The Flood: Acts 1-3
The Flood is a New Community effort to read through the New Testament in 40 days. To learn more about it, visit CentralChurchHHI.com. A devotional journal accompanies each reading, but I thought it would be a good idea to post my thoughts here.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out”
Acts 3:13-19 (NIV)
There’s so much action in the first three chapters of Acts that it’s easy to miss the recurring theme of God’s forgiveness. The first people he reached out to on the day of Pentecost were the very people who nailed him to the cross.
Today’s Prayer:
God help me to be grateful always that you took a lonely boy intent on cursing your name and loved him in spite of himself. Help me to love others and view them as innocent no matter what.
That last part gave me pause. Do I really mean “no matter what?” God work in me.