Tagged: Prayer Intention

“Yet I know, my brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did.” –Acts 3:17 Contrary to the old saying, ignorance is not bliss. What you don’t know will hurt you. God’s people perish for lack of knowledge (Hos 4:6). Of course, the Lord is merciful and will even make excuses for us in our ignorance: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). Nevertheless, there comes a time when there’s no excuse for our ignorance of God, His Word, and His plan of salvation. “God may well have overlooked bygone periods...

Look around among your own number, brothers, for seven men acknowledged to be deeply spiritual.” –Acts 6:3 “They presented these men to the apostles.” –Acts 6:6 Did you notice that the leaders of the early Church placed the responsibility for finding deacons on the “community of the disciples”? (Acts 6:2) That’s us! We need to be on the lookout for those who would make good leaders in the Church. This was new for the early Christians. Jewish priests and Levites were born into their positions. The apostles were called and chosen by Jesus Himself. The early Church, however, called the...

Jesus “knew well what He intended to do but He asked this to test Philip’s response.” –John 6:6 Jesus plans to test us. He will present us with humanly impossible situations (see Jn 6:5) to see whether we will walk by faith or by sight (2 Cor 5:7). He will test us to see whether we will judge by God’s standards or by men’s (1 Sm 16:7; Mt 16:23). We may even be tested by persecution. Will we do the natural thing: hate our persecutors and be intimidated by them? Or will we forgive our enemies, love them, and consider...

“Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life.” –John 3:16 Those who believe in Jesus have eternal life (Jn 20:31). Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full (Jn 10:10). Jesus is the Life (Jn 11:25; 14:6), and He gives life (Jn 5:21). The angel who freed the apostles from prison told them: “Preach to the people all about this new life” (Acts 5:20). This full eternal life is the life of heaven which Christians begin to experience...