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Christian Devotional – December 17, 2024
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…
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Christian Devotional – December 16, 2024
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…
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Christian Devotional – December 15, 2024
Take Action, Day 3 Get up first. Read Acts chapter 3. We see Peter and John meeting a crippled man outside the Temple. Peter makes the statement to him that he’s not going to give him money, but he’s going to help him understand who Jesus is. Then he takes his hand and starts to pull him up, telling him to rise up and walk. It doesn’t say that the man’s ankles are healed while he’s laying there. It says that they are healed as he’s getting up. There had to be action taken. The man had to believe and have faith in Peter and in the God that Peter…
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Christian Devotional – December 14, 2024
Take Action, Day 2 The languages came first, then the crowd. Read Acts chapter 2. I’ve read this story probably hundreds of times over the years and today was the first time I noticed this. Yes, there are a lot of people in Jerusalem for the Pentecost. The disciples were gathered together and they received the Holy Spirit and started speaking in different languages. Then the crowd gathered to hear what they were saying. I had always envisioned this being a case where the crowd was already gathered and the disciples went out to them and started speaking in other languages to share the message. But that’s not what happens…
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Christian Devotional – December 13, 2024
Take Action, Day 1 Jesus lives. Read Acts chapter 1. As we think about this Christmas season and the birth of Jesus Christ, the miracle of God living with us is forefront on my mind. Because God lives, we are to act. We are to be obedient to what he has for us. When Luke wrote the letter that we now know is Acts, he started with the proof of Jesus’s resurrection. Jesus lives again and showed himself to everyone improved to them that he was alive. Without that proof there was no reason to act. We are to understand the proof that Jesus is living today because he lives.…