Peter Revealed- Our Story: Gods Glory

Greetings again everyone, 

I guess I am taking some time to catch up on my Blog Posts today. 

Before I begin to lay out my thoughts on Peter, you must know that I connect with Peter very deeply. I have never denied Christ by any means but the characteristics and words of Peter have long spoken to my heart and made me the believer that I am today. 

In my 'conversation' with the congregation this summer regarding Peter I highlighted the story of his re-dedication to as the rock Jesus would build the church upon that is found in John chapter 21.  I imagined with the congregation how Peter may have felt in the moments after he denied Christ 3 times. We spoke about how we sometimes feel the same way he did.  

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Peter was a man that had many traits that were good and bad and we could spend all the time in the world going through those things but in spite of all of these things God still used him to do the most amazing things. The message and calling he gave Peter in John 21 comes down to four simple sentences. 

Feed my Lambs. Take care of my sheep.

                                              Feed my sheep. Follow Me.  

In life we have to deal with our personal feelings getting into the way all the time, as we all know, and from Peter we learn that even when hard times creep up on us that they only come to test that our faith is true, as Jesus was testing Peters faith when he asked Him “Do you Love Me”

We are called to love each other deeply by the scriptures that Peter wrote under divine inspiration from God.  We see the world around us and thing what a waste or man I can’t believe that just happened and complain about everything under the sun, and that keeps us from being united in Christ.

Many years after Peter received those instructions from Jesus he wrote the following passage in 1st Peter 4:8-11. He did not share this passage with us to say we are doing things wrong, but to encourage us to live our lives as an offering of GODS GLORY to the world around us. 

The instructions given teach us to seek Gods love above everything else, (this is the offering HE has given us) and all we have to do is give ourselves and our gifts back to HIM who has given them to us. It amazes me to see that when I give everything to HIM how fast it works out and always a lot better than I could even imagine. 

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you... (2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.

Reflections; Philip Revealed- Our Story: Gods Glory

Greetings Everyone, 

It's been about a month since my last post and boy have a lot of things been happening. I will share some of those things in a later post. For now though I wanted to continue my postings on the series Our Story: Gods Glory.  This post will share some thoughts I had on Phillip. Since I have posted some of these thoughts before I am posting this one as a Reflection. 

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Devotional Reflection

There is a story in Acts chapter 8 that has been on my mind lately. A very powerful story and I really think it can teach us a lot about what we as the church should be doing.

It begins with “a great wave of persecution…sweeping over the church in Jerusalem...” Acts 8:1b. The Believers were forced out of Jerusalem into the regions of Judea and Samaria and a Man named Saul traveled around with one goal in mind, destroy this new church.

Interestingly enough wherever the believers scattered, people heard the news about Jesus and the life he lived. One man named Phillip whom many considered the first evangelist was forced into the city of Samaria and his story is the one I’ve been thinking about lately.

He confidently shared the good news with the people in Samaria and they listened in awe of the stories he was teaching. He performed miracles, healed the sick and drove out many evil spirits. In the end, “there was great Joy in that city,” Acts 8:8.

This one verse made me think, is our church making this kind of impact on the City we live in? The New Testament church impacted people where ever they went and no matter what they were going through, Lives were continually transformed and multitudes were saved on a daily basis.

Here is another question, is this a trend most churches set today? 

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Conversational Notes

Phillip was considered the first Evangelist of the early church aside from Jesus him self of course, we don’t here much about him but he is still pretty important.

When persecution began to sweep the world at a very fast pace he was deep in the middle of it all sweeping through the church in Jerusalem and through to Samaria, he proclaimed the good news to anyone who would listen and is ideally the man that brought some many to Christ before Paul and the Apostles began to preach the message 

He obeyed the holy spirits leading and then seized the day, He was very effective, and kept on going even in spite of all that was going on around him, he was an example to all early Christians and submitted to the Power and guidance of the spirit, and was the first to reach beyond to borders of Judaism.  

We read about him in Acts chapter 8:5-8 (NCV) as well as the rest of the chapter…

Philip went to the city of Samaria and preached about the Christ.When the people there heard Philip and saw the miracles he was doing, they all listened carefully to what he said.Many of these people had evil spirits in them, but Philip made the evil spirits leave. The spirits made a loud noise when they came out. Philip also healed many weak and crippled people there. So the people in that city were very happy.

As we reflect upon our friend Phillip, I encourage you all to remember what he stood for, He was obedient to Gods calling upon his life, and kept Gods word close to his heart, we must also Keep Gods Word Obediently close to our Hearts as well… 

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you... (2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.