{"id":1206,"date":"2018-09-10T11:45:09","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T19:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2018-09-10T11:45:09","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T19:45:09","slug":"devotion-acts-16-11-until-jesus-comes-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1206","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 1:6-11 Until Jesus Comes Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 1:6-11\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0Then they gathered around him and asked him, \u201cLord, are you at this time going to restore\u00a0the kingdom to Israel?\u201d\u00a0 7\u00a0He said to them:\u00a0<\/i><\/span>\u201cIt is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.<\/i><\/span>\u00a08\u00a0But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;\u00a0and you will be my witnesses\u00a0in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,\u00a0and to the ends of the earth.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>9\u00a0After he said this, he was taken up\u00a0before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.\u00a0 10\u00a0They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white\u00a0stood beside them.<\/span>\u00a011\u00a0\u201cMen of Galilee,\u201d\u00a0they said, \u201cwhy do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThen they gathered around him and asked him, \u201cLord, are you at this time going to restore\u00a0the kingdom to Israel?\u201d\u00a0 7\u00a0He said to them:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.<\/span>\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 The Apostles are no different than we can be.\u00a0 They were taught that when the Messiah came He would be both the priest and the king of Israel.\u00a0 They were taught that He would free them from the tyranny of Israel\u2019s oppressors.\u00a0 Yet, as Jesus was about to ascend and as He was giving them final instructions, Israel was still under the iron first of Rome.\u00a0 At this point, they still did not understand all that Jesus had been trying to teach them.\u00a0 What was it that prevented them from \u201cgetting\u201d what Jesus was trying to teach?\u00a0 It was what they had been previously and erroneously been taught.\u00a0 It was the mistaken traditions of what Jews as a community clung to. \u00a0It was what sweet grandma and dear mom and pop had taught them.\u00a0 They clung so tightly to the wrong, yet commonly believed, tradition and when the truth was presented to them they would not release what man had taught them so God could teach them. It is always amazing how some will now laugh at doctrine (tradition) that was previously taught to them and that is not in the bible, and yet they cling to other doctrines that those same people had promulgated and insisted upon.\u00a0 Some refuse to see what the Spirit would have them see.\u00a0 Even today there are Christians, good ones, who cling to false doctrine that their former teachers, who obviously had erred in some areas, taught them as they were growing up.\u00a0 The Apostles clung to tradition and it slowed their grasp of the truth.\u00a0 Let us be quick to receive the truth of the Word from the Spirit of God, who is our ultimate teacher of all truths of God.\u00a0 Let us let go of traditions and teachings that require the teaching of man to \u201cunderstand.\u201d\u00a0 This is how people are led astray and are misguided.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said to them:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.<\/span>\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 People are curious.\u00a0 It is good that we are curious or we would not know most of what we know.\u00a0 God created us intelligent and so we are curious.\u00a0 Yet, when God states that we are not to know something then that is an absolute that we are not to know it.\u00a0 If God doesn\u2019t tell us something, it is likely we may ponder about it, but in the end we reject our ponderings for what the Word reveals.\u00a0 If God doesn\u2019t tell us something about the Word, it is best to not cling to a guess.<\/p>\n

A question may arise about this verse.\u00a0 Who was Jesus referring to when He said to the Apostles that \u201cIt is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set?\u201d\u00a0 Well He certainly was speaking to the Apostles.\u00a0 It seems most likely that if it was not for the Apostles to know then it was not for the disciples of the Apostles time to know.\u00a0 However, does that apply to all Christians until His return?\u00a0 We can certainly know that is not true as we only need to consider that the scriptures state that after the \u201cabomination that causes desolation\u201d<\/i>\u00a0(Daniel 9:27, 11:31)\u00a0<\/b>it will be three and half years till the return of Jesus (Daniel 12 11-12, Revelation 11:2-3<\/b>).\u00a0 The Christians who are alive at the time of this \u201cabomination that causes desolation\u201d<\/i>\u00a0will know how long they have to endure until the return of Jesus.\u00a0 Perhaps only these Christians will know the date, or perhaps the Christians that are alive when the Antichrist is revealed will be able to determine exactly when the seven years of tribulation starts and so they may know the date of Christ\u2019s return.\u00a0 What is certain, is that the determining of the day of Christ\u2019s return is not what we need to be most concerned about.\u00a0 We need to look for and hope for His soon return, even today, as it is the hope of our faith.\u00a0 However what we need to be busy doing is sharing His Word to the world.\u00a0 Knowing the time and date of the return of Jesus is not important.\u00a0 Instead, be ready for Him when He returns is.<\/p>\n

Family, let us look forward to the return of Jesus.\u00a0 It is what is in the heart of all who love Him above all else and everyone else.\u00a0 When Jesus returns then we shall fully receive all that we have hoped for.\u00a0 Jesus is coming for us.\u00a0 Let us call for His soon return while we are busy telling as many as we can what He has done for all who will receive Him.\u00a0 May we do that while praising God and trusting Him.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acts 1:6-11\u00a0–\u00a0Then they gathered around him and asked him, \u201cLord, are you at this time going to restore\u00a0the kingdom to Israel?\u201d\u00a0 7\u00a0He said to them:\u00a0\u201cIt is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.\u00a08\u00a0But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;\u00a0and you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1477,94,17,711],"class_list":["post-1206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-daniel","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-revelation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1207,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions\/1207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}