{"id":32305,"date":"2024-08-22T22:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T05:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts-15_30-41-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-07-30T11:30:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T18:30:33","slug":"acts-16_1-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts-16_1-12\/","title":{"rendered":"When God Interrupts Your Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 16:1-12 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 16:1-12.\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 16:1-3 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-3: Lystra was the city where Paul experienced some of the worst persecution of his life.\u00a0 He was stoned and almost killed in Lystra (Acts 14:19).\u00a0 Yet Paul never gave up on Lystra and continued to reach and care for the believers there.\u00a0 Eventually in Lystra Paul would meet Timothy, who would become one of his dearest sons in the faith and one of his most important teammates.\u00a0 It goes to show that\u00a0when you don\u2019t give up on the place God has called you to, great things will happen eventually.\u00a0 You just need to last long enough to see it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Verse 3 tells us that Paul really wanted to take Timothy with him on his missionary journey, but Timothy himself must have really wanted to go too.\u00a0 He would even subject himself to circumcision just to go!\u00a0 Clearly Timothy had enough commitment to make the cut in Paul\u2019s eyes!<\/p>\n

Acts 16:4-12 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 4-12:\u00a0 Paul had plans to go to Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit stopped him.\u00a0 How?\u00a0 It was through both external and internal considerations.\u00a0 Externally, it seemed that the door to Bithynia didn\u2019t open the way they had hoped.\u00a0 Internally, Paul has a vision of a man of Macedonia begging him to come to Macedonia to help.\u00a0 Putting these external and internal considerations together, Paul reasons that God wants his team to go to Macedonia to preach the gospel.\u00a0 So they \u201cgot ready at once to leave for Macedonia\u201d (v10).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When God interrupts your plans, instead of getting frustrated and sulking, be open to the fact that God is up to something different and better than what you had planned.\u00a0 When God closes a door, He is giving you an unexpected opportunity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, thank You that whenever You interrupt my plans or close a door, it\u2019s because You have a better plan that You are executing and You are giving me an unexpected opportunity.\u00a0 Help me to perceive what that unexpected opportunity is and not to miss it.\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 Acts 16:1-12.\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 16:1-3 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-3: Lystra was the city where Paul experienced some of the worst persecution of his life.\u00a0 He was stoned and almost killed in Lystra (Acts 14:19).\u00a0 Yet Paul never gave up on Lystra and continued to reach and care for the believers there.\u00a0 Eventually in Lystra Paul would meet Timothy, who would become one of his dearest sons in the faith and one of his most important teammates.\u00a0 It goes to show that\u00a0when you don\u2019t give up on the place God has called you to, great things will happen eventually.\u00a0 You just need to last long enough to see it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32305","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\/32305","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=32305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32308,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32305\/revisions\/32308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}