June 20, 2007

Beth Moore Study The Beloved Disciple (page 73)
A New Fire
Today’s Treasure “Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” Acts 8:17

What was the rift (Acts 4:13-20)? They could not deny the miracle/but they wanted them to be silent about Jesus. Their response: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have see and heard.”

Read Acts 8-1-4. How could verse 4 change the way you pray about the persecution of Christians today?

How has God allowed something to push down your fence so that He could expand your horizons?

Now read Acts 8:4-25 giving attention to the role John played. Where did the apostles in Jerusalem send Peter and John and why?

What was the situation at the time of the disciples’ ministry (see John 4:9)?

Take a good look at Luke 9:51-56

What did James and John suggest?

To hope someone burns in hell is profoundly offensive to God and proves we lack His heart (see Ezekiel 33:11; Peter 2:9) James and John didn’t volunteer to call fire down from heaven to save Jesus the trouble. They wanted to wield that kind of power. They wanted to be the hosts of a fireworks spectacular.
Luke 9:54 They asked Jesus a question: “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to consume them?”
Scripture tells us Jesus looks on the heart.
Beth Moore says: “Earlier I mentioned our naiveté’ to think that followers of Christ are automatically void of prejudices.” “Whether our preferred prejudices are toward other denominations, world religions, colors, or economics, they are usually so deeply engrained that we refuse to see them as sin.”

Why is it so much easier to hate from a distance? Acts 8:15 tells us that Peter and John prayed for the Samaritans. Persistent prayer is a prejudice-buster every time if we’ll let it be. Then something really amazing happened. Take another look at 8:17. Then Peter and John laid hands on them and they received the Holy Sprit. Well, well, well. They got their wish after all. They called down fire on them, all right. The kind of fire that destroys things like hatred, meanness, and prejudice for those who let this Holy Fire consume them.

Beth Moore says; “I want to say something simple but very profound to me; how I praise God that we sinful, selfish, ignorant mortals can change. John wasn’t stuck with his old prejudices.”
How has God dramatically changed your attitude toward some target of your personal prejudice?

Marcie’s answer: “To me it’s the Ken Ham Answers in Genesis science that shows the truth of the Bible and that we’re all one people, one blood separated by different cultures and beliefs. Forget evolution.”

Furthermore, I believe the Bible should be taken literal when it comes to prophecy. If God said He created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th, then He did.

If God said He will regather the Jewish Nation as it says in Ezekiel 37, then He will, no problem.