Acts!

I'm reading Acts right now. Yesterday when I was reading it on my phone, for the NLT version it said it was called Acts of the Apostles, and it was the first time I realized that it was a book about the acts the apostles did! When I told my parents of my epiphany my mom said, "Oh! I've never thought of that either!" My dad laughed and shook his head and said, "What?? How did you miss that??" Lol.

I'm on Acts 18 as of today, but here are some of my thoughts so far...

There are several accounts of people being put in jail and then angels getting them out of it in Acts!! So cool. I forgot that there was more than just one time this happened.

In Acts 6, people complain to the twelve disciples that the Greek-speaking believers' widows were being discriminated in the daily distribution of food. "We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word." I love this! Because if there was injustice, they wanted it to be fixed, but it was not their place to be dealing with it because it would hinder then from spending time in prayer and teaching. They gave the job to someone else. Delegating is important, and nobody can do everything.

In Acts 8:15-18, it says that there were people who had been baptized in Jesus, but they had not yet received the Holy Spirit, so Peter and John laid hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit. It made it seem like the Holy Spirit wasn't received with baptism, but that's what I always thought happened. In Acts 10:44-48, there are believers that actually receive the Holy Spirit first and then are baptized, and since they are Gentiles, Peter says, "Can anyone object to them being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?" Fascinating.

Many miracles happen in Acts, from a dead woman being brought back to life in Acts 9, to blind people seeing again, lame people walking, etc. During these occasions, it makes people believe God exists. They see the direct power of God and turn to Him and follow Him. Sometimes I wish that we had more miracles today. I wish that people were able to say, "Be healed!" and immediately people are healed by the power of God, and that people were able to follow Him because of that. But I think that it gets messy when there are fake people doing that. What does happen though, is God answers big prayers sometimes, and we should be out there telling people about it. We should say, "I prayed for this, and look, God answered it! And it wasn't something I did or something that just 'happened,' but only God could have done this!" I hope that by doing that, it will bring God glory and people will begin to see that God's power still works in our lives today, just in a different way.

In Act 15, Paul and Barnabas, who have traveled together for however long, have a "sharp disagreement" about bringing someone else along with them who had bailed earlier, and they split up and went their own ways. :-( It's like a sad goodbye from an argument! It then continues to follow Paul, since he was the one who didn't want the guy who bailed with him, and because Luke, who wrote the book, went with him. He changes into "we" in Acts 15, indicating that he was there for that part. Acts 15 has the third jail escape of the book.

In Acts 18, up to the point I read today, in verse 9, Jesus comes to Paul in a vision and says, don't worry, nobody will attack or harm him, not to be afraid but to speak out boldly. So he stayed there a year and a half. But in the verses right after that, he is eventually taken in to court and since the court won't do anything to silence him, they throw him out and they beat him! But Jesus had said he won't be harmed! So I don't understand that part. Was that the signal for him to leave? That when his protection from persecution was over, it was time for him to move on?

Time

At church on Sunday, our pastor, Brad, said that every January as a church we do a fast for three weeks. He challenges us to do something food related (such as sugar, caffeine, or a specific plan), and something that wastes our time. He also suggested reading as much as the new testament as you could instead of playing games on your phone or wasting time elsewhere, and really seeking God. He said it would start next Monday. I thought, "Oh this sounds great! I'll start tomorrow!" Which was yesterday. I did not start yesterday. Except for in my prayers. I decided to pray what my heart really feels / desires / wants over the next four weeks, without stopping to say, "I would like to have this job, but if you don't want me to, then your will be done. I hope that you can heal so-and-so, but if you don't want to then that's ok." I pray a lot of "your will be done because I don't really know what to pray for" or when I do pray for what I want, God says no.

Today I had the day off from work to get some things done, and I was excited about how much I got done early on in the day. I also got three new Christian non-fiction books which I'm so excited about. So I got home, ready to pray, read the bible, and read these new books. But I got on the internet forever. I ate dinner. I was on the internet forever some more. I fell asleep at 10:30 PM and slept for 30 minutes (which is surprisingly short for me). I've had NO motivation to do any of those things. It's really frustrating. I wasn't even that tired until I sat down to do it.

THIS is part of my spiritual battle. Only part of it, but still, not something to be ignored. Not watching one show on Netflix, but two or three. Not checking Facebook for 15 minutes, but for two hours. Not taking a 30 minute nap, but a 4 hour nap. And I can feel the pull even moreso when I'm amped up about spending more time with God. It's like suddenly everything else has more allure and at the end of the day I think, "What just happened? I had a good amount of time to spend time with God and still do some other things, but I didn't."

I think that the more I am ready to let God use me, and ready to listen to God, the more satan tries to pull me away. Sometimes in major ways, sometimes in minor ways.

"...let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith." - Hebrews 12:1-2

What's new?

I normally get black or white jackets, because that way it doesn't clash with anything. But a few months ago I saw a red jacket and decided to get it. To be different. Who cares if it clashes when I wear pink. So far so good. This past week I needed new tennis shoes and I normally get ones that are gray with a little bit of color, like pink or blue. But I saw these shoes that were dark blue, bright blue, and have the hot pink nike symbol on it. I debated for a while, again, thinking it might look silly with most of my clothes, but decided to get it anyways.

In these two things, I thought, I want to switch things up a little more often. I've had a calendar with beaches for the past like 5 years, because they're so pretty, but this time I got a calendar with pictures of porches! I've bought some books that I wouldn't normally read. I'm pushing to get out of the habits in my life that aren't really there for any point, just because they are safe and because it's long engrained in me.

This means taking pictures of things that are different and creative. Going new places (which I've always loved). Trying new food. And whatever else I can think of as I go along.

So... here we go!