Yet he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power. Verse 8
We must realize that this is why God does anything at all for us. Yes, he loves us. But his primary objective is the glorification of his own name.
From the October 1st entry:
As we preach the Gospel to our friends and neighbors we must always stress grace, otherwise we can convert people to a Christianized form of moralism that implies it is possible for us to get right with God through our own works. The Gospel does demand a change of life, but this change of life is empowered by grace and occurs subsequent to conversion. If we are not stressing the priority of grace, we are no better than the first-century Pharisees.
It's review day again, so I'll look back over the past seven entries and see if I have let God teach me anything.
DAY 246--FEARLESS CONFIDENCE--Acts 4:24-31
How do we achieve "fearless confidence?" First we pray for boldness. Then we gain knowledge of God's might acts, through studying the Scriptures and other writings of his saints, as well as through experiencing them ourselves. Then we get filled with the Holy Spirit.
We should live in the reality of the Trinity. We have all three persons of the Trinity readily at hand. This is a source of unbelievable power, also resulting in "fearless confidence."
DAY 247--JESUS THE MASTER--Acts 7:51-8:1
Stephen called Jesus "the Master" right before he was stoned to death. He lived and died as though Jesus truly were his Master. This makes me want to live a more consistent life for Christ, truly making him my Master.
DAY 248--THE MIRACULOUS RELEASE--Acts 12:7-15
When we pray for something, as Peter's friends were praying for his release from prison, we should believe that God will do it. That way, when our "Peter" comes knocking at the front door, we won't leave him standing outside while we debate whether or not we've gone insane.
DAY 249--LIVE AS YOU WERE MEANT TO LIVE--Acts 16:25-34
Paul and Silas sang hymns (loudly) while they were imprisoned. Then they didn't run away when the doors were opened by God's earthquake. The result of all this was the salvation of a jailer and his family.
I desire to have this kind of discipline and joy in all types of adverse situations.
The Law of Love
I got so much inspiration out of my Tabletalk article this day that I didn't go into the Message study. The high point was the quote from Augustine. "...the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for His own sake, and the enjoyment of one's self and of one's neighbor for the sake of God." To love God is to enjoy Him above everything and everyone else and out of that joy to live in glad obedience to His will.
This is true love.
*I just suddenly got the image of the bishop in "The Princess Bride" making his "mawwiage" speech! So much for spirituality. Hahahah*
DAY250--NOT A GAME--Acts 19:11-17
(You can tell I was sick...I was making spelling errors right and left.)
The Seven Sons of Sceva get attacked by a demonic spirit, get their clothes ripped off and chased away naked.
This is not a game. Christianity is serious business. People who are "Christians" for the social benefit will eventually get a big surprise. So will people who are "Christians" for economic gain, such as these itinerate exorcists, and such as Robert Tilton and Jim Bakker. And those of us who mess around with sin in our lives need to get serious, as well. It's not a game.
DAY 251--FAITH JOURNEY--Acts 22:1-10
Paul gives a brief "testimony" here. This becomes a springboard for the author to encourage us to all have a story of our "faith journey" ready to give to anyone who asks. And this is a good idea. All of us have some kind of "faith journey." No matter how long or short a time we've been believers in Jesus. There are three parts to it. 1. What came before. 2. How we met Christ. 3. What he's doing now.
See? Simple.
Well, that's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow morning.
Grace and peace, friends.