Posts Tagged ‘Acts 4’

Lately, I’ve found myself frustrated with the work at RiverStone.  I’ve been frustrated because I tend to notice all the things that we are NOT doing to glorify God and make disciples locally & globally.  There’s so much work to be done.  There’s so much that needs to be acted upon.  The gospel needs to go to our community everyday in many different ways.  And I’ve got paralysis of analysis as I look and try to formultae plans based upon our passion to impact our community in spreading the gospel.

BUT…

God has been so faithful.  He has impressed upon my heart 4 things:  1.) Pray 2.) Preach 3.) Love 4.) Lead.  He’s been speaking to me about Him doing the Work through the Word.  In Acts this is exactly what we see happening.  The gospel is preached  and people respond to God’s Work through the Word.  In fact, this is what God’s people pray for in Acts 4:29:

“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with great boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. ”

The people were praying for the ability to speak the Word because they knew as they spoke the Word, that God would stretch out his hand to do amazing things!

And this is what’s happening at RS right now.  We are very much a church plant.  We are very much in “need” of people to serve and do and act and lead and volunteer, etc.  And things move slowly, most of the time.  But as we are committed to speaking the Word, we are seeing God move the hearts of people to respond and serve and lead, and help and love.  It’s truly amazing to see the Word of God stir the hearts of people!

God is doing His Work!

Chris.

Well I’m always amazed at the story of Acts 4:23-31…

First let me preface this.  I encouraged us to pray for 4 specific things last Sunday in this new year of 2011.  1. Pray for the mission of God’s Fame.  2.  Pray for Courage in the mission.  3. Pray for the Faith Family as we do the mission.  4.  Pray for the lost to be saved.

I’ve been praying these 4 things for the past 2 weeks now, and I hope you’ll join me in these prayers consistently.  I pray that you pray these with all abandon, and allow God to use your prayers to change yourselves, our community and the world around us.  We saw in Mark 9 that we’ll go nowhere or do anything signifcant or life changing without prayer.  So, we must pray or we’ll be powerless.  So let’s pray as we obey the command to make disciples, being joyful in our weakness and being confident in His strength to do what we are powerless to do.

So back to Acts 4:23…This fits into prayer #2…Pray for Courage in the mission.  These believers were praying for something radical.  Peter and John have just been released from jail for doing the mission from Jesus – making disciples and preaching the gospel.  They went back to the believers and gave them the full report of what happened to them and the threats that surrounded them.  Then the Bible says, “And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God…” (Acts 4:24).  Did you hear that?  As soon as they heard the report of what happened to Peter and John they PRAYED!

What did they pray?  You would think they prayed, Lord, protect us!  Lord, don’t ever let this happen to us again! Lord, strike down our enemies!  Lord, please rescue us from this!  But they didn’t pray that at all.  What they actually prayed went something like this:  And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:29-30).

What?  They were asking God not to remove them from the dangers associated with the mission of making disciples; rather, they prayed for courage and boldness to carry on so that the name of Jesus would be made famous through signs, wonders and healings.  They asked God for courage to continue to speak the word of God boldly in the face of imprisonments, beatings, and hardship.  Wow!

Let me ask you this:

• What is there in your life right now that you need to ask God for courage in, rather than escape?
• What is the hardest part of having to have courage?
• How does it encourage you that God is in control, that Jesus is with you always in the middle of your situation?

Love you all!

PC