Church Camp Day 1 Devotion - Fellowship One with Another

Acts 2:41-42

The prayers of all Christians - for all unbelievers to know Christ and receive the gift of salvation and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Background - the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the disciplines allow them to speak in tongue. Some saw and said that they were drunk, until they saw Apostle Paul stood up to preach the Gospel. Verse 2:38 - believe, be baptised and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 2:42 - the apostles continue steadfastly, and so should we. 

1. Continue steadfastly in doctrine - there is only one doctrine, unifying all apostles and believers. 

2. Continue steadfastly in fellowship - coming together to encourage one another and do the work of God. Christianity is a communal belief, believers are not meant to be alone. One day, we will all be together in eternity. 

The apostles coming together to share all things in common - verse 2:44. God would be able to provide to all for all needs if He so wished, but it is not His will. The sharing of the possessions of the apostles bring them together to grow spiritually, to love and care for one another. God blessed us, we offer our excess to others.

3. Continue steadfastly in breaking the bread - remembering the death of Christ whose blood washed away our sin. We loved Him our heart and soul.

4. Continue in prayers - encourage one another to pray. It is the desire of God for us to come together to pray. It is the only way for us to speak to God. 

God will always give us the grace to be together to meet our spiritual needs. This is the only way for us to grow spiritually. Our spiritual growth will be affected if we remain alone. 

Feed, Not Fleece the Flock

How should a Pastoral Ministry be?

Acts 20: 17-38

Acts 20:19
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.

A Pastor is Pastor for the long haul. Learning from Apostle Paul, he served The Lord with all humility, like a bond slave in the old times. A bond slave serves his master willingly and whole heartedly, for the rest of the his life. We should learn from Paul, and serve The Lord joyfully, willingly and full of love.

Acts 20:33
I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.
Acts 20:36
And when he had thus spoken, he keeled down, and prayed with them all.

Paul gave his mind, heart and life to his ministry and did not expect anything in return. In return surely The Lord will provide all that we needed. Pastors need not set the amount of salary he should get, The Lord will lead the church to give what is due. The most important is to have enough to sustain body and soul so that the Pastor can continue to work for The Lord. There should not be any complains, quietly and diligently serve The Lord, trusting in His good hands.

Acts 20:27
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Apostle Paul did his work well by teaching the flock the whole counsel of God. It is not just some part of God's Word, but ALL of God's word. That's the sole purpose of the Pastor and the church - to teach God's word and all of it, including doctrines and fundamentals. We need to know these doctrines to know how to do things right. With these then can we act upon it. We should be careful not to act and work without preparation by understanding God's word.

Study to know God's will, and then wait upon The Lord before we act. Quiet time, Sunday school, bible study, church sermon, bible college night classes, online courses - there are so many avenues to study God's Word. We should take the opportunities to study in order toast correctly. Don't blame God when things goes wrong if you have not done your homework!

Please spend time with God, there is no other way.

Blood So Divine

Acts 20:28 -
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Was the blood shed 2000 years ago man's blood or God's blood? Acts 20:28 states that the blood shed was from God. How can God have blood when God is a spirit? God is invisible, the only way to shed blood is for God to become man, and he did so 2000 years ago.

To save the sinful man we need a sinless man, but God is the only one sinless, none else. For man to be saved, we need a man to represent us to die for our sin. Therefore the only way for man to be saved, God needs to become man to die for man so that man can be saved. It is not impossible for God become man, for man was made in the image of God.

When God become man, He does not cease to be God. He retain all the attributes of Godliness. Yet He was man, having blood. He needed to shed the blood to redeem us from our sin, for the Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Romans 5:8-9. There must be the shedding of blood and death, before man can be saved.

1John 1:7 - it is very clear that the blood of Christ has the power to save. Human blood can only give physical life, but Christ's man is different. It is the blood of God-man, the only one with the power to save. The blood of Christ is separated from the death of Christ, it does not just refer to death, for it is not the death that save man, but the blood. The blood that shed 2000 yrs ago can still wash away our sins today and in the past and future. This is the miracle of God, we cannot explain it, but we accept it by faith.

Sunday Sermon - Worship God, Not Man

Acts 14:8-18

This is wrong to worship person that are not God, or to idolize things made by man.King Agrippa was strike down by God for accepting man's worship.

Man are borne with the pride of life, believe in the power of man, as equivalent to God. Rom 1:21 - man did not proclaim God when they know God, but turn towards himself as God. We must worship the creator and not the created. Remember the first 2 commandments? Thou shall have no other God; thou shall not worship any graven image.

We must have a thankful heart- whenever someone praise us, we must always remember God and praise him instead. We have to determine in our hearts not to worship anyone except God. Another good example was the prophet Daniel and his 3 friends. They refused to bow to the king's God or statue. "We are not anxious to answer you in this matter. We believe our God will deliver us from the fire. Even if He wish to let us go through the fire, it is fine with us as well. We still will not worship your God." This should be our answer to all worship that is not for God.

A rule of thumb - bow to something that can bow back to you. To teachers, to judge who will bow back. That is respect, not worship. As such we should not bow to innate statutes, for they are but made out of man's hands.

"Thou shall have no other God but me."

Dispute Resolution in the Light of the Bible

Acts 11:1-16

Does the bible teaches us anything on disputes and how it should be resolved?

In Acts 11, those who opposed to the salvation of the Gentiles were the Jews who were circumcised. According to their tradition, Gentiles were unclean and had no hope of salvation. This is the pride of a race.

Apostle Peter used the following virtue in his argument.
A. Humility - Peter could have used rank as the first Apostle of Christ, but he did not. He used this example to teach and instruct. Peter himself went through trials put forth to him, when he denied Christ three times. In the dream God instructed him three times to "slay and eat". As such he would not disobey the Lord this time. Be helpful and have the patience to explain and expound on the scriptures. Gently and patiently go through the scriptures and allow the Holy Spirit to convince, convict and convert the heart.

B. Honesty - Be truthful and factual in every sentence and word. Our testimony should not be spiced up or embellished with exaggeration. Expound and expose everything in order so that there is transparency. Be systematic, and orderly in order to reduce confusion and build trust. We should not be hiding any facts, including those the may not be to our advantage. Untruthful account will not stand under examination. So long as the account is pure from the heart, we have nothing to fear.

Accountability towards God outweighs all others in situations such as this.

Sunday Sermon - Obey God and Not Man

Acts 5:17-42

Easier said than done? It should be easier said and even easier to be done.

Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. - Acts 5:28

This, apostles Peter and others did not follow, for it is important to "obey God rather than men". For it is true - the blood should be upon the people for when even Pilate declare Jesus sinless, they wanted him crucified. The command to stop preaching was borne out of guilt.

1. We must obey God because God commands it. "Go, make disciples from the people". That is Jesus' commandment to His disciples. This is precisely what Peter and the other disciples were doing. If God commands it, we must follow, for His commandment is always right. Be purposeful and determine what we should do when the commandments of man go against the commandments of God. Daniel is a good example, stand firm even if it means we will be thrown to the lions's den.

2. We must obey God because only God can save us. Know who our saviour is! And when we obey God, Satan will try to take us away from Him. God is very much alive and working in our lives, we will experience miraculous help from God even as God miraculously deliver the apostles out of prison during the days of Acts.

But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. - Acts 5:19. This is the same God that we have today. What he did in the past, He will do the same today. He is our saviour and protector. Go and carry out God's work by faith! God will be with us.

3. We must obey God because when we obey Him, it proves that we are truly saved. When we are saved, we have the Holy Spirit who allow us to obey God, for by our sinful self will not want to obey God. Naturally we do not want to obey God; supernaturally we cannot help but obey Him because of the Holy Spirit that is in us. The Holy Spirit compelled us to be grieved when we sinned and He brings us back to God when we confess our sins.

May we determine in our lives to obey God and not man.