Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....May 27, 2019
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY....BE SAFE
This week, we continue our tour of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles...
Acts 3-4
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer – at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Acts 3:1-10
Thomas Aquinas once called on Pope Innocent. Entering the room, the Pope was counting a large sum of money given to the church. The Pope said, “See Thomas, the church can no longer say, ‘Silver and gold have I none.’” Aquinas replied, “”True Father, but neither can she say, ‘Stand up and walk.’”
i love this story because I have a fear that Aquinas was correct. It would appear the more wealth the church has amassed, the less it has relied on the Holy Spirit. The more powerful it has become the more the church thinks it can be accomplished through human ability and ingenuity.
A few weeks ago we started this series of teachings in the book of Acts entitled Unstoppable. As I’ve mentioned every week, when something is unstoppable – it can’t be stopped. It is indomitable, unbeatable, and invincible.
This is God’s call upon the church. We learn in Acts 1:8 that from its inception, God intent and calling on the church was that it was to be an unstoppable movement of the Holy Spirit to take the good news of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection into the world so all mankind might be rescued from sin and restored into a right relationship with the Creator.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the world. Acts 1:8
When the Holy Spirit showed up – He showed out! On the day of Pentecost – the Holy Spirit blew in, came upon the disciples giving them an ability to speak other languages, anointed Peter to proclaim the Gospel – and over 3,000 accepted Christ and the church was born. In Acts 3, the story continues.
Let me recap the story, according to the Scripture above. Shortly after Pentecost, one day Peter and John are in Jerusalem walking into the Temple through the Beautiful Gate. As they approach the entrance, they lock eyes w/ a crippled man who was panhandling.
You have to know that as soon as this man saw Peter and John he was hopeful they were going to give him some money. This man had been crippled since birth. Meaning he had been an outcast his entire life. He was accustomed to people walking by him, ignoring his existence. So when he actually had someone attention – there was hope for help.
How disappointing it must’ve been to hear – “We don’t have any money…” THEN WHY STOP! I don’t need your pity – and I don’t want your advice.
Have you ever been in need but instead of getting help you got advice or sympathy… Thanks but no thanks.
But that’s not where the story ended. They had more for the man than advice. Led by the Spirit – they met this man at the point of his need and met his physical and emotional need and also his spiritual need by becoming instruments of healing giving this man a completely new life.
This encounter spawned a second opportunity for Peter to proclaim the Gospel – and he stepped up once again and delivered the truth – and the Holy Spirit moved.
Only not everyone in the audience was quite as receptive as on the Day of Pentecost. The religious had them arrested. By the way – that’s when you know the Holy Spirit is at work and God is on the move. As they’re being hauled to jail for preaching the Gospel – 5,000 people are coming to Christ.
Peter and John, as well as the rest of the Apostles had the Holy Spirit incorporated in their hearts from the day of Pentecost...
Here are 5 things every Christian needs to incorporate into our lives....
1 SEEK the Lord
All ministry begins and ends with God and the Holy Spirit. Walking in step and in tune with God is the starting point of ministry.
2 SEE the Need
Walk with your eyes open to the need and your ears open to the Holy Spirit – God will direct you to the miracle.
3 SEIZE the Opportunity
This is about having a courageous faith. Believing God can most often is the determining factor in our faithfulness.
4 SPEAK the Truth
Acts 4:12 – Salvation is found in no one else.
5 STAND Your Ground
Ephesians 6:11 Put on your fun armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
I have seen these five "needs" proven in the volunteer team we have put together between C4 and Islands Hospice. I have had people tell me that they have been talked to by the Holy Spirit when they do not know what to say or do with a patient or family of patients.
The Holy Spirit WILL talk to if if you just listen. The volunteers have seen the need in people they have been visiting. They have seized the opportunity to move into areas they never had gone before. All because they open their hearts and ears to the Holy Spirit. God will bless you...all you have to do is open the door. I love you all.
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
SMILE!!!!
She smiled at a sorrowful stranger...
The smile seemed to make him feel better...
He remembered past kindnesses of a friend
And wrote him a thank you letter...
The friend was so pleased with the thank you
That he left a large tip after lunch...
The waitress, surprised by the size of the tip,
Bet the whole thing on a hunch...
The next day she picked up her winnings,
And gave part to a man on the street...
The man on the street was grateful;
For two days he'd had nothing to eat...
After he finished his dinner,
He left for his small dingy room...
He didn't know at that moment
That he might be facing his doom...
On the way he picked up a shivering puppy
And took him home to get warm...
The puppy was very grateful
To be in out of the storm...
That night the house caught on fire...
The puppy barked the alarm...
He barked till he woke the whole household
And saved everybody from harm...
One of the boys that he rescued
Grew up to be President...
All this because of a simple smile
That hadn't cost a cent...
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
This week in our tour through the Books of the Bible, we look at another from the Apostle Paul. Here is the Letter to the Galatians...
Who wrote the book?
Galatians has always been among those Pauline epistles least challenged on the issue of authorship. Paul wrote to the churches in southern Galatia after having a hand in starting them on his first missionary journey to Asia Minor. Paul’s close relationship to these churches helps to explain the extremely strong tone he took with them from the very beginning of the letter. Galatians exhibits Paul at his angriest, as he risked the good favor of the converts in those churches to make sure they were on the path of truth and not led off into deception. In fact, to emphasize the seriousness of his purpose, he took the pen from his scribe and wrote the end of the letter himself in large letters (Galatians 6:11).
Where are we?
Upon arriving back in Antioch from his first missionary journey after eighteen months on the road, Paul received a report that the churches he had started in Galatia had fallen into hard times—specifically, they had fallen into error. A group of Judaizers—those who sought to make living under the Mosaic Law a requirement of the Christian faith—had gained an influence in the Galatian churches. Paul wrote the book a few months before his attendance at the Jerusalem Council in AD 49, a meeting where the apostles would take up this very topic (Acts 15:1–30).
Why is Galatians so important?
In advance of the Jerusalem Council, Paul’s letter speaks wisdom and clarity into the first real controversy that plagued the church in its early years—the relationship between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles. Paul’s aggressive tone shows just how important it was to him that the people embrace unity in Christ, no matter their racial distinctions. For him, this was no minor issue, as he went so far as to call the Galatians deserters of Christ, people turning from the truth toward a gospel contrary to the one they had received from Paul (Galatians 1:6–9).
What's the big idea?
When the Galatians fell away so quickly from the gospel of grace Paul had preached to them, they also made clear their disloyalty to Paul’s authority as an apostle. Therefore, Paul began the letter to the Galatians by spending two chapters defending that very issue. Only in chapter 3 did he begin to get to the heart of their error; namely, that these Galatians sought to be justified by the Mosaic Law. In contrast, Paul presented his argument that justification comes to people by faith in Jesus Christ, not by their works under the Law.
Part of the problem that confronted the Galatians came in one of the arguments made by the Judaizers. These false teachers suggested that to live by grace and in freedom meant to live a lawless and therefore degenerate life. And so in the final chapters of the letter, Paul made clear that justification—an act of grace through faith—need not result in a sinful lifestyle. Because Christians have been freed from bondage to the sinful nature, we now have the path of holiness open to us.
How do I apply this?
Unfortunately, the false teaching brought to the Galatian churches by the Judaizers has been extremely difficult to root out even today. We must walk a fine line—on one hand, we do not want to fall into the legalism that the Galatians struggled with, but on the other, we cannot just live as if anything goes. The Christian’s commitment to Christ is based on the free gift of grace through faith, but as Paul articulated at the end of Galatians, it also results in a life of walking by the Spirit.
Is the fruit of the Spirit evident in your life, or do you find yourself living according to the flesh or “the compulsions of selfishness” (Galatians 5:16–26 MSG)? Too often we lose ourselves at the extremes, ending in a legalistic attempt to earn our salvation or a devil-may-care attitude about our sin.
Use Paul’s words in Galatians as an encouragement to pursue a life of holiness, not in your own strength but in the knowledge of God’s empowering grace in your life.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou