SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/26/2017
12:32 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Be Obedient to God at all Costs
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 4:14-22
Message of the
verses: “14 And seeing the man who
had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply. 15 But when they had ordered them to leave
the Council, they began to confer with one another, 16 saying, "What shall
we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place
through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17
“But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them
to speak no longer to any man in this name." 18 And when they had summoned
them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered and said
to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you
rather than to God, you be the judge; 20
for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard."
21 When they had threatened them further,
they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the
people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened; 22 for the man was more than forty years old on
whom this miracle of healing had been performed.”
I said that we would talk about the Christians responsibility
of obeying their government in this SD, and I suppose that when we went over
other NT books that we have written about this, but since it fits in nicely
into this passage we will look at it again.
“13 Submit yourselves for
the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in
authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers
and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by
doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as free men,
and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of
God. 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king (2
Peter 2:13-17).”
“1 Every person is to be in
subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from
God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists
authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will
receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for
good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what
is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a minister of God
to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear
the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath
on the one who practices evil. 5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection,
not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this
you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this
very thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to
whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor (Romans 13:1-7).”
As we look at what happened to Peter and John we see that
they were obeying God as it was their desire and duty to spread the gospel, to
tell others the things that they had seen and hear from our Lord when He was on
earth and to obey the Great Commission that He gave to them, and also to us,
just before He went back to heaven to be with His Father.
In the Old Testament books of Exodus and Daniel we also
saw this put into action. The Hebrew
mid-wives disobeyed the Egyptians by not killing the babies as this was against
the will of God. (Too bad mothers who
have babies in their wombs do not follow the example of these Hebrew
mid-wives.)
Let us look now at Daniel 6:4-10 “4 Then the commissioners and satraps began
trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government
affairs; but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption,
inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in
him. 5 Then these men said, "We will not find any ground of accusation
against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his
God."
“6
Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to
him as follows: "King Darius, live forever! 7 "All the commissioners of the kingdom,
the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have
consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an
injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O
king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den. 8 "Now, O king, establish the injunction
and sign the document so that it may not be changed, according to the law of
the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked." 9 Therefore King Darius
signed the document, that is, the injunction. 10 Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he
entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward
Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying
and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.”
One thing that we need to mention is that Peter and John
treated the men who were on the Sanhedrin with respect. They did not get into their face and tell
them how wrong they were having a bad attitude.
When we speak the truth we must do it in love. Paul writes about how he must preach the
gospel in 1 Cor. 9:16 “16 For if I
preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for
woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.”
Peter and John did the same.
Looks like we will have one more day looking at this
section as we will try and finish up this in our next SD.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Simon Peter” (Luke 5:3).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘Except I shall see
in his hands the print of the nails…I will not believe?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/26/2017 1:06 PM
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