{"id":1651,"date":"2019-06-18T05:51:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T13:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2019-06-18T05:51:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T13:51:03","slug":"devotion-acts-1119-21-a-plan-for-all-to-know-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1651","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 11:19-21 A Plan For All To Know Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    Acts 11:19-21\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed\u00a0traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch,\u00a0spreading the word only among Jews.\u00a020\u00a0Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene,\u00a0went to Antioch\u00a0and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news\u00a0about the Lord Jesus.\u00a021\u00a0The Lord\u2019s hand was with them,\u00a0and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

    \u201cNow those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed\u00a0traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch,\u00a0spreading the word only among Jews.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 When the Jerusalem was overcome by invading nations, they scattered to avoid being killed.\u00a0 This scattering was referred to as the diaspora.\u00a0 Its meaning is to sow \u201csow throughout\u201d or \u201cscatter abroad.\u201d\u00a0 It was God using the Babylonian and Roman rule to spread His people abroad.\u00a0 Usually the Jews kept to themselves, but wherever they went they attracted Gentiles who were interested in this One God religion which was so different from the religions of the world that believed in many Gods.\u00a0 Family, it is true that the one true God attracts people to Himself.\u00a0 Non-Believers see a difference and want to know the difference between this One God religion and the false religions of their lands.\u00a0 This is not something that happens only within Christianity, but to the surprise of many, it happened with the Jews.\u00a0 The Jews served the one true God and that attracted people.\u00a0 God does not originate or promote evil (James 1:13<\/b>), but He can bring about His purpose by using what men do, whether good or evil (Genesis 50:20<\/b>).\u00a0 So Rome had caused the Jews to scatter abroad.\u00a0 God used this situation to spread the truth of Him to the Gentiles wherever the Jews went.\u00a0 That is commonly referred to as the Diapora, when the Jews were scattered to avoid persecution.\u00a0 Yet God was sowing them among the nations to bring about His will.\u00a0 The Jews may have walked away from God\u2019s purpose for them to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 42:6<\/b>), but God did not. He used the Roman Empire to seed the Jews in strategic places for His use.<\/p>\n

    Now He spread the Jews and they were used by God wherever He placed them.\u00a0 Now God used evil Roman Empire to accomplish His goals.\u00a0 Now remember that God did not cause the evil, but He did allow it and then used it for eternal good.\u00a0 How wise and wonderful is our God!\u00a0 He did not stop the Jewish persecution of the early Christians.\u00a0 However, He did use it just as He had used the diaspora to seed the Jews outside of Israel, so He used the Jewish persecution to sow the seed of The Good News as His church spread outward.\u00a0 So we see that the will of God is not stopped by evil.\u00a0 From eternity past He knew saw the evil in the hearts of men and how it would manifest and He knew how to ruin the plan of evil as He would turn the actions of evil to something of eternal good.\u00a0 God is so amazing beyond our comprehension!.<\/p>\n

    The Christian Jews, as they fled from persecution, spread the Gospel news to the Jews of the dispersion as they encountered them.\u00a0 Thus The Gospel was being spread to all the Jews who likely had heard of Jesus, but were in need to hear that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.\u00a0 Oh the wonderful plans of God!\u00a0 God\u2019s timing is perfect and His plans revealed as we look back at His mastery and sovereignty.\u00a0 God had spread the Jews.\u00a0 Through the Jews many Gentiles were saved.\u00a0 The Jews were strategically placed.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus came to save at just the right time in just the right circumstances that word of Him would spread through Jerusalem and to the world.\u00a0\u00a0Galatians 4:4-5\u00a0<\/b>proclaims \u201cBut when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent His Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that He might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law.<\/i>\u201d (The Msg.) See the timing of the arrival of Jesus was perfect in every way and one part of that is that Jews were scattered and He would use that dispersion to spread the news of Jesus.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 God is so incredible.\u00a0 When the Christians were dispersed because of the Jewish persecution (Notably the pre-Christian work of Saul) they travelled out along the same routes as the Jews had fled.\u00a0 As they did, they spread the news of the risen Messiah Jesus and as a result souls were saved wherever the persecuted Christians were dispersed.<\/p>\n

    For the most part the Jews only spread the Word among fellow Jews.\u00a0 They still did not get that God is the God of all, first to the Jew, and then to the world.<\/p>\n

    God used the Roman Empire to spread the Gospel.\u00a0 He placed the Jews throughout the Roman Empire that in His timing, they would be used to teach people who was God.\u00a0 This He did as all descendants of Israel were called to do.\u00a0 Being a Jew was never, in God\u2019s eyes, about being a Jew and disdaining the non-Jew.\u00a0 So the Jews had moved away from their purpose of revealing God to the world, but God would bring them back to it, as they spread the Gospel. Family so we should remember that we are first called to love God and each other (Mark 12:29-31<\/b>) and we are also commanded to spread the Word of God (Matthew 28:18-20)<\/b>. \u00a0Let us do these things wherever we are.\u00a0 Wherever we are He is and so we should point people to Him.\u00a0 It is what Jesus told us to do.<\/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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    Acts 11:19-21\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed\u00a0traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch,\u00a0spreading the word only among Jews.\u00a020\u00a0Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene,\u00a0went to Antioch\u00a0and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news\u00a0about the Lord Jesus.\u00a021\u00a0The Lord\u2019s hand…<\/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":[82,1969,1865,103,1700,93,101,94,17],"class_list":["post-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-galatians","tag-genesis","tag-isaiah","tag-james","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651","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=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1652,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions\/1652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}