Acts 11, 12, 13 and 14 - Jason

It was great to see that the church in Jerusalem accepted the work that God was doing bringing salvation and the Holy Spirit to some non-Jewish people. Peter explained to them the vision that he had seen and the way that God showed him what to do.

When Peter was imprisoned, it says that earnest prayers were made to God by the church. They were meeting together, fasting, and crying out to the Lord. They wanted Peter to be saved, but then when he appeared at the door, they did not believe that he had escaped from prison. I want to cry out to God for the things that I need, and the things that our church needs, and I want to have faith that God will answer our prayers. I want to believe in the signs and wonders that are being performed by the Lord.

Paul and Barnabas had a very exciting first missionary journey. It seems that when they went to a new place, they preached the gospel in the synagogues first to Jewish people. Most of the Jews rejected the message, but there were still people from those regions that responded positively to God, and Paul and Barnabas continued to minister to them and God granted signs and wonders to be done through them to confirm the message. It's interesting to me that one of the signs was to make an enemy of the gospel go blind for a time--so not all the signs and wonders were good things or healings to help people. I want to be an ambassador for Christ and to the people that God sends me to or the people that God brings into my life. I pray for the Holy Spirit to work in me to confirm the message of the Scripture.