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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Godly people are valiant people.
They are people with the courage to ask God to spotlight areas of weakness, sin, and failure. Then God can strengthen, heal, and complete what is lacking. As we look at the sins of the Pharisees, let's ask God
Without love for God and His Word, we're just trying to be good. Nothing will wear you out faster.
Oh, God, forgive us when we act like modern-day Pharisees. Convict us at the very moment of our departure from the law of love You have written on our hearts. Give us hearts of devotion, not heads full of religion.
People who hide behind masks don't particularly like to be around those who peel them off.
His power can make someone entirely different—crucified with Christ and alive in the Spirit!
Only Jesus could turn such a self-proclaimed enemy of the gospel into one of the greatest lovers of the gospel who ever lived.
His father may have acted as if his son had never been born.
When God desires to do “a new thing” (Isa. 43:19), He purposely seeks out a few righteous renegades who don't have a problem breaking the mold! Mold-breakers are usually people who don't care much about popularity or tradition.
I have a good friend at church who is a mold-breaker. He has been used of God to help make our church a viable presence in the new millennium. I don't mind telling you, he has had as many enemies as friends.
“encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.”
The most effective time to resolve to obey Christ is in advance of difficulty. Planning to stay faithful can greatly enhance victory.
Plan with goal and structure
“If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name”
The leaders of the church in Antioch were constantly ready to hear from God; therefore, when He spoke, they were listening!
“So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:3).
Meet the first international missionaries: Saul and Barnabas!
He struck Bar-Jesus blind.
Miracles were used more often for authenticity than intervention. Miracles were used most often when natural means were either not available or not conceivable.
Jesus ordinarily used natural means of provision.
When He and His disciples were hungry, they usually found something to eat. When they were thirsty, they went to a well and...
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supplied anything they wanted supernaturally, but He chose natural means when available. He responded the same way to impending danger. He used His f...
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would prefer to be rescued before the first stone is thrown, not after the last!
“to drag along the ground.” Rhuomai means “to draw or snatch from danger, rescue, deliver.”
“This is more with the meaning of drawing to oneself than merely rescuing from someone or something.”
You see, God wasn't only interested in drawing Paul out of difficulty or danger. He wanted to ...
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They drew a universal standard from their personal experience.
The heart and the life sometimes turn instantaneously like the first example. Other times the heart turns instantaneously but the life adjusts a little more slowly like the second example. Let's not make salvation more difficult than it has to
The same man who had the propensity to be irritable and unreasonable could be spiritual and tender moments later. Sound familiar?
of difficulty in the description in Acts 15:39: “They had such a sharp disagreement that they
parted company.” Strong emotions spawn sharp disagreements.
In fact, the greatest challenges to learn and grow are ahead!
Nothing will profit you more than learning to examine the Scriptures for yourself.
Imitating the noble practices of
the Bereans will be your safety as teachers come and go—and your sanity when life rocks and rolls.
Paul never mentions a church resulting from his work.
accounts. I suspect that Paul's visit to Athens affected him far more than we realize. Few people believed and received Christ.
The Athenians did not throw Paul out of the city or persecute him in any obvious way. The few converts appear to have produced little fruit. Apparently no church was established. Paul spent most of his days in Athens alone.
In 1 Corinthians we see an insight Paul eventually gained from his experience. Are these words evidence that he may have been thinking back on the Athenians? “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; / the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate’” (1 Cor. 1:18–19).
The opposite word is confidence. By the time Paul reached Corinth, he had lost his confidence.
Possibly he wondered if the fruit he had seen in other cities had come from God's blessings on Barnabas or Silas.
Athens. God sometimes uses us most powerfully when we feel the least adequate.
When I got up off my knees to teach, a stream of strength seemed to pour from heaven. Not in buckets. It was more like an intravenous drip. Just enough for me to know He was sustaining me minute by minute.
task. Never in my adult life have I had less confidence, yet He gave me enough of His to keep my knees from buckling.
The fact that a need exists does not mean God has called me to meet that need.
He is joyfully using many different methods and styles to accomplish His goal of equipping His church to be effective and holy during difficult days.
His answer to camping around certain speakers? Oh, grow up! (1 Cor. 3:3–4).
Like Gideon's army (see Judg. 7), a few well-trained soldiers in the Lord's service can be more effective than hundreds who have never been discipled.
Satan attacked the apostle relentlessly, but he was no match for the power of God.
In both Philippi and Ephesus, it was profit that motivated Gentiles to oppose Paul.
Obviously, he possessed a genuinely likable personality.
