Timeless Text Messages: Acts (via Mowser)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Boards of Salvation

Stay with the ship even when it is torn all to pieces. Please visit me @ Beneath the Ivy Wreath for the related post.

Dear reader, I want you to know that you are in my prayers today. Thanks for stopping by my place.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

A Deliberate Call

The book of Acts is one of my favorites. It is rich in historical data, sets forth the foundation of the New Testament Church, chronicles the exploits of the Apostles, and provides an overview of the life of Paul. For today's post, I want to use a portion of chapter 26; copied here from the KJV. Follow this link for the entire chapter.

16But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
17Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,
18To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Here Paul recounts the words previously recorded in Acts 9:3-6 then elaborates a bit more on the message from Christ in verses 16 - 18. For our study today; I want to glean from the text some reasons Christ makes Himself known to us. Why He takes us out of the world just to send us back unto it.

to make us His ministers/servants to make us testimonials/witnesses of His power/acts to use us as His heralds of the revelations He will show us to enable us to enlighten others; to be guides to aid us in turning others from darkness into light; to be reflections of the Light to use us to loose those who are bound by satan; to be agents of deliverance to use us to teach sinners what is required to be forgiven; to be teachers and to show them how to lay claim to what belongs to the sanctified; to be models

No different than Paul; we all are called and empowered to be His witnesses. We must declare the same message as Paul, as we minister to the world .

Also worth mentioning: We must be knocked off of our "high horse"of sinfulness before we can be of use to the Lord. Secondly, we have to stand up/become attentive in order to receive instructions for salvation and ministry. We can't work in the Kingdom lying down!