Take Action, Day 18 Planning with God’s help. Read Acts chapter 18. As Paul continues his journeys, he visits numerous places and finds incredible opportunities to continue to share the message of God’s word. Not only does he help people learn about and understand Jesus Christ, but he also stays and teaches and trains them so they have a solid foundation in the scriptures and their new belief. We see Paul having an opportunity to make plans when he’s going to return to various places, and he indicates that he will come back if it’s the Lord’s will. We need to understand that same level of planning. I love to…

Take Action, Day 17 Prove it. Read Acts chapter 17. As Paul was making this missionary journey, he encountered so many different types of people. Some people refused to believe the message of Jesus and became angry. Some people were simply uninterested in anything religious. Other people were excited to hear the message. The people in the city of Berea were very interesting to me. They heard the message that Paul spoke and then they went back and they did their own study. They did their own research to understand and prove that what he was saying was true. Do we take the words of others for granted and accept…

Take Action, Day 16 Come and help. Read Acts chapter 16. Paul is trying to figure out where to continue on his mission trip. Several of the places they were trying to travel to have been closed to them. Now God sends a vision that tells them to go over to Macedonia. They see that as the focus that they have needed so that they can continue to follow through on what God has been sharing for them to do. It can be easy sometimes to get a little lost in the action we’re supposed to be taking. It’s hard to understand our purpose and to always be walking exactly…

Take Action, Day 15 Disagreements between believers. Read Acts 15. Paul and Barnabas had done so much to start the work of the ministry of the early church. They traveled and they preached. They taught and they reached others,. Yet there came a moment one day when both got upset with each other. We will never know exactly the specifics of the argument. But we know what it was around a young man by the name of John Mark and the fact that he had left early on a previous mission trip. It doesn’t really matter why they were arguing, but it’s important for us to understand that there was…

Take Action, Day 13 Support. Read Acts chapter 13. Merry Christmas!! In our reading today, it’s time to extend the reach of the early church. As the leaders are praying, they receive the word from God that it’s time to send out Paul and Barnabas, so they lay their hands-on them and send them out. There was no special power or ability that was given by laying their hands-on them. But, it was a tremendous show of support. If we’re going to take action to be obedient to God, yes, we can do it by ourselves. And even if we are the only ones being obedient, we are still called…

Take Action, Day 12 Trusting God. Read Acts chapter 12. As we read this chapter, we see a man in a dire and desperate situation. Others have already been killed for their belief in Christ and now Peter is imprisoned with the intent of killing him. God works a miracle and saves him. But it always fascinates me the level of trust and faith that Peter had in God at that point. You see, not even an angel showing up in his midst was enough to wake him up. He was sleeping so soundly that the angel had to grab hold of him and shake him awake. For many people,…

Take Action, Day 10 Acting the same for everyone. Read Acts chapter 10. This is such an incredibly pivotal chapter for the early church. Here we see them coming to the understanding that God desire everyone to be saved. The message of God is designed for Jews and Gentiles alike. God does not show favoritism, and God desires everyone to come to repentance. We are to take action, as we’ve seen so much through previous chapters, and it’s important that we understand that action should be focused toward every single person. There is no one who is more worthy or less worthy of receiving God’s forgiveness. Are we focusing on…

Take Action, Day 7 A history lesson. Read Acts chapter 7. Stephen has been accused and now he is giving his defense. His entire message is based on a history lesson. Stephen goes back and summarizes the entire Old Testament in just these few verses. The people of Israel have been saved by God. They had turned from him. We see how and why they needed a savior, and we see how God provided one. Stephen brings them all the way through a story up until the point of Jesus Christ coming and being that sacrifice that was needed. Unfortunately the people couldn’t handle the truth. They turned from it…