there is a man who has been such an encouragement to me since i have been back from jamaica this second time and we keep in touch and talk and i saw this on his facebook status and i am soooo stoked to see what God has in store for me!!
here it is...
Acts 4:13
"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."
let me give you a little bit of background so that you can get the full effect. in Acts chapter one Jesus is talking to his desciples before he ascends into heaven and he is explaining to them to fill the place of Judas and that he was going to send the Holy Spirit to be apart of the show. Jesus ascends and the desciples are now left with the descision to pick a replacement...kinda like "the next top model" only it's "the next dusty desciple." well they do an incredible thing here at this point, i mean this is so wierd for them to do (especially if it was in our day and age in dealing with descisions of a large-ish size), they prayed to the Lord to show them who to pick. BRILLIANT!!! (i'm just gonna stop here for a sec cause something needs to be said) THIS IS THE MOST BRILLIANT IDEA SINCE BEFORE BREAD...especially hawaiian rolls. these guys got down on their knees and said "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs" (Acts 1:24-25).
*this is the question i would like to pose because i have really been struggling with this personally and have almost gotten to the point of fulfilling 100%: when you tell someone that you will pray for them, or that you are praying for them, how many of those do you actually carry out and pray for them on a consistant basis whether once a day or once a week, do you seriously follow through with it? or is it just that we say that for the fake Christian life we are living? or are we lukewarm and we are just fulfilling our Christian duties to encourage fellow Christians that we are praying for their Christian "issues?" And do you look to God when you have to make a descision and such? just something to chew on like a piece of wrigley's. (i prefer orbit to wrigley's).
so back to the background info, they look to God for the answer to be revealed for He is always faithful. then God sends down the Holy Spirit to swoop down and fill them with itself and they burn rubber gettin out the door to share with people of every tribe and nation that Jesus Christ is Lord and of the victory over death he had achieved. Peter heals the beggar at the gate Beautiful which i can't wait to learn more about that but the Sanhedrin were watching Peter and John and they were gettin really ticked off about what Peter and John were saying and doin and preachin and singin and really just breathing air and so they arrested them.
so the next day the Sanhedrin and questioning Peter and John and and they started to ask about the beggar being healed and basically "by what power or what name did you do this?" and that's when you get the famous verse "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." and then the verse stated above. the Sanhedrin "saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinatry men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."
WOWWWEEEEEE!!! they didn't see some 50 year old men in a mid-life crisis, they saw courage in--this is my favorite part--unschooled, ordinary men and they were ASTONISHED!!!!!!!!!! and. they. took. note. there is no way that that was going to be packin' it's bags and fluttering on out the attic window anytime soon. THEY TOOK NOTE!!!
i want to have that courage for Jesus, and so many times i fail in the opportunities that God placed before me, but because He is also a forgiving God, i am givin another chance to have that courage and stand up for truth. are you going to be the one with courage because if God is for us who can be against us? or are you gonna be the sanhedrin and just stand their with your mouth open catchin flies because of what God is doing? i dunno about you but i would rather be a part of it then sit back and watch because i doubt God's "ability" in my own life.
sorry it was kinda long, but i really felt a burden to share it with yall.
keep the SON in your eyes!
