Matthew 18:15-20

8-26-07

Matthew 18:10-14

8-19-07

Acts 9:19-27

Saul stayed with the believers* in Damascus for a few days. 20 And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”
21 All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”
22 Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. 23 After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him. 24 They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him, but Saul was told about their plot. 25 So during the night, some of the other believers* lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall.
26 When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a believer! 27 Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.

When a life is really changed it is easy to spot!  The behavior that follows is not the behavior we are accustom to seeing.  The attitudes and actions are often directly opposite of what was happening the day before.  Just look at what happened to Saul.  One minute he is on his way to harrass and arrest christians for being blasphemous to the God of Israel.  The next minute he is preaching that Christians are right about Jesus!  It was such a dramatic change and so powerful that the local Jews plotted to have him killed.  That’s real change!  But where did this change come from?  Did Saul just decide he was wrong and needed to take a different approach.  Did he work hard at trying to understand christians?  The answer of course is an emphatic no!  Real change came at the hand of God.  It was the result of God’s intervention into his life.  As I start this day I want God to work in areas of my life that may be outside of His will for me.  I want to be conformed into the image of His Son and I know it won’t happen by my own effort.  Lord, you changed Saul’s life…..change me and use me to impact the lives of others.  And may they see in me the truth of you!

Acts 9:10-19

10 Now there was a believer* in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord!” he replied.
11 The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. 12 I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.”
13 “But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! 14 And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”
15 But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. 16 And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
17 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.

Ananias knew who Saul was and what he was trying to do.  He had heard all the rumors and how Stephen had been killed for standing up for Jesus.  Now God was asking Ananias to go to Saul and lay hands on him so he could be healed from blindness.  This was not exactly what Ananias had in mind for his day.    It wasn’t exactly a comfortable thought or an easy consideration.  So he argued with God for a minute or two.  That’s about all we can usually handle when we are going to argue with God.  It made more sense to stay away from this man and pray at a distance.  Never the less, Ananias obeyed and set out to find Saul.   As a result of his obedience and trust God raised up Saul to be the catalyst for growing the Church in the Roman Empire.  That’s the way it is with our relationship with God.  He gets to ask us to trust Him and to be willing to enter into the uncomfortable.  It’s not always that easy to do and we surely will have all kinds of rational ideas about keeping our distance from uneasy situations.  But in the end all of us have been asked to Trust Him with whatever happens in our lives.  As we start this new week will you be willing to let go of your ideas about what’s best for you and let God lead you in the directions He has for you?  It may not be easy and there may be some interesting developments that you hadn’t planned on.  But like Ananias, if we bow in service to God we must enter into a relationship of Trust and be willing to let Him direct our footsteps.  Even if it means going and doing something that we would love to avoid at all costs.  It takes Trust!  Are you willing to start this week in that relationship of trust with Jesus?  Have a great first day to this new week of growth in Him!

Matthew 18:5-10

8-12-07

Acts 9:1-9

1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers.* So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! 6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! 8 Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. 9 He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.

We can’t see into the hearts of men, but God can.  Paul was one of those guys that would be easy to judge as a crazy man.  He was going around rounding up Christians for following Jesus and rejecting the Jewish religious system.  He was legalistic and intensly loyal to….the God of Israel.  All he knew was what he been taught and what he had been taught was wrong.  But God was not focused on Paul’s wrong.  He was focused on his heart.  He saw something that those early Christians could not see because of the persecution.  He saw a heart that desired to please God above all else.  Everything Paul was doing came from that intensly loyal heart.  That’s why God knocked him down, stopped him and brought him into the family of believers.  There is a lesson here for us!  God will not pass over a heart that truly seeks Him.   It doesn’t matter who has taught us what, if our hearts are seeking the Lord above all else, He will straighten the matter out for our sakes.  So don’t go writing off those friends or family that seem to be caught up in false hopes.  If their hearts are for God, they will find Him! 

Acts 8:32-40

32 The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
33  He was humiliated and received no justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”*
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
36 As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”* 38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.

It never ceases to amaze me how day in and day out people seem to find themselves in the right place at the right time.  At the very moment this Ethiopian was pondering the word of God in Isaiah that he does not understand, Philip shows up on the scene.  He makes sense of what He was reading and invites the man to be baptized as a follower of Jesus.  We might have the tendency to think Philip did a good thing here, but it wasn’t Philip at all.  He was yielded and obedient to the Lord, but it was God who led him to that place and Jesus who had prepared him for that day.  It was not about Philip being in the right place at the right time, it was about God orchestrating the moment for the Ethiopian so that he might respond to the Gospel and take it back to his country.  In Psalm 139 we are told that God is in every moment of our every days.  In Romans 8:28 we are told “all things work together for our good!”  Isn’t it great to know that there is no such thing as being in the right place at the right time!  God heard the prayer of the Ethiopian and sent Philip, and he heard the prayer of Philip that he would go anywhere and do anything in the name of Jesus and sent him to that desert road.  What should never cease to amaze us is the grace and mercy of God at work in each of us when we put our days, our moments, our willingness to do what He has for us is His hands and He uses it to touch lives.  I don’t know what God has in store for any of us this week.  But what I do know for certain is that He will lead if we choose to follow. 

Matthew 18:1-4

8-5-07

Acts 8:26-32

26 As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south* down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

Are you sensitive enough to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life to know when you are being spoken too?  Philip was that sensitive and knew he was being directed to a specific place where God had something for him to do.  What this story does for me is it makes me want that kind of closeness and intimacy with the Father so that I would know when it was God directing me through the Spirit or when it was my wishful or hopeful thinking.  I have to admit I am not as sure as Philip appeared to be.  It humbles me and puts me in a place where I want to surrender more and more to Him.  Don’t just pass over accounts like these without understanding God can use any of us when we truly are submitted to doing His will.  As we always say at Cedarwood, “Do you want to be who God has called you to be or do what God has called you to do?”  If the answer is yes, then we need to learn to listen and allow God to lead us in whatever way He would choose to do so!