Author: Ed Algreen

One of God's kids expressing his understanding of God's Word and sharing how it is affecting his life! May those who read it be blessed, encouraged, and drawn closer to the Lord!

The Encouraging Power of Prayer

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In vs 24, when Peter and John returned from jail to their fellow believers, they all joined together in prayer to God. They reminded themselves of ways that God had previously answered prayer for their ancestors, and then in verse 29, they asked God to allow them to continue to speak His message boldly. Let us be encouraged by this action, because old Satan would much prefer seeing us sit down and weep over our lost power and give him credit for victory in stalling the work of the Lord. However, because of their sincere prayer, we read in vs 31 that immediately after praying, the whole building shook and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and immediately began speaking God’s message with boldness! Friend, that’s the same God that we pray to and serve today! Are you encouraged by His power and His answer to prayer? We need to earnestly believe that He can, and will answer our sincere prayers today also! Prayer is a powerful tool that Christians often underutilize. Let us PRAY!
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And now, Lord, take notice of the threats they have made, and allow us, your servants, to speak your message with all boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal, and grant that wonders and miracles may be performed through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.” When they finished praying, the place where they were meeting was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim God’s message with boldness.

Evidence of God at Work

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There was open evidence of God being at work in and through Peter and John. It was hard for the leaders to deny that. Each Lord’s day, can we reflect on the events of the day and show our city leaders proof of God having been at work that day? Each day of our lives we should be able to reflect on how God had been at work among us that day. Then we must tell the world about His wondrous works!
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The members of the Council were amazed to see how bold Peter and John were and to learn that they were ordinary men of no education. They realized then that they had been companions of Jesus. But there was nothing that they could say, because they saw the man who had been healed standing there with Peter and John.

Boldly Proclaim the Truth

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Boldly proclaim the Truth, no matter who our audience might be. Peter was speaking to the leaders of his day, knowing that they could easily demand his persecution, but he didn’t let that stop him from proclaiming the Gospel. It is really unfortunate where we have gotten to in our society today where Christians hold back on what they say in public, outside of the church walls, because they fear for what might be said of them, or they might lose their license. Many times today our leaders are being told what words and/or phrases they must avoid saying in certain public forums. This is why some ministers refuse to speak in certain forums, for they seek to always speak Truth directed by God. This would have eaten Peter up! He needed his audience to know that there is only one way to salvation, so he boldly proclaimed it! Praise the name of the Lord! Father, please give us that same boldness today. Our leaders today especially need You. Please use us to open the doors of Truth to them.
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Salvation is to be found through him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us.”

Pitfalls To Watch For in Christian Leadership

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In leadership, we have to realize that we are not an island, or a dictatorship. Without the cooperation of the people, who will we lead? Without respecting and caring for the people that we lead, we will have little concern for their well being. When we lose their love, respect and desire to follow us, we will have a lonely time at the top leading ourselves. In verse 17 Rehoboam was left to rule over one territory only. He lost his effectiveness as a leader of all the people. We have to be so careful of that. With God’s help and direction, we can gain the respect of the people we lead, and still respect them and be a part of them. Especially in leadership we must allow God to work in and through us. It is one thing to not personally obey God’s commands, or lead our family aright, but to lead a whole Bible School class, or church, or city or nation astray is altogether different, and results in an impact on God’s ministry through us. We should always look for ways to enhance the kingdom, not tear it down.
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When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let’s go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!” So the people of Israel rebelled, leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

Pray for other Christian leaders

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I find it interesting how, even today, church leaders are quick to ridicule other church leaders, especially those of growing and/or thriving congregations. I was overjoyed to hear my pastor ask for prayer for a new incoming pastor of another church one morning, and he prefaced the request by reminding us that God has placed both churches in the area to minister in His name and meet the needs of this community. Both churches are needed. I pray that we can do that more often and pray for the needs of other church leaders instead of picking apart what they could do more like us, or at least differently. Peter and John was a threat to the Sadducees, probably because they were not doing all that they should do. With one common goal in mind, we should be praying for, and lifting up our brothers who are also evangelizing the lost of our communities, for they have the same goal as we do!
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They were annoyed because the two apostles were teaching the people that Jesus had risen from death, which proved that the dead will rise to life.

Boldly, Give God the Credit

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I believe that God blesses us with miracles so that we might be a witness for Him and of His power. I also believe that He uses us to work out His miracles in others, so that in all things we might give God the glory and praise that He deserves. Notice that in both scenarios I never mentioned anything about glory to self. Friend, I am absolutely powerless to do anything miraculous. However, through Jesus, and in alignment with His perfect will, ALL things are possible. We should constantly be ready to give a testimony for God. In the case of Peter and John, it was the healing of a lame man. Although they were powerless to do any such act, through Jesus, He could do all things. Please don’t take credit for anything accomplished through you by the Holy Spirit, but instead, use it to testify to the power of the Spirit in whom you prayed and seen His mighty hand at work. Give God praise at all times! Allow His work to be accomplished through you!
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Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders: if we are being questioned today about the good deed done to the lame man and how he was healed, then you should all know, and all the people of Israel should know, that this man stands here before you completely well through the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth—whom you crucified and whom God raised from death.

How To Find Spiritual Strength

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I believe that the most popular books sold today are the ‘How to’ books. For so many of us want to help ourselves, or at least we are curious how professionals do certain things that we wish we could do ourselves. I also believe that in spite of our battle with daily sin, we probably often think about how we could improve our spiritual walk with the Lord. In this verse today Peter is sharing with the Israelites what is required from them in order to see spiritual strength from the Lord. And in these troublesome, trying days, I believe that the answer to this would also interest us. The teaching is actually fairly simple, but I believe that to accomplish it requires much prayer, for we are to repent and turn to God. Repent means to turn away from what we are doing. Friend, so much of our lives are caught up in entertainment and self-pleasure. Now before you count me as insane or out of touch with reality, I want you to ponder the amount of time you spend in God’s Word, or in communion with Him, compared to the amount of time you spend watching TV, playing on your computer/Facebook, etc, on the phone, at work, etc. Unfortunately, our character is built from the things that we spend the most time at, for those things shape our character and our decisions. The Word says that if we repent, and turn instead to God and seek His forgiveness, times of spiritual strength will come from the Lord. Now, knowing what we need to do, what will we do today? If you know where you want to go, and you know how to get there, what are you waiting for?

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Repent, then, and turn to God, so that he will forgive your sins. If you do, times of spiritual strength will come from the Lord, and he will send Jesus, who is the Messiah he has already chosen for you.

We are answerable to God for ourselves

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These verses really bring to light what we hear so many preachers share with us. We cant get into heaven because we had great parents, or because our grandmother prayed constantly for us. We have to seek God for ourselves and live a committed life to him personally. God promised David a lot in response to his committed life to God, including a promise to even bless his ancestors. In these verses God is telling Solomon that those promises will hold true IF he stays committed to Him and obey His commands. This holds true for us friend, we must have a PERSONAL relationship with God. Do you have that, friend?
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If you serve me faithfully as your father David did, obeying my laws and doing everything I have commanded you, I will keep the promise I made to your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants. But if you and your people ever disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and worship other gods, then I will remove you from the land that I gave you, and I will abandon this Temple that I have consecrated as the place where I am to be worshipped. …

God’s Response To Prayer

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For so long I have heard reference to verse 14, but when you read the preceding verses, especially verse 13, it becomes very evident that God is saying that He may very well withhold blessings from us when we stray, or when we sin. However, He also tells us that when we pray, and when we repent of our sin, and when we turn away from our sin, then praise God, He will hear our prayer, forgive us of our sin and make us (our land) prosperous again. It seems so out of sorts the way that we try to make this work. God is the Master and He dictates how it will work. We are the servants, the followers, the beggars, we need to listen and obey, to see the results of God’s response to our prayers!
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Whenever I hold back the rain or send locusts to eat up the crops or send an epidemic on my people, if they pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again.

When God’s People Pray

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It is amazing, but yet extremely exciting when we see God’s hand at work in response to our prayer. But yet, is it not disturbing to note that prayer meetings are one of the worst attended in today’s churches? God’s presence was so amazing in the temple where Solomon had prayed that the priests could not enter the temple, but it led to them falling face downwards on the pavement in awe and worship to the God of this universe! Here are a few things I discerned from this: 1). David showed his children the importance and value in prayer, therefore Solomon followed in his footsteps before his people and prayed – so friend, we must be open in our prayers if we ever expect our children and/or new Christians to see the importance of, and follow our example in, prayer; 2). Because God’s ways are so beyond our abilities, we should prepare ourselves for the amazing results that will surpass our wildest imagination, as we too will be awestruck! We serve an awesome God, friend! Do you know Him?
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When King Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and burnt up the sacrifices that had been offered, and the dazzling light of the LORD’s presence filled the Temple. Because the Temple was full of the dazzling light, the priests could not enter it. When the people of Israel saw the fire fall from heaven and the light fill the Temple, they fell face downwards on the pavement, worshipping God and praising him for his goodness and his eternal love.