Friday, February 17, 2023

"Peter Was Fruitful" (Acts 9:42)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/11/2018 9:45 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Peter Was Fruitful

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 9:42

            Message of the verse:   “42 It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.”

            This will be a very short SD, but everything in the Word of God is important to read and study.

            When we look at the miracles in the Word of God we know that God has a greater purpose than just doing the miracle itself.  One of the problems with what is going on in the church today is what is called the “health and wealth gospel.”  This is not the gospel that is taught in the Word of God, for in the Word of God I read things like Mt 10:35  ‘For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.’”  Many believers throughout the church age have died for the cause of Christ, and so this shows me that those who teach the health and wealth gospel, demanding that God give us health and wealth are not those who have taken much time studying their Bibles.  I am not saying that God does not want us to be healthy, but God can use illness and poorness for His purpose in our lives to draw us closer to the Lord, to grow in His grace and in the knowledge of Christ.  So when I read a passage like Acts 9:42 I see that there was a great purpose in the healing of Dorcas as we read that because of this miracle many believed in the Lord.

            We have mentioned earlier in our study of Acts that at the beginning of the church God used miracles as confirming signs that the gospel is true.  Not only that but He also used them to authenticate that the apostles were His messengers, and so as we look at verse 42 we see that God used the raising of Dorcas as the spark for the salvation throughout the city she lived in.

            As we look at this last part of the 9th chapter of Acts, the part that goes back and focuses on Peter, we see two miracles that he did and we see many coming to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  John MacArthur writes “There is no saving faith without conversion, no true belief without repentance and transformation.”  This is what happened to those spoken of in the last part of the 9th chapter of Acts, and by the way we saw that in the first part as Saul became a believer.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to trust the Lord when things that are going on in my life are difficult, knowing that God works all things out for my good and for His glory in my life. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord in my preparation for teaching on the church at Philadelphia in our Sunday School class.

Memory verse:  Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Save that which was lost.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘With the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men’?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/11/2018 10:08 AM

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