Resource Manager Posted October 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2011 26 October 2011 2 Chronicles 23Daniel 4Acts 2 "SO THOSE WHO RECEIVED HIS WORD WERE BAPTISED" What is it to receive God’s word? Countless millions have read God’s word. Go back into ancient history; the world before Noah, his wife and family, turned right away from God. Soon the descendants of Noah were turning away again, resulting in God confounding human languages at Babel, a word which is significantly translated into Greek as Babylon. Then God saw in the man Abraham, a man of true faith. God had many dealings with him and we read 2 days ago in 2 Chronicles 20 the prayer of King Jehoshaphat as he stood before the assembly and made an impassioned prayer to the LORD saying they were “the descendents of Abraham your friend.” [2 Chronicles 20:7] But the quite common Hebrew word here is almost always translated elsewhere as love and loves! In God’s message through Isaiah he is addressed “the offspring of Abraham, my friend” [isaiah 41:8], it is the same Hebrew word. In a few days we will read Daniel’s desperate “prayer and pleas for mercy … O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him …” [Daniel 9:3,4] “Love” is the same Hebrew word! As we read John’s Gospel earlier this month we saw Jesus’ response to those who proudly said, “Abraham is our father” – meriting the response, “If you were Abraham’s children you would be doing what Abraham did’ ” [John 8 :39] It maybe that some of these were hearing Peter’s speech which we read today in Acts 2. The affect of the Spirit inspired preaching of Peter caused many to be “cut to the heart” [Acts 2:37] and “with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation’ so those who received his word were baptised” [Acts 2:40-41] What a crooked generation it is today! Back to our opening question; “What is it to RECEIVE God’s word?” It is one thing to hear (or to read), it is something else to “receive.” The ‘receiving’ means that God’s word becomes part of your thinking – and therefore of your doing. And “those who received his word and were baptised and “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” [Acts 2:42]. Before Christ returns may more receive God’s word and do this. -------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted October 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2011 27 October 2011 2 Chronicles 24Daniel 5Acts 3; 4 "HIS KNEES KNOCKED TOGETHER" If you were doing a Bible Quiz and you were asked whose “knees knocked together” and why – what would you answer? Well, the answer is in today’s readings: it is one of several lessons as to how quickly humans can forget the evidence of the power and presence of God in their lives or in those very near to them. King Belshazzar was probably the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 5 tells of “1,000 lords” gathered together by Belshazzar and drinking wine. They were using “the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar “had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem” [Daniel 5:1,2]. As “they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone, immediately the fingers of a human hand appearing and wrote on the plaster of the wall …” [Daniel 5:4,5] It was such a dramatic happening that “the king’s colour changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together” [Daniel 5:6] His wise men cannot interpret the writing, but the queen mother comes in [Daniel 5:10] and reminds him of the now aged Daniel. He is called and arrives to interpret the writing, a message of doom – “you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting” [Daniel 5:27]. His kingdom is to be overthrown by Darius and “That very night Belshazzar … was killed” [Daniel 5:30]. Our Chronicles reading provides similar lessons. We read in 2 Chronicles 23 of the boy Joash who was preserved to become king. He was guided by the aged priest Jehoiada and did great work to repair the Temple which had been desecrated by his evil grandmother who had seized control of the nation and killed all the heirs, but he had been hidden. “But Jehoiada grew old and died … He was 130 years old” [2 Chronicles 24:15]; the then “the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king (flattered him). Then the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the LORD” [2 Chronicles 24:17-18} and great trouble followed. These events are lessons for us. This world has abandoned all meaningful belief in God – so will not God, maybe soon, create situations in which knees will knock together – and worse! The words of the prophets are that he will, let us heed the lessons of history. -------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted October 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2011 28 October 2011 2 Chronicles 25Daniel 6Acts 5; 6 "COUNTED WORTHY TO SUFFER DISHONOUR" Today in our readings in both Daniel and Acts we have lessons on how, in serving God and our Lord Jesus with a true and sincere heart to do what we know to be his will, there can be times when we will suffer “dishonour.” Yet the “dishonour” turns into that which is “good” further on in our life in the service of God proving the truth of Paul’s words, “that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose” [Romans 8:28] It is things that are for God’s “good” and “his purpose.” Even in a situation, as we will see tomorrow with Stephen, it is but a sleep with a glorious awakening, as we will soon read in Daniel, “everyone whose name is found written in the (God’s) book shall awake … to everlasting life” [Daniel 12:1,2] Our first example of ‘dishonour’ today is Daniel; it is the result of his commitment to pray 3 times a day despite an edict which King Darius had been tricked into making. God protects Daniel when he is put into the lion’s den, this event is well known to most, but we take notice most of all of what Darius then wrote, “to all peoples and languages … I make a decree , that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is a living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed … “ [Daniel 6:25,26] The last verse tells us that “Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian” Now look across to the book of Ezra, the very first verse starts, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia … he made a proclamation … the LORD, the God of heaven … has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem … to rebuild the house (Temple)” [Ezra 6:1-3], so there is a chain reaction to Daniel’s faithfulness to God in continuing to pray. Our reading in Acts contains the account of how “the High Priest rose up, and all who were with him … they arrested the Apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors …” [Acts 5:17,18] The authorities again found them preaching in the Temple and arrested them again and “brought them before the council” and told them, “we strictly charged you not to teach in this name” [Acts 5:27,28] “Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men” [Acts 5:29]. The end result was that they were beaten [Acts 5:40] and “then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name.” [Acts 5:41]. We wonder what challenges of “dishonour” might yet face committed believers today. -------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted October 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2011 29 October 2011 2 Chronicles 26; 27Daniel 7Acts 7 "BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM" In Acts 6 we read of the appointment of “seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom “ [Acts 6:3] to assist the disciples so that they could devote themselves “to prayer and the ministry of the word” [Acts 6:4]. One of these, Stephen, was particularly zealous in preaching and challenged the Jewish visitors to Jerusalem, and they “disputed with Stephen”. Some of these came “from Cilicia” [Acts 6:9] where Paul came from – he was to prove the most aggressive of them all. Stephen is brought before the council and the High Priest asks him, “Are these things so? And Stephen replies: ‘Brothers and Fathers hear me’ ”. He then gives them a history lesson the point of which was to illustrate how God had acted in the past in raising up men like Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David who though initially separated and opposed by their brethren went on to do great service before God. Stephen then bluntly challenged them, “you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you” [Acts 7:51]. God sent “the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered” [Acts 7:52] Now the believers had “multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith” [Acts 6:7]. There was surely an expectation of some remarkable deliverance such as had already happened as we have read previously in Acts. But no! Consider why it was God’s will for Stephen to die. Also note how his last words were so similar to those of Christ at his death. Jesus had said that his message “should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” [Luke 24:47], but they had not gone beyond Jerusalem – but now events made them do so. Acts 8 tells us, “those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” [Acts 8:4] Most of all, look at the later impact on Paul, who it says, “approved of his execution” [Acts 8:1] and who, when he was dramatically converted did his utmost to carry on where Stephen left off. Truly God makes “all things work together for good … according to his purpose” [Romans 8:28]. Paul came to know “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” [Ephesians 1:19] We must be willing to sense his involvement in our lives. -------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted October 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2011 30 October 2011 2 Chronicles 28Daniel 8Acts 8 “… HAD RECEIVED THE WORD OF GOD” We recall how Jesus often went through Samaria in travelling from Jerusalem to Galilee and back. On several occasions he spent time with the people there. We had some thoughts a couple of weeks ago of the occasion when he heeded their request to stay and teach them and, as a result, some said, “we know that this is indeed the saviour of the world.” [John 4:42] So we can see that the Samarians were ready for the Gospel harvest. Jesus commissioned his disciples as he was about to ascend to heaven that they were to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” [Acts 1:8] Only today is the message really reaching “the end of the earth.” They were at first slow to carry out his commission. Preaching was concentrated on Jerusalem until Stephen was killed, but, as we commented yesterday on Acts 8, after Stephen’s death the believers “were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” [Acts 8:1] Philip made a particular effort to preach in Samaria [Acts 8:5] “and the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said … and saw the signs that he did … so there was much joy … ” [Acts 8:6,8] “When they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God, they were baptised … now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent to them Peter and John” [Acts 8:12,14]. This is a key word – receive, received, that we will encounter in the book of Acts and apostolic writings; for example when we come to Acts 11 – it starts, “Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.” [Acts 11:1]. The point is; it is one thing to read and to hear about the message of the Kingdom and of Christ’s return to establish it – but it is another to receive it into our heart and mind. Look up the words in Acts 17:11 as a special example. If you “receive” a message it becomes part of your thinking and motivates you into action. Have you “received” the word of God – or only just know about it? To find it interesting is only a stepping stone – the journey to conviction has to be completed and it is a fascinating, exciting and totally rewarding journey. -------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted October 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2011 31 October 2011 2 Chronicles 29Daniel 9Acts 9 "I WAS APPALLED AT THE VISION" Daniel was an emotional man; very few have had experiences like his. Imagine yourself carried away captive as a teenager! This was some years before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. We know nothing of his upbringing, but it was such that made him refuse the king’s “delicacies” [Daniel 1:8] so he would not defile himself; they probably contained blood or something forbidden under the Mosaic Law. Today’s reading in Daniel [Daniel 9] is when he is an old man and the Medes and Persians are in power and Darius is in control, this man is described as “the son of Ahasuerus”. There is no proof that this Ahasuerus is the same man who married Esther but, if he was, it would fit in well with the surprising Persian policy of the edict to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. [Ezra 6] that we will read in a couple of weeks – on which we commented recently. Daniel’s visions of the future that we read yesterday, was about “many days from now” [Daniel 8:26] when “the Prince of princes” destroys the aggressor “but by no human hand.” Now this vision results in Daniel being “overcome and sick for some days … I was appalled at the vision and did not understand it. [Daniel 8:27]: there was more to follow. In today’s chapter there are visions which include the 70 times 7 time periods which are taken to mean years and add up to 490 [Daniel 9:24]. This is calculated as bringing us to AD26 and the beginning of the ministry of Jesus and the reason why the people were in “expectation” [Luke 3:15] when Jesus began his ministry. Daniel is told the climax of this period will “finish transgression and bring an end to sin” – and in a spiritual sense Jesus did this when he made one sacrifice for all time and brought an end to the Law by fulfilling that to which the Law pointed. In Hebrews we read that Christ “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins” [Hebrews 10:12] and “has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” [Hebrews 10:14]. Daniel, in his distress sought God in desperate prayer [Daniel 9:3] and saw the need of “gaining insight into your truth” [Daniel 9:13]. That attitude is just as much needed today. But there are other visions which look much further forward to our days and beyond and we hope to have appropriate thoughts about these in the next day or two.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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