Good morning. They passed through the region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and later they were trying to go into another place, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. Why does it say Holy Spirit one moment, and the Spirit of Jesus in the next? I know that a lot of people would say that it was just for variety in writing; but I think that there was actually a distinction in what happened. When it says they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, I think it meant that there was an out loud verbal communication – “Thus saith the Lord”. When it says the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them, I believe it meant that within them they felt this uneasiness about going into that region. We have all been this way at times – conflicted within and without. They come to Troas. Finally, a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. What would we do if after not being able to find out what God wanted us to do, we saw a vision? - probably the same thing they did. Immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Notice that it now says we – this is probably where Paul and Silas met Luke. They proceeded to go to Philippi (refer back to the events that follow when reading the book of Philippians), which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in the city for several days. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. It doesn’t say that they had a “Thus saith the Lord“ directing them to go there – God expects us to use our common sense. Father help the reader to keep his/her mind on the important things and to not let the little things distract him/her. Show him/her the way that he/she should go.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them to not continue, because he perceived that not only would there be a loss of the cargo but also of their lives.

  Good morning. When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, they proceeded to deliver Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion. Notice that “we“ returns. Luke has not been mentioned during the entire two years that Paul was at Caesarea. I guess it is safe to assume that he was in the area during this time. We will leave out the names of a bunch of places where they passed. They had sailed for a good many days and began to have trouble with the wind. This was a warning of what was about to happen. When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast (Day of Atonement) was already over, Paul began to admonish them to not continue, because he perceived that not only would there be a loss of the cargo but also of their lives. The centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship than by what was being said by Paul. They did not want to get stuck for the winter in the port where they were located. They actually were only g...
Read more

And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds

  Good morning. And men repented, right? And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and the water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. Previously, the 6th angel blew his trumpet and told them to release the four angels at the river Euphrates so that the army of 200 million could cross over. Back to the bowl: and I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great Day of God, the Almighty. Father continue to bring blessings upon the reader and his/her family every day  of their lives.
Read more
Good morning. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. That makes sense. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. Is your head beginning to swim? For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. From what he says later, they must have had great concern about their friends or relatives who were Christians and had died earlier. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits (The first sheaf of the harvest given to the Lord as a token that all of the harvest belonged to the Lord and would be dedicated to Him) of those who are asleep. Jesus was just the first to be raised from the dead, not the only one. We will see next time that Pa...
Read more