{"id":32192,"date":"2024-08-16T22:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T05:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts-13_42-52-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-07-23T22:21:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T05:21:52","slug":"acts-14_1-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts-14_1-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Help For My Disability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 14:1-12\u00a0 \u00a0 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Acts\u00a014:1-12.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Acts 14:1-7 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country,
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0where they continued to preach the good news.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-7:\u00a0 Paul and Barnabas travel to Iconium, the capital of ancient Lycaonia, about 90 miles southeast of Antioch.\u00a0 There, they preach in the synagogue and the people are responding, both positively and negatively.\u00a0 On one hand, a great number of Jews and Gentiles are coming to faith in Jesus.\u00a0 On the other hand, some oppose Paul and Barnabas by trying to lure new converts away.\u00a0 Not wanting their gospel message to be misunderstood, Paul and Barnabas spend considerable time in Iconium, defending the gospel, while God would enable them to do miraculous signs and wonders to confirm the validity of their message.\u00a0 Eventually some Gentiles and Jews begin plotting to murder Paul and Barnabas.\u00a0 Once Paul and Barnabas hear about the death plots against their lives, they flee to Lystra, Derbe and the surrounding country and continue to preach about Jesus.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 In every place where the church went and preached the gospel, there was both positive response and opposition; some embraced them and others criticized and slandered them; there were those who followed them and those who wanted to kill them.\u00a0 Likewise,\u00a0when you are committed to preaching the gospel in any place, you must be ready for both responses: those who receive you favourably and those who oppose you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 14:8-10 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 8-10:\u00a0 Paul and Barnabas move to Lystra, which was about 18 miles south of Iconium.\u00a0 According to some scholars, Lystra was a small and more primitive city, not as advanced as places like Antioch.\u00a0 There was probably no synagogue there for Paul and Barnabas to preach in, so it is quite possible that Paul and Barnabas would go to the open markets to preach to the people of Lystra there.\u00a0 As Paul is speaking, Paul notices a crippled man and sees that this man had faith to be healed.\u00a0 Paul tells the crippled man to stand and, in response, the crippled man literally steps by faith into his healing.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

First, may this passage remind us that, like the crippled man in Lystra,\u00a0we all have a disability of some sort.\u00a0 For some of us our disability is physical.\u00a0 For others of us our disability is mental.\u00a0 For others of us still it\u2019s emotional.\u00a0 For all of us it\u2019s spiritual in that we are sinners who are unable to reach God or heaven on our own.\u00a0 All of us have a disability, but Jesus loves us anyway.\u00a0 Each of us is precious to Him and every one of us needs Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second,\u00a0when it comes to healing the sick and disabled, how much faith the sick person has to be healed makes a difference.<\/strong>\u00a0 If a sick person does not believe that prayers will help them find healing, that sick person\u2019s own unbelief might result in an absence of healing.\u00a0 That is why Jesus would ask the blind men who asked him to heal them, \u201cDo you believe that I am able to do this?…According to your faith will it be done to you.\u201d (Matthew 9:28-29)<\/p>\n

Acts 14:11-12 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 11-12:\u00a0 The people of Lystra worshiped gods like Zeus and Hermes and believed that such gods had visited them before.\u00a0 Now they were hearing a message from Paul and Barnabas that Jesus the Son of God had come to them in human form.\u00a0 Yet the people of Lystra begin referring to Paul and Barnabas as their gods Hermes and Zeus respectively instead.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Even today, we can have this tendency to deify people and to demonize people.\u00a0 We must be careful not to focus so much on the people in front of us that we miss God\u2019s message, which is about His Son Jesus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank You Jesus that just like the man you healed in Lystra, I was disabled, unable to reach You or heaven.\u00a0 But You came and made a way for me and by faith I receive all that You have for me: Your forgiveness, Your healing, and Your restoration.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Acts\u00a014:1-12.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Acts 14:1-7 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-7:\u00a0 Paul and Barnabas travel to Iconium, the capital of ancient Lycaonia, about 90 miles southeast of Antioch.\u00a0 There, they preach in the synagogue and the people are responding, both positively and negatively.\u00a0 On one hand, a great number of Jews and Gentiles are coming to faith in Jesus.\u00a0 On the other hand, some oppose Paul and Barnabas by trying to lure new converts away.\u00a0 Not wanting their gospel message to be misunderstood, Paul and Barnabas spend considerable time in Iconium, defending the gospel, while God would enable them to do miraculous signs and wonders to confirm the validity of their message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32195,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32192\/revisions\/32195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}