Intro to Acts 1:12-26

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/2/2017 6:31 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Acts 1:12-26

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 1:12-26

            Message of the verses:  I don’t think that I will copy and paste all of these verses but wait until they are broken up as we move through this section.  John MacArthur entitles this second chapter in his commentary “Replacing the Traitor.”

            What we will be looking at as we go through this rather long section of Scripture is three different sections “The submission of the disciples in verses 12-15; then the suicide of a disciple in verses 16-20 and finally the selection of a disciple seen in verses 21-26.

            John MacArthur writes “It is a marvelous and reassuring truth that our sovereign, omnipotent God works His will through men.  His providential control over events takes into consideration all the acts of human wills—even those opposed to Him, such as Haman, Herod, and Judas.”  This statement reminds me of Romans 8:28 a very familiar verse “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  I realize that we don’t know all the time how God does this, but we have to have faith that He will work things out for our good and for His glory even though we don’t always understand it. 

            As we look at God’s work of redemption we learn that God has called certain men to significant participation.  Let us look at what Peter writes in Acts 10:39-42 to help us understand this better: 

“39 “We are witnesses of all the things He [Jesus] did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. 40  "God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, 41  not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 42 “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.”

            The call to preach is a call given to men by God and it has been my experience in the past that some preachers that I knew may have been listening to a party line when God was talking to someone else thinking that He was talking to him.  Not all preachers have been called by God.  After a difficult church split back in 2004 at the church I was attending I was asked to become the leader of the missionary committee something that at the time was a big surprise to me.  One of the things that I had made up my mind to do was that every time a visiting missionary came to speak at our church that I would ask them how they knew that the Lord called them into the ministry.  I truly believed that the one who caused our split was not called by God or if he was he was not following what God wanted him to do.  I look forward to looking at this important section from the book of Acts.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “One of Adam’s ribs” (Genesis 2:21-22).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was Lydia’s occupation?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/2/2017 7:01 AM