Dear Ones,
Happy weekend! Hope you are enjoying these beautiful sunny days. This morning I made Al’s favorite cookies and cleaned the apt. Tomorrow we have a former parishioner from our church in Edina coming for dinner. We last saw him when he was in high school which was a very long time ago!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
How bold are we for the Lord? Do we hide our faith when we think that others may disapprove and fear they will make fun of us? God wants to give us courage and boldness to stand up for what we know to be true and share Him with others. Some will try to shame us and one friend recently said that even her interim pastor said to her, “You surely don’t believe everything you read in the Bible, do you?!” How sad! Billy Graham wrote that there is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived, or that Alexander the Great died at 33. Isn’t it strange historians will accept thousands of facts for which they can produce only shreds of evidence but doubt the overwhelming evidence of Jesus resurrection?
I have been reading in Acts of how Peter and John, when ordered not to speak or teach about Jesus responded by saying they couldn’t help but speak about what they had seen and heard. After being arrested for preaching and teaching about Jesus, they didn’t have a pity party and complain that they were being persecuted for doing what Jesus commanded them to do when he left this earth. No, when released, they went to their friends and told them what happened to them, and they all just started praising the Lord. They told the Lord their situation and asked for His help to deal with it, but not that they would be removed from it. Does that sound like us? Or do we say, “Help Lord, get me out of this hard situation quick!” I must confess I must have prayed something similar when going through a hard time in one of our churches. Sometimes He does remove us but other times He leaves us in the situation to fulfill His purposes. But either way, He does promise to give us courage and boldness to get through whatever the problem is and will help us grow through it.
Peter and John went on to pray in Acts 4:29-30 (NRSV), “And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out our hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” The result was they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with boldness. Let us also ask the Holy Spirit to give us holy boldness and use the opportunities He sends our way to share Him, no matter the cost.
Challenge for today: Ask for courage and boldness like that of the disciples, and share Jesus.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy