acts 1

what is jesus' order to those who believe in him and have received the holy spirit?

Task 1matthew 28

1) Go therefore[c] and make disciples of all the nations,
2)baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
3) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;

what preceded 'therefore' in (1)?
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

What is the situation as believers carry out (1) to (3)?
I am with you always, even to the end of the age

jesus is with us, thus his authority is for us. there is no other authority except that of Jesus authority. see "all authority has been given to jesus in heaven and earth".

this omnipotent god is with us till the end of the age. not even for one second,he is apart from us.

what a glorious and heartening promise!

Task 2Another task is given to believes in Acts 1

But you shall receive power when
the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me[a] in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

In matthew, authority is given us by jesus.

in acts, power is given us by the holy spirit.

when the power comes, we are told to be witnesses to jesus at home, neighbouring countries and later to farther nations.

What is a witness?
a person who gives evidence of (dictionary.com)

Witness to what?
Witness to Me ( acts 1:8)

what do we wintess about jesus/
jesus is love primarily. so when we show love to anyone around us, we are witnesses for jesus.

a very simple truth.

let the power of the holy spirit flow through our lives that we may live out this simple truth and be witnesses to jesus.

Prayer application

thank you for the power and authority that yo uhave given us. lord jesus, teach and enable me and my family to be your witnesses. teach us to use the authority that you have given us. teach us to rely on you who is with us every second of our life, till the end of the age.

forvive us that we have too self reliant. teach us to depend on you holy spirit.

i pray for a river of love to flow from our lives to the people around us.

holy spirit, fill us up with your love that we may love others with a semblance of your love.

holy spirit, teach and enable us to be your witnesses. not by our strength but by the power of your spirit.

amen.

prayer

jesus
may you permeate every membrane of our lives even as we start our school and teaching.

as the children go to school, may they be filled with the fullness of the holy spirit. may they be kept in the presence of the lord. let them be in the world but not of the world.

as stef ph and i go to work, may we abide in the persence of god and live our lives in and through you. let us always stay in the inner courts and worship you in all that we do.

dear lord, fill us with your holy spirit and let the fruit of the spirit be evident in our lives. let josef be filled with love patience and gentleness

fill me with patience and gentleness, esp with the mentally weaker ones.

fill ph with your joy even as you help him to release the emotional baggage in him

lord bless the communicatio channels. open it in the name of jesus.

lord i pray for stef that she will find her purpose in you and be fulfilled in what she does.

i pray for favour even as i meet my boss in a few minutes.

amen

Sharing

i met with a missionary from china and she shared many testimonies about the work of god in her life and others in china.

praise the lord. i was enthralled by all that she shared.

when i shared these testimonies to josef and deborah, they were spell bound by them too.

stories included how the lord blinded the eyes of the authorities when they raided a house. there were more than 20 believers there in the house but the police seemly did not see them!

how the lord caused the officials to skp big boxes of christian literature when they even checked a small shoe box.

how a man who cursed Jesus died the next day, a man who tried to pull out the cross from the church had a stiff neck permanently after that.

how the lord caused the missionary to skip bag check when the ones before and after her were checked.

so many testimonies... i pray that i have many more to share with my children and these testimonies will flow from my life.

my desire is to raise children and younger ones who love the lord.

the lord has opened an opening to the villages in china and i pray that it will come to fruition.

may the lord grant me wisdom in the things that i do that i may put him first in all things.

may our spiritual eyes be opened to the power and greatness of god which we see too little in spore.

may his greatness start to be evident in our lives.

amen.

Ruth

The Sovereignty of God

Chapter 2

And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

'happened to come' implies that there is no planning on Ruth's part. in retrospect, we see the hand of god leading ruth to boaz's field. but at that point in time, no one could understand the whole picture.

from 'happend to come' to boaz field came the line which led to Jesus Christ.

let us lead our lives with the understanding that every step in our lives is directed and watched by our sovereign god. amen.

Learning Point 2

So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”
11 And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before.

Reputation by word of mouth

our reputation and name is built up by what we do - our actions.

ask myself- what are my action like at home and at work? are they glorifying to god?

the actions we do build our reputation and give glory to god.