It's Genise's.

"And now, Lord, pay attention to their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your message with great courage, while you extend your hand to heal, and to bring about miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously. (Acts 4:29-31, emphasis mine)

Lord, pay attention to their threats...

We do not deny that there are persons in the world who want us to ignore God's agenda, and who have threatened us with harm. However, our response is not to condemn them; our response is to ask God to take note of what His detractors have said and done.

...grant to Your servants to speak Your message with great courage...

God's message is not a message to be whispered apologetically nor timidly. Our great God, who does all things well, has tasked us to share His message confidently. This is not a confidence in our own ability to deliver His message; rather, it is our confidence in the truth of His message.

...while You extend Your hand to heal...

In the book of Acts in particular, we find a connection between the word of God and the power of God to heal. The disciples asked God not only for the boldness to speak, but for His healing to be experienced by those who heard the testimony of the apostles.

... and to bring about miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.

As we see in Acts, the disciples did notable miracles in the name of Jesus. However, we also note that persons who invoked the name of Jesus without knowing Him were overcome by demonic powers (see Acts 19-11-16). It is imperative that we who claim to be Christian not only know the name of Jesus, but that we know Jesus (and that He knows us).

Acts 4:31 is such an encouragement to we who pray! "And when they had prayed...". Some things happened when the disciples prayed. Amen. Earnest, authentic prayer is never an empty exercise. The prayers ascend to God, and God responds. Like Acts 4:31, the response may be instant. Or alternately, as Daniel 10:12-13 indicates, the response may delayed by a conflict between spiritual forces. But, either way, God answers. Let us be renewed in the light of that truth.

Have you prayed today?

Ordinary Me. Extraordinary God.

In Sunday's sermon, Pastor Sam noted that unusual and unexpected abilities are found in the person who is being made competent by the Holy Spirit.

In the account of the healing of the man who had been lame from birth, the narrative records the response of the religious leaders to Peter and John's defense: When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13, emphasis mine)

Our God is not restricted by our frailties. He is able to use us to do amazing things-- things that are not contingent upon our education nor our training. And, in using us to do things that we know we cannot do in our own strength, God ensures that only He gets the credit.

How does God bring this about? By the power of His Spirit in us.

Lord God, I submit myself to Your Spirit. Take my ordinary life, and do extraordinary things, for the glory of Your name. Amen.

Perhaps It's Not Too Late, Baby...

"For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old." (Acts 4:22)

In Sunday's sermon Pastor Sam noted that the experience of redemption is life-giving: the consequence of the disciples' ministry work was edifying to people and glorifying to God. Our pastor used a passage from Acts as an illustration: a man who had been lame from birth, and had spent over forty years as a beggar, experienced a healing that caused people in the community to give glory to God. (See Acts 3:1-4:22) The Holy Spirit, working through Peter and John, brought deliverance.

I wonder if any of us are dealing with a challenge we have encountered, every day, for over forty years. I wonder if any of us are dealing with an issue that has, literally or figuratively, crippled us from birth. I wonder if any of us have spent a few decades as spectators, glancing at people who are sick in body or mind or spirit, passing them by on our way to worship, and having nothing to offer apart from sympathy... or words of dismay... or pronouncements of hopelessness.

What does it mean when a Christian has given up on God's power to change lives? What if Peter and John had assumed that because the lame man had been lame for forty years, it was therefore 'too late' for God's Spirit to intervene in his life? We are blessed to have the Acts 4 narrative as a proof and a reminder of what the Holy Spirit is able to do, and as a proof and reminder of the consequences of divine action, and as an encouragement to believe God is not bound by time, and as an impetus to move us to hear and obey the Holy Spirit's direction in regard to prayers for healing and deliverance.

Pastor Sam, from time to time, has shared a few words that I've paraphrased (below) for us to reflect on today. We can consider it a creed of sorts. We can memorize it, or not, but perhaps the better thing is to pray that it be our lived reality.

The Holy Spirit has come and has made Himself available to us.
The Holy Spirit is present to accomplish God's desire in us.
The Holy Spirit is able to manifest His works through us.

My prayer for us today is that we, like Peter and John, will experience the fullness of God's Spirit, and that His presence and power will overflow as a healing agent to those around us.

Lord God, cause me to see life through the eyes of Your Spirit. Give me the grace to engage prayers for healing and deliverance. Cause me to be prompted not by what I see, but by what You say. Holy Spirit, fill me again, so that You can use me as a worker in Your kingdom. Amen.

Same Threat, Different Day.

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and discovered that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus. And because they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say against this. But when they had ordered them to go outside the council, they began to confer with one another, saying, “What should we do with these men? For it is plain to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable miraculous sign has come about through them, and we cannot deny it. But to keep this matter from spreading any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” And they called them in and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Whether it is right before God to obey you rather than God, you decide, for it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:13-20, NET)

In this past Sunday’s sermon Pastor Andy noted that the response of Peter and John was critically important in the development of the early church. By refusing to keep silent regarding the way in which a miraculous healing occurred, Peter and John demonstrated the importance of faithfulness to God. They set a standard: Obey God rather than men.

As we go through our day today, let us consider this question: What does it mean to obey God? For Peter and John, obedience was demonstrated in their assertion: We will not stop speaking about the great things God has done in and through Jesus Christ.

Pastor Andy shared an important point with us that bears repeating. There are sometimes instances in which Christians, because of their relationship with God, assume that all of their personal/material desires are sanctioned by God (and that such desires make it "okay" to defy persons in leadership who they perceive as being hindrances to the desires being met) —but this is not what we find in the narrative. What we find in the narrative is an instance where God has permitted two men to participate in the miraculous, a rebuke in which religious leaders urged the men not to credit Jesus as the source of the miraculous, and a response in which the men described their testimony of Christ as an act of obedience to God. It is not a context of "name and claim"; it is a context of "proclaim the Name".

Perhaps this is our biggest challenge in modern Christendom. The temptation is to stay quiet, keep our faith "under wraps", or otherwise deny the works of God that have had a profound impact on our lives and/or the lives of others, while at the same time using the name of the Lord as a cosmic vending machine. Why? Because we don't like to suffer. Peter and John, when asked to shut up, chose to speak up. They suffered.

If you were in Peter and John's situation, what would you have done?

There is a perpetual lion’s den

Where Christians face the threats of men

And pressures to recant abound;

But in the face of threats, the faithful trust

The Lord who died for them, for us,

And through all Time our praise resounds.

We will not change our testimony:

“Jesus worked the miracle you see.”

(G.A.R.)

Reading Day.

During yesterday's sermon, Pastor Andy requested that we take time to read Acts 4:1-22 on our own. If you have not already done so, please take time to read the passage today.

Acts 4:1-22 (NET)

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, angry because they were teaching the people and announcing in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. So they seized them and put them in jail until the next day (for it was already evening). But many of those who had listened to the message believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

On the next day, their rulers, elders, and experts in the law came together in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others who were members of the high priest’s family. After making Peter and John stand in their midst, they began to inquire, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today for a good deed done to a sick man – by what means this man was healed – let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you healthy. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.”

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and discovered that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus. And because they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say against this. But when they had ordered them to go outside the council, they began to confer with one another, saying, “What should we do with these men? For it is plain to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable miraculous sign has come about through them, and we cannot deny it. But to keep this matter from spreading any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” And they called them in and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Whether it is right before God to obey you rather than God, you decide, for it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” After threatening them further, they released them, for they could not find how to punish them on account of the people, because they were all praising God for what had happened. For the man, on whom this miraculous sign of healing had been performed, was over forty years old.