Scripture: Acts 21.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Acts 21:10-14 (NLT)

10 Several days later a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea.

11 He came over, took Paul’s belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.'”

12 When we heard this, we and the local believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

13 But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”

14 When it was clear that we couldn’t persuade him, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

Paul was prepared to follow the will of God no matter what might happen to him. Others were worried about him and tried to get him to change his mind, but instead Paul gave a very bold statement “I am prepared/ready not just to be possibly jailed at Jerusalem, but even if this leads to death, all for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” Wow, I wonder how many of us stay at home because we don’t want to face the challenge at our church with Satan’s interference through disagreements or fights! I wonder how many of us refuse to witness to someone, because of the fear of rejection – just words that may challenge us or possibly hurt us! I wonder how many of us would agree to meet in a public place, like a street corner or mall, to sing praises to God, witness to the lost or even worship with the saved of the community! This prophecy made clear to Paul what might possibly happen to him in Jerusalem, but this didn’t phase his decision to go there anyway to minister. He made it clear that he would do it even if it meant that it could possibly lead to his death. Oh that Christians today, yes you and I, would commit ourselves to serving our God every day – yes through thick and thin, in good times and bad, in areas that we approve of as well as areas that God might just say “trust me son, so that I might flourish in that area because of your commitment”!

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father, You know the lousy excuses we use when it comes to serving You and ministering to others. You know they are lame and mostly used by Satan to stop the blessings we could receive from wholeheartedly serving You in every situation, not just the ‘no-brainer’ circumstances such as attending church, calling a friend going through a hard time, or visiting a friend in hospital. If we are to truly reach the lost for You and allow Your light to shine through us to a lost world, we will need to be intentional about visiting those who may not be our best buddy, ministering to those that may not come to church with us, or witnessing to those that may seem very hardened to the gospel. I need Your power to do this; Your direction to speak with the folk You desire of me to minister to; the boldness to warm up to and share my faith with someone I may not know or feel close to; the wisdom to discern Your direction and feel Your presence with me. In other words, I believe that in Christ, I can do all things! Please help me to never turn back from serving You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: Acts 20.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Acts 20:22-27 (NLT)

22 “And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, 23 except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. 24 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. 25 “And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again.

26 I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, 27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

So often if we are able to do any work around the church, or if we are successful in witnessing to an acquaintance, we may receive praise from a fellow Christian or even recognized at church. I found from this passage today that where the real peace of mind comes in, is when we can honestly say to God, like Paul did, “I declare today that I have been faithful, and if anyone that I came into contact with suffers eternal death and damnation, then it’s not because I didn’t do my part. For I never held back in declaring all that God wanted the brother or sister to hear”. Friends, I don’t know about you, but God would strike me down dead if I said something like that right now, because I have not been as faithful as I could have been in all the circumstances God has placed before me. Look at verse 22, even being very convinced in his spirit that jail and suffering was ahead for him, yet he prepared himself to go on to Jerusalem to minister/witness/preach/encourage anyway. Will I be so persistent in spreading the Word? Will you sacrifice all earthly things and be so committed to doing the work, like Paul did? Wow, what an example set before us, and what a reminder for us today that only one thing matters in the end, and that is that we first of all know Jesus as Lord, and that as we stand before Him on judgment day that we can honestly say to Him, I have been faithful and did all that I could to share Christ with all that I came into contact with. Lord, please grant this desire to me today, please?

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father, thank You for providing the means for me to have eternal life with You in heaven. Thank You for placing me in a place where I come into contact with many that do not know You as Lord of their lives. Please give me the desire and boldness to not be selfish, timid or weak in sharing the best thing that could ever happen in a person’s life with those that I have opportunity to do so. Please also touch the lives of those that will read this devotional and give them the same boldness and desire to share Your love with others. Thank You for the work of Your servant Paul. Please give me the same boldness and desire that he shared with us in this passage.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: 2 Chronicles 15.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

2 Chronicles 15:1-4 (NLT)

1 Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded,

2 and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle. “Listen to me, Asa!” he shouted. “Listen, all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you.

3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them, and without the Law to instruct them.

4 But whenever they were in trouble and turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him out, they found him.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

I bolded the section of these verses where God got my attention. I have found over my lifetime that whenever there were urgent things in my life, I found it necessary to draw close to God and really seek His help. Thankfully God showed His presence to me and met my needs, but in these verses I am reminded that it would be so sweet to always trust Him, always seek His face and always allow Him to work miraculously in and through my life. I know that God is always with me, but way too often I tend to do all I possibly can before turning to God for help and/or direction in a particular situation. God is never too busy for us and I believe that He is always ready and available to walk by our side and help us with our situations whether good or bad.

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father God, I am guilty of particularly drawing close and seeking Your help when there are urgent news. Please help me to walk so closely with you each and every day that I will be very conscious of Your touch in all aspects of my life, the huge things (in my view) and the simple things that I feel I could handle on my own. I need to totally surrender everything to You so that I will always seek Your will and way. Please show me how to do this, and make me mindful of this as I make decisions every day. If I expect You to work in and through me, then I need to be walking in Your path each and every day. Please help me to do this loving Savior!

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: Acts 18.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Acts 18:4-6 (NLT)

4 Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue, trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike.

5 And after Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul spent all his time preaching the word. He testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, “Your blood is upon your own heads—I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles.”

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

I believe that when we seek to convince, or persuade someone about something, it is a lot more passionate than merely mentioning something in passing. For example, I might lecture my child all day about how they should be careful to look both ways before crossing the road, but if I am watching when they attempt to cross the road and I see an oncoming truck speeding down the road, I will have a whole lot more passion about running out to protect them, or shouting to them to run rather than play around. The urgency will be there to convince them, or persuade them to hurry. In reading verse 4 I got that picture about the passion of Paul’s preaching. I believe that he was truly frustrated with their unbelief and he was giving his every effort to convince them otherwise, in other words, it appears like he was giving about 150%. My, if only we had that kind of passion when we teach a class of young ones that we want to know better, or the older ones who have chosen to follow the ways of this wicked world instead of the Savior that gave His all for us. And what about those that think they are safe, because they come from a heritage of Christian pastors or leaders, these are extremely hard to convince, because they believe that just like dad was saved and went to heaven, so will they. Bottom line is that if we went behind the pulpit, or if we went into a Sunday School class with a heart to ‘convince’ rather than out of a feeling of following a written script so that we could get the job over with, and move on to the next job, perhaps we could see more souls won for the Lord every week. What if we took that on as our personal motto each day, to convince the lost that cross our paths that they really need to know the Savior that is Lord of our lives? Wow, there will be a great revival in the land!

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father You know better than we ourselves, how content we have become to just do our job and move on to the next thing. You know how content we have become with ourselves, and how uncaring we have become about those friends that cross our path and do not know You. Yes, they are about to walk a dangerous road with the risk of oncoming traffic, and we let them go ahead, many times without even a warning. I know that You are a patient God, but Lord Jesus, please help me/us to stop procrastinating and accepting the norm from these friends. We know the impending danger, please give us the guts, the enthusiasm about our own faith, the urgency to convince or persuade them so that they may safely walk this path down here with all confidence, knowing that on that day when You call them home to be with You, that there will be no doubt about their eternal destiny.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: Acts 17.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Acts 17:11-12 (NLT)

11 And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. 12 As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

Many would naturally say that in going to church they expect to hear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because if there is one place where they should expect to receive the unadulterated Word of God, is the church. Generally, this is the truth friend, but as children of God we have an obligation to be deep in the Word ourselves so that as it is explained we can truly follow what God is saying to us. Proving what the preacher is saying is very much in order. Following in the Word helps us to stay focused on what is being taught, and it helps us to understand how to study our Bibles. I heard a preacher say one time that he was questioned by a saint who persistently followed in her Bible. He found where he had not given the full and accurate intent of the passage to the people and that correction was necessary. The next Sunday he re-preached the same sermon, but this time with the corrections in place. Jesus is the only perfect One there ever was, and since He is not the one delivering the sermon, we must pray for, and test the spoken Word to support and make sure that it is delivered in accordance with the Bible. Make it a point to take your tools with you when you go to worship – take your favorite Bible. Open it when the pastor is ready to deliver his sermon and follow along while all the verses are being referred to. Chat with the pastor about anything you didn’t understand or couldn’t follow. This will encourage him to know that you care enough to follow, and want to learn. This will help your pastor to feel accountable to not only God, but to his flock, because he knows that they are following along and helping him make sure that he gets it right. Verse 12 says that as a result of the people truly understanding the Word of God, many were saved. Praise be to God!

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Lord, Your Word is very plain and often You repeat the important things that You want us to learn. Please help me to always have a desire for studying Your Word, for it contains truth and direction and wisdom to help me in my daily walk. Please help me to be consistent in following along as Your Word is taught and/or preached and help me to understand all the truths being proclaimed. Thank You for Paul and Silas, and thank You for the preachers and teachers that I am blessed to sit under. Please continue to bless Your servants that proclaim Your Word. May it never fall on deaf ears, but rather have an eternal impact on those that hear, believe, accept and are obedient to its truths.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

2 Chronicles 7:12-15 (NLT)

12 Then one night the Lord appeared to Solomon and said, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this Temple as the place for making sacrifices. 13 At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. 14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. 15 My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

In chapter 6, Solomon asked God to make provisions for the people when they sinned. God answered with four conditions for forgiveness: (1) Humble yourself by admitting your sins, (2) pray to God, asking for forgiveness, (3) seek God continually, and (4) turn from sinful behavior. True repentance is more than talk—it is changed behavior. Whether we sin individually, as a group, or as a nation, following these steps will lead to forgiveness. God will answer our earnest prayers. I believe that God placed His Word for even us today to understand and apply to our lives. I believe that my God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Therefore I believe that if He made provisions for the Israelites to know how and when to go about receiving a blessing from Him, and He placed this in print for His believers of today to read, understand and follow, then I believe that we could expect the same action form God even today. In other words, I believe that in order for us to receive forgiveness and restoration of God’s blessings, we must follow the four conditions outlined in these verses. To prove my belief in this I did a ‘what if’ scenario, by placing the word ‘don’t’ at the beginning of each of the four conditions individually to see if it would still make sense for God to still bless us, and the experiment made no sense at all. Friends, we are either totally dedicated to God or not. Partial dedication, or a dedication of convenience, is very easily identified as ‘not’ being dedicated to God. I don’t know about you friend, but I want to know that I am totally in God’s will and totally open to His blessings, wisdom and direction each and every day. After meditating on this passage, I believe that in order for me to expect this kind of response from God, I must therefore (1) humble myself before the holy and righteous God that I serve, (2) be in constant prayer before Him and seek His ongoing forgiveness of my weak and frivolous failures, (3) do this continuously as each and every day presents its own challenges and increased pressure on me to sin, and (4) learn to turn away from sin, and not just do it with expectation that God will forgive me anyway. If He teaches me how to live righteous and in obedience to His will and example, then I must follow that example.

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father, I have heard verse 14 quoted so many times, yet as I meditated on it this morning You revealed a very personal application to me. You also helped me to understand the reason why, in the life of our church, that we struggle and why it seems like Your hand has been lifted from us. You have given me the conditions of Your blessings. You have given our churches the conditions to follow so that we may receive a touch from You. (Do this….. then…..) Therefore, I believe that way too often we seek Your blessings without ever stopping to evaluate what might be blocking that blessing. I am reminded that I must clean up my act, my life, my ways so that You can bless me. I must be instrumental as a leader in my church to look for ways (seek Your face) that we may be more representative of Your love in our community, so that we might be more of a ‘lighthouse’ that represents You, in our community, rather than a place of division, hatred, impurity and sin, so that You may freely bless Your work through us and reach our community for the Lord. We seek Your blessings dear Lord, please help us to clean up any unrighteousness that may block or prevent Your blessings.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: 2 Chronicles 6.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

2 Chronicles 6:28-31 (NLT)

28 “If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns — whatever disaster or disease there is — 29 and if your people Israel pray about their troubles or sorrow, raising their hands toward this Temple, 30 then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart.
31 Then they will fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

Solomon had just opened the temple he had built and had the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant relocated to the temple. He stepped onto a 4ft high platform he had built in the temple, and knelt before God in the presence of his people and prayed with his arms lifted towards heaven. The verses above were part of his prayer, and really caught my attention. Although Solomon had asked God to pretty much listen to the prayers of his people as they came into the temple and prayed, but then in verse 30 he added “Give Your people what their actions deserve, for You alone know each human heart”. Wow! What if God really did that today? How much longer would we live? Yet knowing that He could very well do just that, we go on living any way we want in the very presence of this awesome God that we serve. You know, I believe that a very sobering thought is that yes, God loves us immensely, but I also believe that He really loves us too much to see us plundering around in sin, when we claim to be His and trying to live a life exemplifying Him. How long will He be patient and forgiving of us? How long will He listen to our moaning and complaining when we are such a blessed people? How long will He listen to our double talk, where we claim to be His yet living like the world? What if God truly said, OK that’s enough, I will give them what they deserve?

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father I believe with all my heart that You love me beyond my capacity to understand. Thank You for being so patient with me. Thank You for sacrificing Your one and only Son, so that I might look forward to, and anticipate with great joy, the day that I will unite with You in heaven. Please forgive me where I have failed to represent You in a way pleasing to You. Thank You for the opportunities You send my way where I can witness to those that need to know You personally. May I always be true to my commitment to You and to my service to You. May others truly see Jesus in my actions and in my talk, and because of that may I influence them to know the Savior that I love and adore. You know my heart oh Lord, may my actions always reflect my heart and may it all be pleasing to You.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: Acts 15.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Acts 15:7-11 (NLT)

7 At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. 8 God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. 10 So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

I believe that much too often we allow our own self judgment to prevent us from witnessing, or preaching, to certain folk because, from our perspective, God would never save them. During this past week when I was really feeling down about how awful things are, I was reminded that had it not been for the grace of God, would any of us have been saved? I love one of our newer contemporary songs that speak of all the people that Jesus loves anyway. With this in mind, why then do we judge who we feel God can save? Wait a minute, you might say, because you never judge anyone. Friends, when we look at others and feel intimidated to witness to them, we are placing them out of the realm of God’s ability to actually touch their hard hearts and save them. When we refuse to witness to certain sections of town, because of all that we have heard about from the newspapers with crime and sinful acts, I believe that we are really saying “I hear You telling me to go there God, but ……”. Let’s remember that the Jews thought that salvation, or God’s favor was really just for the Jews, so I’m sure that when Peter felt such a burden to preach to the Gentiles, his own people must have thought that he was out of his mind. Others will feel like we have lost our minds also when we listen to the voice of God to preach to, witness to, and love all the people groups of our communities. When God orders His church to witness to those in need of Him, I don’t believe that there is any respecter of persons. As verse 11 says, we are all undeserving of God’s grace; however we ALL can be saved in just the same way, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let’s lift the barriers friends, and lets preach the work of Christ to our world, yes even to those that we have always felt are impossible to reach because of walls that we have built in our minds.

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father, with a very important week ahead of me in the life of our church and many churches in this community reaching out to the people groups of Avon Park, I believe that You have placed this passage before me this morning to really meditate on and be reminded of that as we participate in Noah’s Fall Festival, that there is no respecter of persons in Your eyes, so there should be none in my eyes. Help me that I may love those that I come into contact with at the festival and that I may openly witness to them of Your love and mercy that is available to them. May they learn that they too can be saved and live in harmony with the God of our universe? Your love reaches out to the world. May I be a true example of You and do the same.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: 1 Chronicles 29.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

1 Chronicles 29:18-19 (NLT)

18 “O Lord, the God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make your people always want to obey you. See to it that their love for you never changes.

19 Give my son Solomon the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, laws, and decrees, and to do everything necessary to build this Temple, for which I have made these preparations.”

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

It touched my heart this morning to read chapters 28 and 29 and to hear the sincere heart of David as he prayed to God for his people and for his son who was inheriting his throne. As my prayer this morning, I want to substitute and add to the verses above so that it may reflect my current circumstance. Won’t you do the same as you meditate on this today? We need God more today in our lives than ever before, and we should have a desire to see God in our children, our extended family, our church family, our work family and our community. I believe that God will still work through His people even today, but we must turn from our sinful ways, seek Him, serve Him, love Him, obey Him and follow Him in all aspects of our lives. Friends, this requires much prayer, self-sacrifice and self-dedication, but we know the recipe, now let’s do it!

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

O Lord, the God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Samuel (my grandfather) and Cloide (my precious dad), make your people (my family, my extended family, my work family, my church family, my community of Avon Park, my state of Florida and all of its government leaders, and my country), always want to obey you. See to it that their love for you never changes.

Give my daughter the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, laws, and decrees, and to do everything necessary to live a life exemplifying You in every way so that You may not only bless her, but also bless those whose lives she touches. May I always be an example before her. Father, we need You more today than ever before. Teach us Your ways each and every day, and give us strength, wisdom and knowledge to follow Your way in all that we do and say. May we truly be ‘Christ-like’ in all of our ways.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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Scripture: Acts 14.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Acts 14:1-4 (NLT)

1 The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. 2 Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. 3 But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders.

4 But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

I believe that the same thing that happened in this passage still occurs today in our churches:

1. There are still good preachers and evangelists that preach the Word of God with great power and many are saved;
   
2. There are still Christians and non-believers that distract the spreading of the gospel because of jealousy and/or risk of losing church members to another following;
   
3. God will honor our determination to serve Him, even through opposition and diversity;
   
4. We probably will not win them all, but some will discern the handiwork of God and will surrender their lives to Him through our persistent hard work and determination to do God’s will.
   

I have often thought about what might be said about our era and how our work may compare to that of Bible characters/missionaries/evangelists. I know that in some parts of the world, Christians are still being persecuted and even killed, but we know little about this in the USA. I wonder how we would hold up under such persecution? Thank God for warriors like Paul and Barnabas, and thank God for the soldiers of the cross today. May we all be found pleasing in God’s sight for carrying on His work in our parts of the world, whether under persecution or not.

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Father You know about those of us that face persecution in one form or another as we seek to do Your will each day. You know the needs that still exist in our own backyards and the effort we put into evangelizing the lost. I was disturbed to hear last night that only about 10% of our towns are churched. This means that less than that are actually saved. This means that we have an awesome mission field right in our own backyards. Please help us to be busy about Your work of winning the lost. Please encourage Your church to be the church and extend Your plan of salvation to all. It would be awesome to see the statistics in reverse, only 10% unsaved! Please use us to fulfill Your desire of our town, beginning with using me today, is my prayer.

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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