-
Christian Devotional – April 18, 2016
Read Acts chapter 17 VERSE: Acts 17:25–And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. TRUTH: Paul was speaking to a group of Greeks who were very used to all the tales of Greek mythology with their pantheon of gods. In all of those stories, the gods are selfish, spiteful creatures who use and manipulate humans for their own pleasure. Paul is explaining that the God of the universe is nothing like that. God doesn’t need us for anything, however, He is constantly giving to us everything that we have. We don’t serve God because…
-
Christian Devotional – April 16, 2016
Read Acts chapter 16 VERSE: Acts 16:9–During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” TRUTH: Paul was diligently seeking God’s will on where to go and with whom to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Because of his diligent seeking, God answered him and helped him see where his next step should be. God answers our prayers in many ways, but we must be patient in order to see what He directs. If we are not listening for Him or not seeking His will, we will miss out on the path that God is…
-
Christian Devotional – April 15, 2016
Read Acts chapter 15 VERSE: Acts 15:11–No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. TRUTH: A dispute had arisen in the early church and they were going about resolving it. The question of “What is required in order to be saved?” was hotly debated with many people adding in various other rituals or practices that were based in tradition. In the end, Peter stood up and reminded everyone that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. No other fancy ceremonies are required. No other rituals are required. As we are looking at our lives,…
-
Christian Devotional – April 14, 2016
Read Acts chapter 14 VERSE: Acts 14:22–strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. TRUTH: Guess what? The Christian life is not all candy and roses. There are plenty of times when we will go through difficult times and hardships. Paul could speak to that; he had just been stoned almost to death. No matter where we are in our life, the devil loves to depress and put down Christians and we can expect that we will experience that, too. The question becomes, will we find our hope and our joy in…
-
Christian Devotional – April 13, 2016
Read Acts chapter 13 VERSE: Acts 13:38–Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. TRUTH: There are many people in our lives that we call “friends.” Sometimes we use the word casually to describe other people around and near us and sometimes we use the word to describe a much more serious and close relationship. Either way, we can’t truly call anyone a friend unless we are sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ and how that will impact their life. Because we know the truth, how can we possibly say that anyone is our friend if…
-
Christian Devotional – April 11, 2016
Read Acts chapter 11 VERSE: Acts 11:24–He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. TRUTH: This was said to describe Barnabas and the work that he was doing as he reached out to the Gentiles who were coming to faith. If someone were to describe us and the work that we were doing for the Lord, what would that look like? Would people say we are full of the Holy Spirit and of faith? If they wouldn’t say that, then what do we do about that? We must completely surrender every area of our life…
-
Christian Devotional – April 9, 2016
Read Acts chapter 10 VERSE: Acts 10:34– Then Peter began to speak, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.” TRUTH: Peter was confronted with a situation that had no other explanation than that God had done it. He knew that his prior beliefs and prejudices were being stripped away in light of what God was doing. God desires all people to come to Him and the prejudices that we have need to be stripped away in the light of the love of Jesus Christ. As He has loved the world, so we should love the world! RESPONSE: Father, Let me love everyone today as…
-
Christian Devotional – April 5, 2016
Read Acts chapter 6 VERSE: Acts 6:10–But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. TRUTH: Stephen was sharing the gospel message and the religious leaders of the day didn’t like it at all. However, every time they started to debate with him, Stephen was able to explain everything and make them look foolish. How was he able to do this? We see here that the Spirit gave Stephen wisdom in what he poke. God will be there with us to defend us and to give us the words to say when we need them. We don’t have to try to be overly…
-
Christian Devotional – April 4, 2016
Read Acts chapter 5 VERSE: Acts 5:9–Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and, they will carry you out also.” TRUTH: Ananias and Sapphira had seen others who were selling land and giving it to the church. They saw them get praised and thanked by the church, so they decided that they wanted that praise as well. Unfortunately, they also wanted to keep the money a the same time, so they decided to sell the land, tell the church they were giving the whole amount, but then keep…
-
Christian Devotional – April 2, 2016
Read Acts chapter 4 VERSE: Acts 4:19–But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judge. TRUTH: I think many of us would answer that question easily with the words that we say, but how would our actions answer that question? Would people who come alongside of us and look at our life be able to answer that question based on what they observed about our actions? We can say the right things all day long, but if our words and actions don’t demonstrate that we are following God, then people will believe our actions, not our words.…