Acts 5:29

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

Personal Challenge

We are faced today with so many concepts of the world that people are trying to bring into the church. The church should never become aligned with the ways of the world. The church is like the ark of Noah, a place where people can come inside away from the storms of the world and seek safe and Godly passage into eternity. We have over 2,000 years of teachings and traditions that inform us of what we should and should not be doing in the church and these voices should always speak louder than the voices of the world that tell us to be like it and everyone else. It is not easy to stay true to these tried and true teachings and traditions, but we have no choice. The church is not ours, but God’s. The choice that we do have as individuals is to either abide by the teachings of the church and submit to its authority or leave and not become a divider within the church. We always have a choice. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Wisdom of Solomon 15:1-3

But You, our God, are kind, true, patient,
And govern all things in mercy.
For even if we sin, we belong to You and know Your might;
But we will not sin,
Because we know that we are counted as belonging to You.
For to know You is complete righteousness,
And to know Your might is the root of immortality.

Encouraging Words

Our God is merciful. He is kind. He is all truth. He is patient, and believe me, I need His patience. Even though we are a stiff-necked and rebellious people, He still pours His mercy upon us. We belong to Him and He treats us as one of His own beloved children. Through Him, and Him alone, we can know righteousness and become righteous. He is our source of immortality. Glory be to God!

Acts 4:19-20

But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

Personal Challenge

So! What do we do in our modern world when the things that we believe, and what our 2,000-year church tradition teaches us to believe, conflicts with what the world teaches us to believe? If we desire to be disciples of Christ then we stand firm on the teachings of Christ and the church even if it means persecution and abuse. Sometimes this persecution and abuse come from those whom we love and care for. God’s expectations for us should always be held higher than the expectations of those around us. Peter and John were told to stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ by their local leaders. Even though Jesus had taught them to submit to the earthly leaders that they were subject to, He also taught them that the laws of God always take precedence over the laws of man. This is not an easy thing to do, especially when the conflict is in the midst of our own community, however, we must always align our allegiance with the teachings and expectations of our God over those of the world. In the end, our God will always win the battles and the wars. As Joshua said, “Choose this day who you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Wisdom of Solomon 12:1-2

For Your immortal Spirit is in all things.
For this reason You correct little by little those who fall away,
And You remind and warn them of the sins they commit
So they may be freed from evil and believe in You, O Lord.

Encouraging Words

God loves us so much that He will do whatever it takes to keep from losing one of His created children. Jesus is the ultimate expression of this love. But God does not stop at just loving us. He works in our lives gently loving us and correcting our sinful ways so that we come more in alignment with His ways. He never forces us to follow in His footsteps, so if we choose to continue in our evil and self-centered ways, He will continue to correct us to get us back on His path to righteousness. How much better for us, our loved ones, and the acquaintances in our lives, if we will stop being stiff-necked, rebellious, and prideful and yield to Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Acts 4:13

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Personal Challenge

Because of the boldness of Peter and John in the midst of oppression and attacks on the early church, the Sanhedrin, the political leaders of the day, recognized that these men had been with Jesus. Peter and John knew that their lives were at risk. They knew that their body of believers was being targeted for extinction, and yet they did not take up arms to protect themselves. They chose to follow in the footsteps of their Lord, their Leader, Jesus Christ and fight this war being waged against them with the best weapon in their arsenal, love. This is a hard message for us to accept in today’s age of freedom of rights and individuality. We believe that we should be able to do what we want, how we want when we want. However, Peter and John demonstrated that in order for people to recognize, and even marvel, that we have been with Jesus, is to live how Jesus lived. It is never about me and my rights or my desires. It is always to be about Jesus! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Wisdom of Solomon 8:17-20

When I considered these things within myself
And thought about them in my heart,
That in kinship with wisdom there is immortality,
And in friendship with her there is good pleasure,
And in the labors of her hands there is unfailing wealth,
And in the shared training of her company there is discernment,
And in the fellowship of her words there is good repute—
Thus I searched about that I might take her for myself.
As a child I was good by nature and received a good soul;
And much more, since I was good,
I entered an undefiled body.

Encouraging Words

The writer of these verses makes it very clear that if we enter into kinship or relationship with Wisdom (Jesus), then we will enter into immortality. In our friendship with Jesus we will find good pleasure and unfailing wealth, not the kind of pleasure and wealth that the world produces, but the kind that the kingdom of heaven produces. As we seek Him and submit to His training then we will find the discern­ment that is His and that He is willing to share with us. We will be surrounded by good repute because it will be coming from Him. Glory be to God!

Acts 3:19

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

Personal Challenge

Wait a minute! No one ever said anything about repenting of my ways and converting to a new way of living to have my sins forgiven and to become a Christian! Have you ever encountered this kind of a response from someone who has professed the prayer of salvation and then gone on living their lives as if nothing has changed? If our lives are not being transformed by the saving grace of God, if our desires and actions are not becoming more focused on being like Christ and loving our neighbor, then we cannot claim to be a follower of Christ. Repenting of our old ways, our individual ways, and converting to God’s ways is work, a work that we will be struggling at until the day we die and join our Lord in eternity. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Wisdom of Solomon 8:7

If anyone loves righteousness,
The products of righteousness are the virtues.
For wisdom teaches self-control, discernment, righteousness and courage,
Concerning which things there is nothing more valuable in the life of man.

Personal Challenge

Once again, the Wisdom teachings of the scriptures contradict the rational teachings of our modern age. If we want the virtues of God to be prevalent in our lives we must love righteousness. The world teaches us that we must love ourselves and pursue what we believe is best for us. The world also teaches us that we have individual rights and with those rights, we can not only pick and choose which virtues we want but we can define what makes up these virtues. This is not what the scriptures teach us. We cannot have it both ways. Lord, have mercy? Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!