March 16:  Following His Guidance.

HIS WILL.
When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod."--Acts 12:11

Visiting the Garden of Gethsemane was one of the most profound experiences of my life.  As I walked among the olive trees, I remembered the Savior's prayer: "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done" (Luke 22:42).  Being there, in the very place where Jesus surrendered to His Father's will in order to save me...well, it was more than I can describe in words.  And God did answer Him, because He always does.  Yet it was not His will to remove the cup, because there was no other way to save us.

When Peter was imprisoned by Herod, the church kept praying fervently for him (Acts 12:5).  I would assume they had also prayed for James, but God, in His sovereign will, allowed James to become the first of the twelve disciples to taste martyrdom; yet He miraculously set Peter free.  When the angel brought him out of the jail, Peter thought he was seeing a vision (verse 9); yet soon he found himself on the street and realized what had happened.  He rushed to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered praying for him.  He wanted to let the believers know that their prayers had been answered positively!  When the servant-girl recognized Peter and ran in to announce that he was at the door, the skeptical response she received was: "You are out of your mind!" (verse 15).  They were so surprised that God had answered their prayer that they couldn't believe it!  You are crazy! they said.  Peter explained how the Lord had delivered him (verse 17) and asked them to report it to others.  Then Peter went away; we are not told where.  His last appearance in the book of Acts is in chapter 15.

God always answers prayer, yet not always as we expect.  Sometimes He says yes, no, no for now, yes for now, or wait.  Prayer is not for us to twist God's arm, but it is the way we submit to His sovereign will.  God will work all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).  Yes, all things, even the painful events in our lives, when His answer was not the one we were expecting.

My Response:__________________________________________________________

March 15:  Following His Guidance.

HIS OMNIPOTENCE.
And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly," and his chains fell off his hands.--Acts 12:7

I was attending a graduate class in a business setting when the professor asked us to share some impactful experiences.  One of my classmates simply said: "I saw my guardian angel."  We all wanted to know more about it.  She went on to tell us about a horrific car accident she was involved in, and how, having seen her bloody face in a mirror, she panicked.  Then a man with a peaceful voice came to her window, calmed her down, and stayed with her until help arrived.  When she inquired about the man who had helped her, no one had seen him.

When we find ourselves in situations that are completely out of our control, let's remember that God is omniscient and omnipotent.  He knows what we don't know and will guide us according to His sovereign will.  In His power and might, He is able to remove any obstacles if and when He sees fit.  Peter experienced this first hand in the book of Acts.  The first disciple to be put to death was James, the brother of John (Acts 12:2).  When Herod saw that this pleased the Jews, he arrested Peter as well (verse 3).  He held him in prison with maximum security and precautions, assigning four quaternions (of four soldiers each) to guard him.  The church was praying for Peter, and God, in His sovereignty, chose to intervene.  "On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison" (verse 6).  I am astonished at the level of security, with soldiers, chains, and guards; and startled at the notion that Peter was sleeping under those circumstances.  And just like that, an angel of the Lord came to the cell, light filled the place, he woke up Peter, the chains fell off, Peter got dressed, put on his sandals and cloak, they passed the first and second guards, and the iron gate opened by itself (verses 7-11).  And Peter was free.  God is omnipotent to save us and to deliver us from trials, according to His sovereign will.  Let's trust Him!

My Response:_______________________________________________________

March 14:  Following His Guidance.

HIS CALLING
"Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel."--Acts 9:15

The way God guides us in our life purpose is as real as it is enigmatic.  God doesn't give us the whole map, but instead guides us one step at a time.  Consider the way God guided the prophet Elijah (see 1 Kings 17).  First, Elijah told the king that it wouldn't rain for a few years; then God guided him to the brook Cherith, where he would drink and was fed by ravens.  Then the brook dried up, and God sent him to the house of a widow in Sidon, outside of Israel's territory, then...

When the risen Jesus met Saul on the way to Damascus, He gave him instructions only for the next step: "Get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do" (Acts 9:6).  Jesus didn't show him a map of the next ten years; neither did He disclose all the epistles that he, as the apostle Paul, would write, or the churches he would visit.  After his encounter with the risen Christ, Saul discovered that he couldn't see, so he was led to Damascus.  In this story, God guided another man through a vision.  His name was Ananias, and we don't know much about him (he is mentioned again in Acts 22:12).  Ananias got instructions for the next step as well: "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him (Acts 9:11, 12).  God sent two visions: one to Ananias, and another one to Saul.  Ananias answered something like, Are you sure?  I've heard about this man...the harm he has done to your followers and the purpose of his visit to Damascus....Then the Lord disclosed to Ananias that He had chosen Saul to bear His name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites (verse 15).  Ananias went to Saul, laying his hands on him and calling him, "brother Saul."  And the rest is history, as Paul began to proclaim Jesus.  The same God who designed the plan for your salvation, is the One who promises to guide you in your calling.  And He will do it one step at a time.

My Response:_____________________________________________________________

March 13:  Following His guidance.

HIS PROVIDENCE.
Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.--Acts 8:35

The person who picked me up from the airport at the European country where I had come to preach that weekend had been a supporter of our ministry for a few years and had arranged for this special event to take place.  When I asked him how he found out about Jesus 101 in the first place, I was speechless!   He told me how one day he was listening to an internet broadcast, when suddenly the programming was interrupted, and our program came on.  He was about to turn it off, but lingered for a few seconds, got interested in the Scriptural topic, and the rest is history.  I don't believe this was a coincidence but a providential event.

We often hear such testimonies about how people throughout the world discover our media ministry.  I am convinced that God is always at work behind the scenes.  Some call these events coincidences, but I believe otherwise.  In Acts 8, the story is told of the Ethiopian man who was a court official of the queen of the Ethiopians (verse 37).  He had gone to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way back, reading in his chariot from the prophet Isaiah.  Suddenly, Philip ran up next to the chariot and asked him if he understood what he was reading (verse 30).  He was reading Isaiah 53!  This chapter is called the "proto-gospel," because it is the prophecy about the suffering Servant, explaining the death of Jesus on our behalf.  The man needed someone to explain this prophecy, and Philip, filled with the Spirit, was right there, ready to preach Jesus to him from this very Scripture (verses 30-35).  The Ethiopian official could have called Philip's presence a coincidence, but we know better; because in the first four verses of the story we are told how God, in His providence, had orchestrated this meeting.  Philip was given divine direction to take this particular road (verse 26), and to go up to this specific chariot (verse 29).  God is always providentially guiding our lives, and He desires our ultimate redemption.  If you truly desire to do God's will, you can be assured that He will providentially and clearly provide the guidance you need.

My Response:_____________________________________________________

March 12:  Following His Guidance.

HIS STIRRING.
"Do you understand what you are reading?"..."Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?"--Acts 8:30, 31

A particular comment that the Jesus 101 ministry received from a Muslim man caught my attention: "The way I heard about you guys is a long story.  I was having a girlfriend who was a Muslim just like me and from the same tribe too...she was convincing me about the Christian faith, and I was not listening to her, but now I decided to download this Jesus 101 app to learn and know more about Christianity."  What exactly stirs a person's heart to seek to know Jesus?

God is personally involved in guiding people to the Savior.  It is a divine initiative that creates divine appointments, reaching out to all types of groups, encouraging seekers to respond to the Spirit's promptings.  God sent Peter to explain the gospel to Cornelius, who was a Gentile (Acts 10), and He sent Ananias to minister to Paul, a zealous Jew, who had encountered the risen Jesus on the way to Damascus (Acts 9).  It is God's initiative to guide and send appointed guides to explain Jesus to a wide variety of people.  Acts 8 is no exception.  "An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, 'Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza' " (Acts 8:26).  This was a desert road towards Gaza, one of the five cities of the Philistines.  It seemed an unlikely territory for evangelism.  But God knew that someone needed guidance to accept Jesus.  It was an Ethiopian man, a treasurer of Candice, queen of the Ethiopians (Nubia).  Kandake was the title of the queen mother who performed secular activities for the king.  This man was far away from home, but he had come to worship in Jerusalem.  Was he a Gentile, a proselyte, or a Jew?  Luke doesn't say much about him, other than the fact that he was a eunuch, which would have excluded him from the inner temple courts.  Yet he wanted to know more and was reading Isaiah the prophet.  God sent Philip to guide him in this process, and we will study their encounter tomorrow.  In the meanwhile, may you be assured that it is God Himself who stirs human hearts to seek Him and to accept Jesus.  And He takes the initiative to guide us in this process!

My Response:_____________________________________________________

March 11:  Following His Guidance.

HIS PROPHECY.
"This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, 'God will raise up for you a prophet like me.' "--Acts 7:37

While preaching at a camp meeting, I experienced a great blessing through a gospel quartet.  They gave me one of their CDs, which contained a song entitled "Bible Story." *  The main line of the song has stayed with me until now: "He will make a Bible story out of you!"  Yes!  Out of you and me.  The biblical characters were flawed, yet God used them throughout redemption history as His spokespeople and leaders.  Of course, He is able to make a Bible story out of you too!

Before he was killed, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, preached a sermon mentioning many people who had become "Bible stories": Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, and Solomon (Acts 7).  We could have many devotionals just from this sermon.  It is fascinating!  False witnesses had charged Stephen with altering the customs handed down by Moses (Acts 6:14).  Now, in his last discourse, Stephen detailed the story of Moses at length (7:20-390, including Moses murdering an Egyptian and having to flee, becoming an alien in Midian, and spending forty years in the wilderness before the Lord called him to finally deliver Israel from Egypt.  Moses had tried to liberate Israel in is own way: "And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand" (verse 25).  He was educated in the Egyptian culture, became a murderer and a fugitive, and still God made a Bible story out of him!  "This Moses whom they disowned...is the whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer" (verse 35).  He became a symbol of the upcoming Deliverer of the world, and God used him to utter one of the most significant prophecies about Jesus, found in Deuteronomy 18:15, which Stephen referred to: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you...you shall listen to him."  Let God make you a powerful witness of Jesus, no matter how flawed your life has been or how many detours you've taken.  In human history, there is only One character who is perfect: Jesus!  And all the Bible stories point to Him!

My Response:_____________________________________________________
* Lyrics by Scott Kryppayne, "Bible Story," It Goes Like This, Spring Hill: 2003, compact disc.

March 10:  Following His Guidance.

HIS STRATEGY.
After being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee and came and lived in a city called Nazareth.--Matthew 2:22, 23

Have you ever had an experience of finding something wonderful at an unexpected and despised place?  Featured in countless magazines and on TV shows, the story of the Paraguayan orchestra of Cateura has warmed my heart.  Amidst mountains of trash, the children living in the now-famous Cateura slum could have never imagined that one day they would become internationally known musicians.  Someone had the amazing idea of creating instruments out of trash and the unlikely orchestra was born, which has now performed all over the world. *

There are five fascinating infancy narratives in Matthew, each one built around an Old Testament prophecy.  This is quite important for Matthew, who points out that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Messianic prophecies.  By the way, this is the core reason why the Old Testament is so important to us: it contains the DNA of Jesus, giving us information about the appointed Deliverer who would come.  The last of the infancy narratives, found in Matthew 2:19-23, is puzzling and unexpected.  God communicates with Joseph through two dreams, the first of which starts with a divine command to leave Egypt and go into the land of Israel "for those who sought the Child's life are dead" (verse 20, compare with Exodus 4:19).  After being warned is a second dream not to go to Judea due to the reign of Archelaus (Herod's son), Joseph took his family to Galilee, to the city of Nazareth.  This was a small, obscure town, with a bad reputation, which becomes obvious from Nathanael's comment when introduced to Jesus of Nazareth in John 1:45, 46: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth.'  Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament at all.  It was a small town, estimated to have had less than five hundred inhabitants in the first century A.D.  Why would God choose such a town for Jesus, the Galilean Messiah?  Well, God is an expert in creating beauty out of ashes and deliverance in unexpected places.  When someone hints that God may not be able to use you and your circumstances for His glory, remember Nazareth.

My Response:___________________________________________________________
* For information, go to www.landfillharmonicmovie.com

March 9:  Following His Guidance.

HIS IMMUTABILITY.
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."--John 8:58

There are days that feel completely out of control.  I remember one such day when I was a child and we lived in Buenos Aires.  One morning there was a fire at the Church Publishing House, and my dad rushed to help.  After a few hours, he came back, showered and left for the office.  He returned an hour later and told us that he had been held at gunpoint, his car was stolen, and he had been kidnapped. Later the robbers dropped him off in a remote place, and he walked home.

Much more happened that day, yet even on days like that, God is still on His throne and our salvation is still assured.  He is eternal, constant, unchangeable, and in complete control.  He does not get bogged down by the things that overwhelm us, nor is He fearful, neither is He rushed nor late.  He has been there from eternity and will be there for eternity.  The immutability of God is our security and anchor in times of distress; and His love for us is our guarantee.  You might not be battling a fire or being held at gunpoint, but you might be battling cancer or find yourself in an oppressive situation.  During these difficult seasons in our lives, we find comfort in focusing on who God is, what He has done for us, and how His Presence is always with us.  The eternal God of the mountaintop is also the God of the valleys.  The Gospel of John starts by stating Jesus' eternal preexistence: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).  Later, in a controversy with the Jews, Jesus Himself asserted His preexistence: "Before Abraham was born, I am: (John 8:58).  He didn't say "I was" but "I am," which echoes the powerful name of God's immutability and sovereignty as revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14: "I AM WHO I AM."  Be assured that the eternal and unchangeable God of the universe is also your Redeemer and Deliverer.  He guides us through the valley of the shadow of death; and He secures our eternal life on the cross.  "For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end" (Psalm 48:14, NIV).  Amen!

My Response:________________________________________________________

March 8:  Following His Guidance.

HIS IMPERATIVE.
"Get behind Me, Satan!...for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."--Matthew 16:23

In one class of my master's degree in organizational behavior, I was reproved by a substitute professor, and it changed my life.  We were studying Kohlberg's Moral Development Model, and she challenged me because of a comment I made.  I realized that she was right, and that my view of God needed realignment.  This reprimand was a pivotal moment for me, and it provoked a reassessment of my understanding of God's will for humankind.

Peter had just made a ground-breaking confession about Jesus being the Son of God (Matthew 16:16), and Jesus said that this understanding was given to Peter by His Father in heaven.  Only a few verses later, things had changed dramatically.  Jesus was revealing that it was imperative for Him to go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and be raised on the third day (verse 21).  "That He must go..." (verse 21) uses the Greek verb dei which means that "it is necessary."  Jesus had to go through this (see also Luke 24:26).  The suffering of Jesus was an absolute necessity in order to achieve His redemptive plan.  Peter cannot reconcile this perspective with his preconceived ideas of what the Messiah was to achieve.  Taking Jesus aside, he "began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God forbid it, Lord!  This shall never happen to You' " (Matthew 16:22).  Using a double negative (translated as never), Peter tries to impress upon Jesus that this is not the way.  In doing so, Peter has taken Satan's position, trying to divert Jesus from the cross (see Matthew 4:1-11).  Jesus recognizes the intention of the enemy and utters a stern reprimand: "Get behind Me, Satan!" (Matthew 16:23; see Matthew 4:10); and goes on to explain that Peter's mind is not set on the things of God but on the things of humans (verse 23).  At that moment, Peter had become a stumbling block for the redemptive act of Jesus.  In our spiritual walk, we must also surrender to God's interests instead of ours.  God is more interested in our salvation than in our comfort.  Let's trust God's viewpoint of what is necessary in our lives for His redemptive purposes.

My Response:______________________________________________________

March 7:  Following His Guidance.

HIS SILENCE.
"The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force."--Matthew 11:12

As a child, I listened to the Mission Spotlight stories, and it seemed that God's children never had to experience pain, because their houses were always shielded from disasters, and their lives were protected from violent attacks.  But as I grew older, life challenged that concept.  In the second half of his book about John the Baptist,* Gene Edwards imagines John's agonizing thoughts in Herod's dark prison, as he realizes that Jesus is not coming to deliver him, even though He has the power to do so.  He ponders the paradox of Jesus helping many, but not all.

There is often a temptation to ignore the painful biblical accounts in which God seems to be silent.  John the Baptist wrestled with a God who wasn't meeting his expectations.  You can read his questions and the tribute Jesus gave to him, in Matthew 11:1-15.  We could accept his doubts as trials, but it gets harder when we are faced with John's senseless beheading (narrated in Matthew 14:1-12 and Mark 6:14-29).  We are told that when Herod heard of Jesus, he thought he was John the Baptist risen from the dead (Mark 6:16), because Herod had a remorseful conscience.  That's when we find out that, having been incarcerated for denouncing Herod for taking his brother's wife, John was killed in the mindless craze of out-of-control entertainment at a royal banquet (Mark 6:17-29).  Herod is so taken by the dance of Herodias's daughter, that he promises the girl up to half of the kingdom (verse 23).  Prompted by her evil mother, she asks for the head of John the Baptist (verses 24, 25).  Even though Herod is grieved by the request, he grants it because of his oath; his pride and his reputation are at stake before his guests (verse 26).  They bring John's head on a platter (verse 28).  Wicked people ended the life of God's highly esteemed prophet, yet God was silent.  In His sovereignty, God often did not prevent the death of His prophets and martyrs, and He definitely did not stop the death of His Son on our behalf.  When we don't understand the silences of God, we are invited to trust His plans, His viewpoint, His wisdom, and, overall, His love.

My Response:_________________________________________________________
* Gene Edwards, The Prisoner in the Third Cell (Auburn, ME: The Seedsowers, 1991).