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…

Take Action, Day 6 Opposition. Read Acts chapter 6. As we read through chapter 6, we see the action of the early church becoming much more defined. They are figuring out how to serve greater numbers of people more efficiently. They are understanding delegation and how that works. They are recognizing the power of the spirit in their lives and in all they do. As a result, they experience opposition. People start to argue with them. Stephen is one of the chief defenders of the faith. As people argue with him, they realize that the wisdom that he argues back with is from God. You see, when we experience opposition…

Take Action, Day 5 Taking credit. Read Acts chapter 5. After all of the amazing movements of God from the last chapters, this chapter starts out much differently. We still see God moving but in a different way than expected. People are being drawn to everything that God is doing, but unfortunately one couple decides to lie about their motivation to do things. I find it interesting that no one was being forced to sell their possessions. No one was being told they had to give, and yet these two decided to sell something and give the money to the church. The problem was they decided to keep some of…

Take Action, Day 4 Action may not be popular. Read Acts chapter 4. We read this chapter and see the aftermath of the miracle that God performed in chapter 3. It becomes very obvious that doing the right thing does not always make people like you. In fact, Peter and John realized very quickly that allowing God to heal the man through them was resulting in a lot of unhappy people. Sometimes, when we take action and are obedient to God, people are going to be upset. They will not like what we do or how we do it. We cannot guarantee that others will love what we do, but…