Smith, no Buddha, no Confucius, just a sweeping condemnation of any “path to God” that isn’t Jesus Christ himself!

Although John tells us that God is love, it would behoove the wise to not underestimate God’s lack of tolerance for the foolishness of any man who would attempt to supplant God’s Son with his own inventions.

Pretty sobering, isn’t it?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

Prophecies About Jesus Christ - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Acts 3:24-26,

“Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.' When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

As Peter preached to the crowd that gathered at Solomon’s Colonnade when the Lord healed a crippled beggar through him, Peter pointed out to them that “all the prophets from Samuel on… have foretold these days.” Then he quoted Genesis 22:18, where just after Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac the angel of the Lord tells Abraham that through his offspring “all the nations on earth will be blessed”, a reference to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

As we study the Scriptures we find numerous prophecies of Jesus Christ coming to planet earth. The circumstances of his birth, his purpose in ministry, his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, are all foretold in many places. The Psalms, Isaiah and the other prophets, Moses’ writings all contain prophecies of the coming Messiah.

It must be that the Lord saw a need for people like me, who are slow on the uptake, who would need his intentions repeated numerous times, to have an assurance that all of this was planned well ahead of time.

Wouldn’t you agree what a wonderful thing this is?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

God Can Use Any Of Us! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Acts 3:12,16,

“Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? … It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”

When the Lord healed a crippled beggar through Peter and John a crowd gathered. In addressing the surprise of the people Peter corrects an assumption the crowd was apparently taken by: the healing did not take place because of Peter and John’s own power or godliness.

In some circles of the church there is the feeling that it is only when we arrive at a certain “godliness” or a certain maturity that God can begin to work through us. Indeed, there are those today who engage in what I would consider to be questionable practices and wear these on their sleeves as an authentication that they have arrived at a level of “godliness”. Their way is the way to go because, after all, God is placing his stamp of approval on their ministry because of what they are capable of doing - what others are not or can not.

But that is not what I see in this episode. Here we have two apostles, who, between them, authored seven of our twenty seven New Testament books. They lived, ate, served and were taught by the Lord himself during his earthly ministry. Now empowered by the promised Holy Spirit as two of twelve apostles, if anyone had claim to godliness or power it would be these men. But in this account they clearly state that the miraculous healing the Lord provided through them had nothing to do whatsoever with “godliness” or power they might have had.

I suspect many of us today have forgotten Paul’s words, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” 1 Corinthians 1:27-29.

I can say that the Lord has touched my life in very important ways at times through folks who have only been saved for just a few months, or others who have never been considered to be the “spiritual elite” of the congregation. All of us, no matter our tenure in the church, our position in the church, or our perceived status, are capable and probably used more in the lives of others around us, than we will ever know. This is just the way our wonderful Lord works!

God can and will use any one of us - no matter where we are in life! Even when the most surprised person that we are used by him is ourselves!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.