GRINDIT podcast

The believers are scattered because of persecution so the church flees Jerusalem for safety. Luke shines the spotlight on a man named Philip. Philip goes to Samaria on his own accord and shares Jesus with the people there. Men and women are converted to Jesus, joy fills the city, a sorcerer becomes a Christ follower, Peter and John come down to see what's going on and they lay hands on the believers giving them the power of the Holy Spirit, and as they return back to Jerusalem, they stop in villages of Samaria and share Jesus. All of this because of one man deciding to get his family to safety! God will use us, just like He used Philip, if we allow him to!

We continue the thoughts from Part 1 and take a look at James 1:19-26. James just lays it all out there and says, "This is what you ought to be doing as a Christ follower and if you're not, then you may want to rethink your faith!"

As we all know this isn't an easy task but we must strive to allow the Holy Spirit to shape ad mold us into the image of Jesus. Remember...we are His examples to a lost world and we are the light that shines in the darkness!

When Stephen was stoned by the religious leaders, there was a man present who completely agreed with the stoning...his name was Saul. This is the same Saul, that later became Paul, and wrote two thirds of the New Testament. He was one, if not the, greatest missionaries that ever lived. Before his conversion he wreaked havoc on the church, going from house to house, dragging men and women from their homes and putting them in jail. In Saul's (Paul's) on words he "was the worst sinner of all" but when he was giving his resume in Philippians 3. Saul (Paul) said he was "zealous for the law and followed it without fault." Really? He agreed and took part in the stoning of an innocent man and he wreaked havoc in the lives of innocent people who followed Jesus! He had the same attitude of the religious leaders; They thought they were serving God and yet they killed God Himself! How many people today claim to be followers of Christ yet they don't even know the Christ they follow!

Have you ever been ostracized? Have you had someone lie about you, run you down behind your back, and try to get people to turn against you? That's what happened to Stephen in Acts 7. He was a man full of faith and the grace of God and all he did was preach about Jesus and work miracles. He did absolutely nothing wrong and yet by the end of this chapter, he would be stoned to death! Why? Because some Jews from a synagogue wanted to debate him and have a Bible study and when they couldn't hang with Stephen they got jealous and went to the Sanhedrin and told them a bunch of lies. Stephen was called in for questioning and as he was talking to the Sanhedrin they didn't like what he was saying so they put their hands over their ears, started yelling to drown out his words, they dragged him outside of the city, and stoned him to death. As Stephen was dying he looks up and see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father! And just like His Savior, Stephen asks Jesus to forgive these men. Someone may have ostracized us for whatever reason, however, if we want to be like Jesus, we must forgive.

The enemy of the church has tried his best to destroy it from the outside and since that hasn't worked he is going to try from the inside. Why not just cause a riff on the inside, a division, that way it will become weak and easier to dismantle...or so he thought! I mean, Jesus himself said a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. The Greek speaking Christians feel like they are being snubbed by the Hebrew speaking Christians but they did exactly what they should have done! Instead of sweeping it under the rug or pretending nothing was wrong while it continued to fester, they made their issue known and the apostles came up with a solution. As a result, unity was kept and God kept working in mighty ways! We should do the same when an issue arises an take care of the matter quickly!

Stephen was one of the seven chosen by the church to help with the distribution of food. Luke tells us he was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. He was preaching or teaching one day when he was confronted by some Jews who wanted to debate him but when they couldn't stand up to the Holy Spirit speaking through him, they became jealous. They told lies about Stephen and he was brought before the Sanhedrin. As they questioned him his face lit up and it glowed as the face of an angel! We will see in the next chapter, the jealousy of these men will cost Stephen his life. He was about to be the first martyr of the early church. May we have faith that is so strong that we glow with the presence of Jesus and that people take notice!

The apostles are arrested for a second time for telling people about Jesus but this arrest had a different motivation behind it...jealousy. The Sadducees were jealous and their power was being challenged by some "unlearned and ignorant men". People were coming by the groves to get their loved ones healed from sickness or delivered from a demon. They were being converted to Christ and the message was starting to flow outside of Jerusalem. It's beginning to spread and the religious leaders want to put a stop to it. The problem is they are fighting against God, not man so when they arrested the apostles, an angel came and freed them giving them instructions to go right back to the Temple and preach Jesus...and they did. They were arrested an third time and this time they were flogged, which was the same thing that happened to Jesus just before he was hung a cross. Persecution has begun but this didn't even slow them down for they met at the Temple daily and they went to people's homes to share Jesus! Do you share your faith? Do you tell people about Jesus? What is holding you back?

It's just one little lie. What's the big deal? A lie cost Ananias and Sapphira their lives. They had sold their property and kept some of the money for themselves but when they came to give it to the apostles to help the needy, they lied about how much they had sold the property for thinking nobody knew what they had planned together. The only problem was they didn't think about the fact that God is all knowing and He sees everything! Peter calls them out on it and said, "You didn't lie to us...you lied to God!" Immediately they fell to the ground dead. It may seem unfair and extreme to us but it got the point across to the early church...God is serious about sin and we better be if we call ourselves a Christ follower!

If you know Bob Mader then you know what a great guy he is. He is witty and he will have you laughing until you're crying, He is a great man of God who has had some life challenges and he shares a little bit about them in this interview. He has a son that he hasn't seen in quite some time because a drug addiction has taken his life over and his wife, Ann, passed away last year from cancer. Bob loves music and. with some encouragement from Ann, he has written some songs, including a recent Christmas album. Even more than writing, Bob loves to sing and has a great voice! He sings for the worship team at Partnership Christian Church in Maryville, TN and he is currently working on a new project that will hopefully be released soon. We hope you find some encouragement from the interview with Bob!

God used Peter and John to heal the lame man and a crowd gathers to see what had happened. Peter takes the opportunity to preach Jesus to them and many believed. However, as they were preaching the religious leaders show p with some temple guards and arrest Peter and John. The next day they are called in for questioning and the religious leaders try to intimidate them but since they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were confident and were bold. They told the religious leaders that they had crucified Jesus but God raised him back to life and made him the Cornerstone. The religious leaders tried to use their power and shut the apostles up by telling them they cannot preach or teach in the name of Jesus any more which is why I titled this episode, "Shut Your Face!" The apostles continued to share Jesus with anyone who was willing to listen. They said they would rather obey God. And listen to what the religious leaders had to say about these two men, "They realized they had been with Jesus..." Can people tell you have been with Jesus?!?!?!