October 23; Acts 20-22; Coming a long way! Hello great people. So sorry for posting late! Welcome back from the epistles to the corinthians and the Romans. I love the book of Acts. Someone described it as a book that makes Christians uncomfortbale because it shows us what we are supposed to be....which usually, we are not! Hmmm. Revision. What lessons did we learn in Rome? 1. Romans 4: Despite sight we can have faith like Abraham did. He looked at his body, appreciated the graveness of the situation and consciously went for the Word of God! 2. Romans 7. if we are tempted to sin, we are not the first! And Gods grace will help us out. 3. Romans 8. The onus to starve the flesh is on you, its on me! 4. Romans 12. Offer your bodies to God as a living sacrifice. 5. i cant forget Bro Apelles (Romans 16:10a), the tested and trusted Christian! Hmmm. Today, we proceed to Acts 20-22. Quite a long and loaded passage. Obviously, I will not be able to draw out all the lessons...counting on you! 1. Brother Eutychus! He slept and fell out of the window. A brother asked, How come he did not fall in? It is bad enough to sleep off, worse still to fall. But why did he fall outside?? The best explanation was that he was probably looking and leaning outward! I know some brothers who recently stepped back from church. They are questioning their own faith. I pray for them and even wrote to one. my wonder is that this guy still led us to set up equipment on Sunday. Then he travelled and that was all! Had they been eyeing some things outside? Had they been leaning outward unnoticed? Were we unreceptive and judgemental such that they could not safely fall-in into our hands??? If you think you are tired spiritually, lean in; so that if you fall, you will fall-in and some people will support you from crashing to the ground. Thank God Eutychus rose again--there is hope for a tree that even if it is cut down, when the water of the Holy Spirit blows on it, it will be revived (Job 14)! 2.Acts 20:20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. let,s break that verse into pieces, 7 pieces. 1. You know. For me, for you, do people know? Is it obvious on which side of the cross we stand? Or we are chameleons that blend in and blend out as occassion demands? 2. that I have not hesitated Are we willing? Are we proud of the cross? Rimans 1:16...i am not ashamed of the gospel. Joel Osteen boasts of his mums deliverance from terminal cancer in 1981. Is there just one thing we can remember that can ginger our pride in our Saviour? Do we glow because of our Eternal hope? Can we raise our heads because of our connection? 3. to preach Do we ever open our mouths and mails to speak for Jesus? 4. anything that would be helpful to you I imagine Paul telling them to be saved, to save money, to invest, to help the poor, to contest elections, to be diligent at work, ...he was with them for 3 years! 5. but have taught you He did not preach and go, he followed up...he evaluated his own communication...he looked out for results! 6. publicly He got a platform... 7. and from house to house. But he did not depend on the platform alone. He knocked on doors! Quite a long mail already and its all just been Acts 20! May the Holy Spirit quicken the word to us! More lessons please! Lanre ------------ Thanks bro Lanre for what u just shared, especially the breakdown of those verses. God bless U. Will like to also talk about Acts 20:10b; ..Do not be Alarmed, for his life is in Him I can imagine the look on peoples faces there when Paul uttered those words. Eutychus(between 8-14 yrs old) just fell down from a 3 storey building. And obviously, people must have got to where Eutychus landed before Paul got there and must have done every necessary test on him to confirm him dead. Bro Paul must be out of his mind!. Jesus was known for uttering similar words e.g in Luke 8:52b, John 11:11 among others. And we all know what happened afterwards in the above stories where Jesus rose Jairus daughter and Lazarus from the dead. After Paul uttered those words in Acts 20:10 too, Eutychus also was later raised from the dead. But why do/did they utter those words in situations like that? It is because they know the power of words. Both Positive and negative words have the power to show forth their strength and characteristics. Our Lord Jesus, Paul and many other men that did exploits in the bible chose to always use the positive words. Let us also learn and try to always use positive words(from the heart, not just for saying sake). No matter how dead a situation you are in might be, no matter the doctors report, no matter what people that saw the situation before you might say, no matter how impossible or critical it might be..Speak life into the situation, and just like Eutychus, it will live again. To be honest, Its not always easy to do this; seeing a negative fact and deciding to ignore it. Negative facts like: without knowing the top men, you will Never get a good Job, you are not beautiful enough, you cant get a good Husband or vice versa, the disease is too deadly, you cant live above this number of yrs, you are not brilliant enough, you cant have good grades no matter how much you read etc. Joel Osteens mum applied this same principle when she was diagnosed with Cancer..She didnt settle for what the doctor or Experts said, she spoke Life into the matter, and Shes free today. Henceforth, lets all speak life(speak positively) into whichever situation we are facing, and we will Overcome in Jesus name. Segun! --------------------------- Great insights. Thank you sirs! Act 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. The red letter is not specifically written in the Gospels.I wonder where Paul got the red letter of Jesus(the saying of the Lord). Obviously flesh and blood did not reveal this to him. is this an addition to the gospel? It is not too far fetch anyway.Paul was a great writer.The epistles he wrote are testify to this. May the Lord help us as we choose the option of giving more(amen) Gbola
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 19:51:19 +0000