SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/1/2017 9:31 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Be Desirous of Greater Boldness
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 4:29-31
Message of the verses: “29
"And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your
bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, 30 while You extend Your
hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy
servant Jesus." 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had
gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak the word of God with boldness.”
In our Sunday school
class this morning I mentioned that the words “loud noise” is used 19 times in
the book of Revelation, and the word “noise” is used 2 times making a total of
21 times that the Lord would use a loud noise to get the attention of those He
wanted to give attention too. In the
case of our verses today we see that God got the attentions of the believers
who were probably in the upper room praying by sending an earthquake. I guess that I have to assume it was an
earthquake, but at any rate the place where they were was shaking as God got
the attentions of these believers as they were praying to Him.
We also see that these
believers were filled with the Holy Spirit, and this is the third time it is
mentioned thus far in the book of Acts.
We saw in chapter two that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit
and it manifested itself with being able to speak in other languages, and not
the shaking of the building was the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Because of this filling of the Holy Spirit
they began to speak the Word of God with boldness.
John MacArthur
concludes this section and this chapter (11) with these words: “The church had successfully faced its
initial trial of opposition. Instead of
succumbing to the temptation to compromise the gospel, it became even
bolder. The persecution also served to
draw the congregation closer together and to their Lord. In what was to become a recurring theme in
church history, opposition
only made the church grow stronger.
As He had with Joseph (Gen. 50:20), God took the evil intentions of men
and used them for His own purposes.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
“She was thrown out of a window and eaten by dogs” (2 Kings 9:30-36).
Today’s Bible question: “To what
place will the living righteous be caught up when Christ returns?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/1/2017 9:44 PM
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