“The men replied, ‘We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He
is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people.
A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what
you have to say.’ Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.” (Acts 10:22-23a)
“As I read our passage today, I
thought about how hard it would be for these men of Cornelius to travel to
Joppa, seek out Peter who was staying in Simon's house (it must have taken some
time to find the right house), then tell Peter the story of the angel who had
given Cornelius his direction. I'm sure they had no idea how Peter was going to
react.
The other night, as I got home from
work, my daughter Amanda met me at the front door. She is usually really happy
to see me, but this time I could tell something wasn't quite right. I asked her
what was wrong and as she looked down at the floor -- with big alligator tears
in her eyes she proceeded to tell me in great detail how she had disobeyed her
mother.
So here is my little girl standing
before me (and because I'm her dad you know that inside I am complete mush) --
but I gathered myself enough to ask her a few questions and talk with her about
what she had done wrong before I grabbed her and hugged her tight (I love that
little kid so very much). I then asked her if she had apologized to her mother.
Amanda ran up to her mother, but before she apologized -- she looked her mother
in the eye and said with great emotion, ‘See, I told him!’ I'm sure you can
imagine what a difficult afternoon Amanda had that day as she counted down the
hours and minutes to when I would enter the front door and she would have to say
the words she didn't want to say -- then wait for my reaction.
Has God given you a mission you are
reluctant to complete? What are you afraid of -- ridicule, embarrassment,
persecution? Have you 'wronged' someone recently, yet instead of
asking for forgiveness you have found ways to avoid the person? The Spirit
speaks to us all of the time -- what are you avoiding? Rather than carry around
with you the burden of some unfinished task -- wouldn't it be nice to instead
be able to say like Amanda, ‘See, I told him!’ What do you need to do today to
complete what God has given you to do?”
From Pocket Devotions
of The Pocket Testament League (2/23/12) ptl.org
The following are some notes Jean took
from messages by T. D. Jakes on TBN:
·
Speak
up when others are speaking lies
·
It’s true we’re all having struggles
·
We need to pray!
·
God created a need that only you
can supply
·
The devil has to have permission to hurt us
·
You can say I would have__________, but
God stopped it!
·
You’ll
win if you don’t quit!
·
None
of these things move me! Stand flatfooted!
·
Everything that comes against us is
just trying to move us!
“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts
in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these
calamities have passed by.” (Ps. 57:1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyviyF-N23A Watch kids in Alaska with their school project of presenting the Hallelujah Chorus ... Alaska style! This had to be hard to do.
SERVICE:
LOVE IN ACTION by
Mary Southerland
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