Acts

More from Bro. Mike's sermons on Acts.....

On the 12th of December, Bro. Mike concluded his sermon with thoughts about the goings-on at that Pentecost (Acts 2). What was the commotion really all about?

About a loving God reaching down to bless the whole world with a gift He desired to give.

It was the reversal of what happened at Babel thousands of years before (Genesis 11)

Here at this Pentecost, in Jerusalem, Jews and Jewish converts from all over the world were hearing the disciples in their own languages. "Utterly amazed, they asked, 'Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappodocia, Pontus and Asia....Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!'" (Acts 2)

It was about a loving God reaching down to bless the whole world with a gift He desired to give.

In order to give it, He had to get their attention! And so He did!

Grace is truly amazing. Just a few weeks before these people had condemned Christ and demanded His crucifixion. The same Peter who had denied even knowing Christ was now speaking to this crowd and proclaiming that Christ was, indeed, the promised Messiah.

God is finished filling His temples. He is now filling us with His Spirit. Do we focus on that? Do we reveal that in our daily lives?

(Personal Note: I have been thinking a lot lately about God's sovereignty. In Isaiah 46: 10, He reminds us, "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient time, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." I love that -- it makes me feel great joy -- He will do exactly what He pleases!

Then the Psalmist, in Psalm 135, says "I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths." He does whatever pleases Him.....not me, but Him!

I enjoy these reminders that our God is up there watching over us all and sometimes reaching right down into history and turning things all around and upside down! Just like at that Pentecost. God is good. All the time. All the time God is good. And God can surprise us!

Then this morning in Chuck Colson's Breakpoint article he talked about the invocation given during the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancun. In the woman's invocation she invoked the Mayan goddess, Ixchel, a deity who demanded human sacrifices, and "prayed" that the deity would "inspire" the delegates!

Is this for real? I don't think we could make up a story any funnier! And they get paid for that?
So is global warming related in some way to the pagan sacrificial fires they threw their prisoners, and even their own children, in? Sorry, I know that's not funny. It was, and is, horribly real.)