Friday Night Live - April

Acts 4:13 - Ordinary People

In Youth Group Sunday night this verse from Acts was discussed, and as I was doing my devotional today, I came across it again, a “God incident” as Mrs. Hynes would say. In the beginning of the book of Acts we see the forming of the first church. Jesus went back to heaven, but before he left he told the disciples to be “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Now Peter is not one that came from the cream of the crop. He was a fisherman, a man who was “unschooled”. How could he be a witness, isn’t he just an ordinary man? And let’s not forget that it was Peter who was one of the disciples that denied Jesus three times before he died. Well from my experience in life and my understanding of the Bible, I believe that God is in the business of taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things with them. In Acts 4:13 it says, “What they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, or ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” It is amazing that this same man that denied Christ was seen as a man of courage. I love how God even uses our weaknesses to make them our strengths. But what I love most about this verse is the last part when the Sadducees, “took note that these men had been with Jesus.” The courage that Peter had was not from him, but came from Holy Spirit (vs. 8). The people around him could see that he had been with Jesus. If someone saw your life could they tell that you had been with Jesus? Our relationship with God is like a friendship. We spend time with God by reading the Bible and praying. We can talk with other Christians and learn from each other. We can be ordinary people that God uses in extraordinary ways. Peter had a choice. He could have let the guilt he had destroy him, or let the forgiveness Jesus brings free him. God can do unbelievable things in our lives when we choose to live for Him.

Poverty in the AMERICA