"Demonic Challenge"

        "But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the 

         spirit, "I command you in the name of  Jesus Christ 

         to come out of her." And he came out that very hour

                                     ACTs 16:18b

         Paul's work in Macedonia is off to a successful start with the conversion of Lydia and her household. But trouble comes unexpectedly. One day as the missionaries are going to the place of prayer, they encounter a slave girl "possessed with a spirit of divination." Dr. Simon Kistemaker explains that the Greek word here rendered "divination" derives from a word refering to Python, the mythical snake that guarded the Delphic Oracle. "In later years, the term denoted a spirit of divination that dwelled in a medium," he writes. "As the priestess of Apollo at Delphi was anle to predict the future, so this slave girl served her masters in Philippi as a fortuneteller. She was an instrument of demons who used her as a mouthpiece." Her demonic bondage ebable her to make much money for her madters. However, when she encounters the missionaries, she immediately cries out a truthful, yet enigmatic statement: "" these men are the servant of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation."

         This raises several questions. Is she truly able to predict future  events? We cannot be sure; the answer depends on whether God makes His plans known to Satan to any extend. Also, why wpuld satan allow this gorl to make a truthful confession about Paul and his caompanions? The incident is similar to Jesus' encounters with demon possessed people who cried out involuntarily in His presence (Matt. 8:28-29; Mark 1:23-24); thus her cries may not be intentional. However, Satan may be using truthful testimony delivered in a distruptive way to frustrate Paul's ministry efforts. It is also possible the Gentiles hearing the girl are being led to believe that "Most High God" is reference to Zues. Finally, why does. Paul tolerate her cries for "Many days"? We must remember that he lacks Jesus' divine ability to detect evil spirit. Therefore, it seems likely yhat he refrains from acting until the spirit reveals to him thag is facing a case of demonic possession.

         Paul finally uses his divinely given authority as an apostle, ordering the demon '" in the name of Jesus Christ," come out. It does so right away. The girl is delivered, but Paul's troubles are just beginning, for the girl is now useless to her master as a profit source. In anger, these powerful Philippians have Paul and Silas seized and dragged before the city authorities meeting in the marketplace.

         We must never forget that standing for Christ in a lost world will always bring spiritual opposition. Yet we must guard against speculatives and imaginative concepts of the spiritual struggles, concepts that go beyond the word of God. Simply remember that Satan is a defeated foe and look to God  for protection and help to resist Him.

        

        

"Desperation and Dirty Laundry"

      "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though 

        Your sins are like Scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;

        Though they are red as crimson, they shall be loke wool."

                                             ISAIAH 1:18

"Everyone has a little dirty Laundry," is a Tagline of a TV drama that seems to have captured the interest of millions of women. I couldn't help thinking of that line as one woman, in pouring her heart out to a Vhridtian friend, excused her own infidelity by psaying, "but I a' so lonely!" Does our desperation justify our doing what God says is wrong?

        Desperation at times causes a spiritual amnesia that makes us forget that every decision we 'ake will have consequences. It is deerqtion that hinders people from focusing on the ultimate outcomeof an affair. It focuses on you how you have been mistreated, how lonely you are, and how you deserve better what you are getting.

        Should you find yourself among the ranks of the desperate, remember the following:

        First, God knows hour loneliness and pain and is not indifferent to it. Jesus Chridt was no stranger to loneliness. He's been there. He understands.

         Second, God can give you strength for for your weakness. Facing a problem or a difficulty does not give you a license to disregard what is right. Two wrongs never make right.

         Third, God specializes in washing away those spots on your dirty laundry. "neither do I condemn you  " Jesus told a woman who had been caught in the arms of a man to whom she was not married, adding. "Go and sin no more."

         It's true everyone has a little dirty laundry, yet it is also true that therd is no stain so dark that God cannot remove it. God is the answer to man's desperartion 

"THE HEAVENLY VISION"

        "Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand,

        Witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than

              those which the prophets and Moses said would come"

                                                ACTs 26:22

        Paul previously has declared that his work of preaching and teaching among the Gentiles is simply a matter of obedience to Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate. He told the Sanhedrin in Acts 23:1 that he had lived in '"all good conscience.'"And he told Governor Felix that he had striven '"to have a conscience without offense toward God and men'" (Acts 24:16). Now, as he speaks to King Agrippa II, he makes another ringing declaration that he is simply a servant doing his duty. Having told the king what Jesus commanded him to do, he says, '"Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."" Indeed, his testimony is that, just as we have seen, he went right to work, calling Jews in Damascus, Jerusalem, and Judea, and then Gentile as well, to repent and to God through Christ.

         Ironically, he tells the king, it was for his obedidnce to the Lord's commands that he was seized by the Jews and almost killed. He had been instructed by Israel's God to preach repentance, but the people of Israel did not want to head. Even more remarkable, Paul say's he was preaching nothing more than what Moses and the other old testament prophets proclaimed that the Messiah would suffer and die then rise from the dead and that His message would go forth to Jews and Gentiles alike. But just as Old Testament prophets were rejected and despised when they called the Jews to turn from wickedness to God, so Paul has been hated by his people.

        Yet Paul is able to give a magnificent testimony of God's faithfulness and assistant through all his difficulties. We have seen for intances when Paul appears to have been fearful and anxious, and the Lord came to strengthen and encourage him (Acts 18: 9-10:23:11). Now Paul declared that God has been with him through all His work, enabling him to stand firm and make his witness before the small and great. Paul's implication is clear- without the Lord standing with him he have been crushed long before. He makes this assertion throughout his epistle and he makes it here in the court of the Roman governor, fearlessly and confident as ribing to the one true God his call and the strength to carry to  carry, it out. This is Paul's good confession (1Timonty 6:12-13 his ringing testimony to the faithfulness of the one who called and has carried him.

        "Repent!" Always has been the cry of God's messengers, from the prophets through John the Baptist, New us, the apostles, and contemporary men of God. Repentance is turning from sin to God, as David does in Psalm 51. As such, it is never complete. Examine your life for sins from which you need to turn. Make repentance to your Lord.

"Slaves to Sin"

            "Jesus answered them,"most assurely, I say to you,

                        Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin"

                                             John 8:34

        Paul's defense of the Gospel before King Herod Agrippa II evoked a reaction in the king. According to The New King James Version translation of the Bible, the king told Paul, '"You almost persuade me to become a Christian.'" Other translation suggest the king was merely waving off Paul's call for a commitment. But no matter whether the king was under conviction or not, exchange raises an interesting question: could Agrippa have made the decision to place his faith in Christ then and there, on his own? In other words, did he have the ability to choose to believe? Put yet another way, was his will free to trust Christ? This question of the freedom of the human will has been matter of much discussion in the life of the church, for it is of crucial importance it has to do with how we are saved. Therefore, we will spend the next several days studying the development of the church's understanding of the freedom of the will by using Dr. RC Sproul's audio/video series Willing to Believe. 

       In John 8, Jesus promised that His disciple would know the truth and the truth would make them free. That did not sit well with the Jewish leaders. Who forgetting their nation's long enslavement in Egypt and their subjugation to Rome, declared they had never been. In bondage to anyone or anything. Jesus went on to explain that He was speaking of bondage to sin, which is the condition of everyone who sins. Even then, the Jews would not accept his words. Far worse than forgetting their history, they were forgetting the testimony of God's divine record. Which unfold for them the fall of man and all its ugly effects. Rather than God's Word, they had embraced a pagan understanding of humanity, an early form of humanism that had an exalted view of the inmate goodness of human nature.

       The Jew's view of human nature is absolutely dominant in our time. Most everyone will admit that nobody is perfect, but it is assumed that we merely stumble into the evil we commit, evil outside our own hearts. At his core, the world agrees, man is basically good. Tragically, the evangelical church has been seduced by this man-exalting vies as well. It is assumed that man is free to choose sin or obedience to God. But as we will see, the Word of God paints a radically different picture.

       What is your view of human nature? Is man basically good or basically evil? That is, is man inclined to obedience or rebellion? To prepare for our study, read Genesis 1-11. This is the story of the fall of man and the downward spiral of the human race into depravity ever more foul. Pray for understanding of this aspect of theology and life.

"Freely Given"

"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us"

1Corinthians 2:12

   By means of human reasoning we cannot bring ourselves into Christian faith, just as we cannot use worldly wisdom to argue anyone else into believing. Dr. Martin Luther understood this well when he wrote in his Small Catechism, "I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him."

   By nature we have neither the strength nor wisdom to believe. For we are spiritually dead. And a spiritually dead person can no more enable himself to believe in Jesus, than a physically dead person can make himself alive again. He needs someone outside himself to do that for him. God has done it for us. This is why the Apostle Paul declared that he spoke not by the spirit of the world but rather by God's Spirit. Through the Holy Ghost Paul knew God's wonderful wisdom. This is also the only way anyone will ever know that wisdom.

   The Holy Spirit comes to us as infants through God's Word and Holy Baptism, "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Older ones hear God's Word, and by his grace the Holy Spirit works faith in Christ in their hearts. Paul tells us that "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." He also says that faith in Christ is gift of God: "For it is by grace you have been saved. Through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast."

   The Holy Spirit revealed many blessings to us when he brought us to faith in Jesus Christ. We now trust in Jesus as our Savior. We know our sins are fully and completely forgiven for Jesus' sake. We at peace with God. We can pray to our dear heavenly Father "as dear children ask their dear father." We know that when we die our soul will be with the Lord in heaven. We know that our body will be resurrected a glorous body and reunited with our souls on the Last Day, we know we will spend eternity in our Father's magnificient mansions above in heaven. This is God's glorious promise to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

   These are some of the countless blessing that come with a Spirit worked faith. Surely God has been gravious to us! May our hearts be filled with thankfulness now and forever.

"I KNOW YOU SO WELL"

"I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence"                    Psalm 139:7 (KJV) 

  Sometimes you feel that no one understand you that nobody sees when you're happy and nobody cares when you're sad. Your parents may seem too busy. Your teachers have their own problems. Even your friends don't seem to be tuned into what you're feeling. But I know. I know you so well! I always have. I understand everything about you, your joy and sorrow. All those thoughts you want to express, but can't hear them, because I can listen to your heart. I see, I hear, I care, I understand. Come talk to Me today. Running away from problem is something many of us do. The Bible tells of people who did just that: Elijah, who didn't to face a wicked woman's wrath; Jonah, who didn't like God's assignment; David, who fled from Saul; and the prodigal, who decide to take the money and run. But the plight of all these who have run away from their difficulties was never easy. So what can we learn from these runaways?

  You can't run enough to escape from God. He'll be wherever you go. David wrote, "I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me" (Psalm 139:7-10). You can find God even in the midst of your deepest distress. Jonah said, "In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me" (Jonah 2:2).

  You can find new direction for your life. Afraid of Jezebel, Elijah ran for his life. After being on the run for 40 days, he met God. Instead of rebuking him for running, God gave him a new assignment  And finally, the story of the prodigal son teaches us that the path back to the Father's house may be dificult, but it brings peace, healing and restoration. Come home, friend. God will embrace you and forgive you when you seek Him and His forgiveness. When He opens the door, you will find what you've been searching for.

"SLOW DOWN AND LISTEN"

"Be still, and know that I am God"

Psalm 46:10

You are always on the moves doing homework, talking on the phone, spending time with your friends caught up in the hurry and noise of your life.

Do you know that I want to be your friend, too? I have things to say to you secret to share. That's why I want you to slow down and listen. Turn off the cd player and the TV for a while. Stop rushing around. When you are still, you will feel My love. I am real, even know what you're thing about it.

ASK YOURSELF, "Are my activities programmed from the time I wake up in the morning until I go to bed at night?" If the answer is yes, ask a second question:

"Do I find that I have more to do this year than I had to do last year?" After a while you tend to mechanically live your life strictly in terms of your output whether it is amount of time you logged in at work, number of trips you took with your family, or how many meeting or church services can crowed can crowd into your schedule.

Busyness is an addiction claiming more victims today, robbing us of creativity, leisure and peace of mind. We are more tense, our stress level is hiigher, and we become easily irritated by those whom we love. If we are honest, we will admit that we are not the loving caring person we were.

So what's our greatest need today? Is it better organizational skill? Learning to be more efficient? Or do we need to whittle down the to-do list, realizing that we can't do everything, and far more important God never intended for us to do so much?

God said, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). The phrase "be still" means to cease from your striving, your activity, and yes, your busyness. You need to back away from the busyness of life to nurture your relationship with God. That is precisely why quiet time is necessary. We need time to think through things, to pray about them and to seek the mind of God.

You are busy as you choose to be and as addicted to the thrill of "more" as you allow youself. Take control of your life before it controls you. Life is too short for it to not be enjoyed be still, spend time with the people God has put in your life. And spend time with Him.