Old Jerry

I have the same problem of not believing when my prayers are answered. I don’t know why because they are always answered but maybe not the way I wanted them to be. They probably did believe in miracles it just surprised them that their prayers answered this way. The way that I grow in faith in God is by reading about people that have had their prayer answered in a marvels way.

By sending the monetary gift to Antioch, the believers were showing that they loved them and wanted them to know that they were with them. This is what Jesus was talking about while he was on earth. The reason that the ministry to the poor and needy has been a hallmark of the Church is because we are trying to follow Jesus’ example. I think that if we deemphasized this the Church would fall apart. We wouldn’t be showing our love for the Lord. I don’t see how we can over-emphasize this.

Barnabas was an ideal missionary to the new Gentile believers in Antioch because he was generous, spoke the langue, and was full of the Holy Spirit and faith. Saul of Tarsus was also a Greek speaking person and has been trained as a Pharisee and had been teaching the gentiles in Tarsus. I think that the Lord had been training him while he was in Antioch.

I think that it took so long for the gospel to jump over the Jewish “fishing pond” into the vast ocean of Gentiles was that the people that were going to spread the Good News was comfortable in their homes. They didn’t leave until a persecution happened. They had to understand what had happening.

The scripture does not support a doctrine that speaking in tongues is a “necessary sign” of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In some cases it did and other it didn’t.

Jesus needed the Spirit’s anointing because the Spirit is part of God. Jesus needed the whole power of God while he was here in earth. We are dependent upon the Spirit’s empowerment in a similar way in order to accomplish what God has put us on earth to do.

God had to inform Peter that some men, that were not Jewish, were going to visit him. And the vision of the unclean meats was a way of doing it. It was the Jewish custom not to associate with people that were not Jewish. God told Peter that anything that He had made was not unclean and was acceptable. This revelation completely turn the Jewish dietary laws on its head.

I think that an obedient life give God pleasure because he knows that we are thinking about Him. I do think I can bring pleasure to God by obeying Him.

We learned that Cornelius was an upright man. I think the reason that God chose to reveal himself to Cornelius was because He knew that Cornelius was an upright man. If his heart is in the right place, then he is worthy of salvation but not any more than any other person with a heart for God.

After the healing and raising the dead the word spread around the region and those that heard about it was converted to Christianity. If I had a spiritual gift of healing I would definitely use my ministry to obey God and let him use me.

The role of debate and argument in evangelism is to explain to the person about Jesus. They might have a misconception about Him. If you debate them you can bring the points of Christianity to their minds. The value of studying the Scriptures for the divinity of Jesus is so you can know what you are taking about. I have prepared myself that way.

God had Ananias go to Saul and with God’s power removed Saul’s blindness. Then Saul was baptized. It is very important to listen and obey in ministry because we will probably never understand what God is doing. So we need to always be listening to what God is telling us. I would only prepared if God is calling me to do it because He will be with me and directing me.

Persecuting the Church is the same as persecuting Jesus because we are representing Jesus at this time until he returns. Jesus is the one that started the church so the bond is supposed to be like that of a husband’s and wife’s bond. We must show reverence toward Christ’s Church because Jesus is our King.

God speaks to us today by is Spirit. I have many a time that He has spoken to me. Something out of the clear blue sky comes to me and I have no idea where it came from except from the Spirit.

The root of Simon’s sin is pride and it might have been of greed. Using money to buy spiritual influence, power, and salvation is so deeply offensive to God because all you have to do is turn your heart over to God and He will give you the Spirit as a gift. God gives it away as a gift something that you can’t buy. I saw this sin with the television evangelist.

I think that Phillip preaching to them the Word of God and the miracles that they saw when Phillip healed the lame and crippled. Maybe the reason that the Holy Spirit didn’t fall on them at the time because God wanted Peter and John to leave Judah and spread the Word.

I find that knowing that God is in charge and I know that he loves me and wishes me no harm, then I can give thanks in all circumstances. The short-term effect was that the Christens scattered and the long-term effect was that they spread the Word.

Jesus was “the Righteous One” because he had no blemish and had committed no sin. He was our perfect sacrifice as the unblemished lamb. If we try to follow his righteousness and try to be like him that will make us look at our sins and repent and try to do better. Jesus dealt with the great gap caused my unrighteousness by sacrificing himself on the cross.

I have noticed the tendencies in my own heart of being stubbornness, hard-hearted and resistance to God. It has happened when he puts something on my heart that I don’t want to do. I have to repent and trust God.

It seems to me that Stephen filled all the qualities of the list verse 3 as compared to Stephen’s character in verse 8. He probably exceed those qualities. The reason that combining the word with miracles is so powerful because you would know that they had be to in communication with God otherwise the miracles would not happen.

I think that the root problem in the Jerusalem church is that there are two groups and don’t speak the same language and they can’t resolve their disputes. The root problem was slowly growing and erode spiritual life because they can’t commutate and resolve it. The apostles dealt with it by calling them together and got the two groups talking by letting them choose the seven that would supervise the distribution of the goods. As far as I can tell there isn’t a root problem in our congregation. The leaders sometimes avoid dealing with church problems because they don’t want to alienate one of the groups.

I think the long section about the apostles’ imprisonment, trail before the Sanhedrin and flogging was because he wanted us to know that the apostles were serious about teaching about our Savior. They didn’t care what it took to teach us about God. In my culture it doesn’t take much to keep Christians from sharing their faith openly. It seems like it only takes a little harassment to accomplish this. I don’t share my faith like I should.

I think that the central sin that Ananias and Sapphira are guilty of is pride. They wanted to be seen as somebody that will give their all. Lying to Peter is the same as “lying to the Holy Spirit” because he was representing the Holy Spirit at that time. Acting like the church is a mere human institution puts us under God’s judgment because the things in the church are holy. We all belong to God and we need to treat all thing that is God’s with respect. To “test the Spirit of the Lord” is wrong because one thing the bible tells not to test the Lord. Not even Jesus would test the Lord. To test the Spirit is to do something that is wrong and see if the Spirit picks up on it.

To “having everything in common” is at the root of true Christian fellowship because then we can count on each other when we get into a tight spot. We know that somebody will have our back. It means that we love them and will take care of them when they are in a desperate situation. We will not let then hang out on their own. We fall way short of this in our churches. Ever since we let the government take over our welfare system, we don’t take care of those in need.

The meaning of “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” is that they were able to perform miracles and preach boldly because the Holy Spirit was in them. They were filled with the Spirit but now it was overflowing allowing them to do great works.