Leviticus 5
Acts 9
Food for Life:
Leviticus 5
Sin offering - Sometimes we think that being silent about something does not implicate us, or is not lying if we don't speak up. "If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible" (5:1). Often folks will just "mind their own business" or not want to get otherwise involved. And yet we are already involved if we see, hear, or are otherwise aware. I pray that we take responsibility and prayerfully respond to situations in which we can be used as a force for good, allowing the Lord to 'have our back' as we step out in good faith to impart honesty and integrity into a situation which is harming others and offending God. "Lord guide and direct us as we walk through this world and yet not being part of it...the world, the flesh, and the devil - all around us Your enemies swirl, help us to not join the swirl but to stand firm in You Lord and in the strength of Your might. Thank You Lord." (Ephesians 6)
Acts 9
"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples....so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem" (9:1,2). This was right after Saul was cheering for the stoning of Stephen. He continued on his mission to persecute those who were following Jesus. And then he was ' thrown off his horse and blinded by the light'....Jesus intended for Saul to be His "chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for My name" (9:15,16). The very man who was bent on the murdering of Christians was chosen by God to reveal Jesus to non-Jews and Jews alike! To promote and speak for the very One He was adamantly against! AND Jesus was going to show him in the process how much he would SUFFER for Christ's sake!
Did you "sign up" to suffer when you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved? Do we hear a lot of teaching and preaching about how we must suffer for Christ's sake? No, we don't. And when we suffer, do we often wonder why? We are saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, seeking to be obedient...and we are suffering?? Somehow we think that we are to be excluded from the suffering of the world and from be persecuted for standing up in Jesus. And yet, it is hard to miss the reality of suffering as a believer when we read Scripture....Most of us in America really don't know what it is like to 'suffer for Christ's sake.' Many around the world do know this suffering.
Yes, we suffer some of the things of this world brought about by sin. Sometimes our own sin (which is not suffering for Christ's sake....) but mostly for the sinful world we live in, brought about by the fall (Genesis 3). This isn't heaven. And we do live IN the world while prayerfully not living OF the world - not partaking in the things of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
BUT, Saul was going to suffer, according to the will of God, for Christ's sake. As we read the book of Acts, we will read of just some of the suffering Paul experienced as he went about the mission for which Jesus saved him. I trust each of us will have a new understanding to what it means to suffer for Christ's sake. And we perhaps will see how our own 'momentary and light afflictions are not worth being compared to the glory we will experience when we see Him face to face"(2 Corinthians 4:17,18) ...
"...Jesus...has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit"(9:17) Ananias was given the mission of laying hands on Saul, causing the scales to be removed so that Saul could see and be filled with the Holy Spirit...he now was Paul! A new creature in Christ, the old being gone and the new having come! It is only as one filled with the Holy Spirit that Paul could possibly endure the sufferings for Christ's sake to which he was now going to embark.
It is the same for you and I. We must have the scales removed from our eyes, being brought out of the power of darkness into the power of His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). We must be filled with the Holy Spirit, and be continually filled.
Are you filled today?
Acts 9
Food for Life:
Leviticus 5
Sin offering - Sometimes we think that being silent about something does not implicate us, or is not lying if we don't speak up. "If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible" (5:1). Often folks will just "mind their own business" or not want to get otherwise involved. And yet we are already involved if we see, hear, or are otherwise aware. I pray that we take responsibility and prayerfully respond to situations in which we can be used as a force for good, allowing the Lord to 'have our back' as we step out in good faith to impart honesty and integrity into a situation which is harming others and offending God. "Lord guide and direct us as we walk through this world and yet not being part of it...the world, the flesh, and the devil - all around us Your enemies swirl, help us to not join the swirl but to stand firm in You Lord and in the strength of Your might. Thank You Lord." (Ephesians 6)
Acts 9
"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples....so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem" (9:1,2). This was right after Saul was cheering for the stoning of Stephen. He continued on his mission to persecute those who were following Jesus. And then he was ' thrown off his horse and blinded by the light'....Jesus intended for Saul to be His "chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for My name" (9:15,16). The very man who was bent on the murdering of Christians was chosen by God to reveal Jesus to non-Jews and Jews alike! To promote and speak for the very One He was adamantly against! AND Jesus was going to show him in the process how much he would SUFFER for Christ's sake!
Did you "sign up" to suffer when you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved? Do we hear a lot of teaching and preaching about how we must suffer for Christ's sake? No, we don't. And when we suffer, do we often wonder why? We are saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, seeking to be obedient...and we are suffering?? Somehow we think that we are to be excluded from the suffering of the world and from be persecuted for standing up in Jesus. And yet, it is hard to miss the reality of suffering as a believer when we read Scripture....Most of us in America really don't know what it is like to 'suffer for Christ's sake.' Many around the world do know this suffering.
Yes, we suffer some of the things of this world brought about by sin. Sometimes our own sin (which is not suffering for Christ's sake....) but mostly for the sinful world we live in, brought about by the fall (Genesis 3). This isn't heaven. And we do live IN the world while prayerfully not living OF the world - not partaking in the things of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
BUT, Saul was going to suffer, according to the will of God, for Christ's sake. As we read the book of Acts, we will read of just some of the suffering Paul experienced as he went about the mission for which Jesus saved him. I trust each of us will have a new understanding to what it means to suffer for Christ's sake. And we perhaps will see how our own 'momentary and light afflictions are not worth being compared to the glory we will experience when we see Him face to face"(2 Corinthians 4:17,18) ...
"...Jesus...has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit"(9:17) Ananias was given the mission of laying hands on Saul, causing the scales to be removed so that Saul could see and be filled with the Holy Spirit...he now was Paul! A new creature in Christ, the old being gone and the new having come! It is only as one filled with the Holy Spirit that Paul could possibly endure the sufferings for Christ's sake to which he was now going to embark.
It is the same for you and I. We must have the scales removed from our eyes, being brought out of the power of darkness into the power of His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). We must be filled with the Holy Spirit, and be continually filled.
Are you filled today?
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