Acts 3:1-2\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0One day Peter and John\u00a0were going up to the temple\u00a0at the time of prayer\u2014at three in the afternoon.\u00a02\u00a0Now a man who was lame from birth\u00a0was being carried to the temple gate\u00a0called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201c<\/i><\/span>One day Peter and John\u00a0were going up to the temple\u00a0at the time of prayer\u2014at three in the afternoon.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 As was the Jewish custom they were going to the temple to pray.\u00a0 Devout Jews had three times a day that they would stop everything and pray.\u00a0 Hmm, how many times a day do we stop to pray?\u00a0 Yes, perhaps they did it out of duty, from works.\u00a0 But if we truly love the Lord shouldn\u2019t we be stopping and praying and thanking the Lord at least three times a day.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t love a more powerful motivator than the law?\u00a0 The Word says that that we should be rejoicing in the Lord always, praying continually and giving thanks in all circumstances because that is the will of God for us in Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18<\/b>).\u00a0 We should not mistake this as a suggestion, but, as these verses state, it is the will of God for our lives and so we who love God will consider it a command to us.\u00a0 All who love God live to please Him choose to obey Him (John 14:15, 15:14<\/b>).<\/p>\n \u201cNow a man who was lame from birth\u00a0was being carried to the temple gate\u00a0called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 This man was lame from birth.\u00a0 From\u00a0V7<\/b>\u00a0we know that he had a problem with his feet and ankles.\u00a0 This \u201clame\u201d man was brought by those who loved him to the temple gate to beg from those going to temple.\u00a0 After all, those who claim to love and serve God should be the most kind and generous with someone who have been born lame since birth (Luke 14:12-14<\/b>). In those days, the common Jewish thought was that someone in his family, father or mother, had probably sinned and that was why he was born as he was (John 9:1-3<\/b>).\u00a0 Nevertheless his family loved him and every day brought him to receive of the kindness of God\u2019s people.\u00a0 The Jews and their priests did not run him off the property.\u00a0 They were kind to him and he received from their kindness money to live on.<\/p>\n How does that compare with us Christians?\u00a0 If people brought their handicapped to church and left them to beg for money, how would that be received?\u00a0 Would the police be called to remove them from the property?\u00a0 How would the parishioners react to having to walk past these disabled beggars?\u00a0 Surely our hearts would be moved with compassion for them!\u00a0 These people would move our hearts and also remind us that but for the grace of God we could have also been born with some disability, right (Exodus 4:11<\/b>)?\u00a0 Or would the dirty, the poor, the ragged cause us to complain and maybe even to stop coming to our church and go to another where we did not have to face these \u201cdirty and smelling beggars?\u201d\u00a0 We, in our nice clothes with plans to go out for lunch after service, would we eschew the needy, or would we help them?\u00a0 Maybe we think that they shouldn\u2019t be bothering us?\u00a0 What?\u00a0 The needy coming to God\u2019s people for help?\u00a0 Surely we think that we are the very people that should be helping them.\u00a0 Surely we have ministries to help the poor around us, at least weekly?\u00a0 Surely our hearts glow with warmth at helping the needy that we see as much, or more, than the \u201cthank you\u201d we receive from the missionaries in foreign lands?\u00a0 Now missionary giving is wonderful, truly magnificent, but what about the mission field at our feet?\u00a0 Are we generous with them?\u00a0 Do we point at the sin in their life and so dismiss our call to love them.\u00a0 Jesus ate with and spent time with the drunkards and sinners (Mark 2:15-17, Matthew 9:10-13, Luke 5:29-32<\/b>).\u00a0 Jesus told people to repent, and so must we, but a reading of the Word will show times that He often first showed them acts of love and mercy, He healed and protected them, and then after a great act of love, he told them to repent of their sins, and forgave them (John 8:11, Mark 2:1-12<\/b>).\u00a0 First He loved them, then He gave them direction.\u00a0 How do we measure up?\u00a0 Family, please consider how Jesus reacted to the poor and to whom we would call the wretched.\u00a0 How do we measure up to our Lord who set the example?\u00a0 The road is wide with excuses and narrow with the obedient and loving.\u00a0 What road will we choose (Matthew 7:13-14<\/b>)?<\/p>\n Family, all those drug addicts, all those alcoholics, all the criminals and sexual offenders, Jesus died for them all.\u00a0 He died for them as much as for us.\u00a0 We may have been guilty of some these things in the past.\u00a0 How precious is the blood of Christ to us?\u00a0 Do we want not even a minute percentage of His blood wasted or do we want that all would be saved by His precious blood?\u00a0 Such is the heart of God (John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9<\/b>).\u00a0 Or do prefer our convenience, our possessions, more than sharing what God has freely given to us?\u00a0 Family, these thoughts call for deep self-inspection.\u00a0 Believe me, it makes me very uncomfortable, very uneasy at how callous I can be.\u00a0 I pray, Lord Jesus, may our hearts break for all people, including those that we, in sin, would consider the least of us.\u00a0 May we be humble and realize that we are children of God only because we too have begged.\u00a0 We begged for forgiveness and we received.\u00a0 We begged for something eternal and received because of the love of God.\u00a0 These people beg for what we possess that is temporary.\u00a0 We should be very willing to part with what one day will burn.\u00a0 When we share what we possess that is temporary, we should also share what we possess that is eternal.\u00a0 Sharing what we have is very Christ-like.\u00a0 Oh God, help us to love as You love.\u00a0 Help us to make no excuses, but rather consider excuses to be the refuse they are and rather choose to live in complete obedience to you out of genuine love for You.\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you Lord that you are kind to us when we err.\u00a0 The forgiveness and love we have received from you, may we \u201cpay-it-forward\u201d to others, regardless of if they are dirty and stinky, or not.<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/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.\u00a0<\/i><\/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.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 3:1-2\u00a0\u2013\u00a0One day Peter and John\u00a0were going up to the temple\u00a0at the time of prayer\u2014at three in the afternoon.\u00a02\u00a0Now a man who was lame from birth\u00a0was being carried to the temple gate\u00a0called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.\u00a0 \u201cOne day Peter and John\u00a0were going up…<\/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":[82,2257,100,106,93,101,90,2347,757],"class_list":["post-1328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-exodus","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-peter","tag-psalm-micah","tag-thessalonians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328","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=1328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1329,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions\/1329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}