{"id":1675,"date":"2019-07-02T04:45:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T12:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2019-07-02T04:45:22","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T12:45:22","slug":"devotion-acts-1211-19-yes-he-can-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1675","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 12:11-19 Yes He Can Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 12:11-19\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0Then Peter came to himself\u00a0and said, \u201cNow I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me\u00a0from Herod\u2019s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.\u201d\u00a0 12\u00a0When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark,\u00a0where many people had gathered and were praying.<\/span>\u00a013\u00a0Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.<\/span>\u00a014\u00a0When she recognized Peter\u2019s voice, she was so overjoyed\u00a0she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, \u201cPeter is at the door!\u201d\u00a0 15\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re out of your mind,\u201d they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, \u201cIt must be his angel.\u201d\u00a0 16\u00a0But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.<\/span>\u00a017\u00a0Peter motioned with his hand\u00a0for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. \u201cTell James\u00a0and the other brothers and sisters\u00a0about this,\u201d he said, and then he left for another place.\u00a0 18\u00a0In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.<\/span>\u00a019\u00a0After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThen Peter came to himself\u00a0and said, \u201cNow I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me\u00a0from Herod\u2019s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Peter had been thinking, until the angel left that he was seeing a vision.\u00a0\u00a0When he realized that all that had been happening was reality he realized that the Lord had saved him from the evil desires of the Herod and the Jewish leaders.\u00a0\u00a0It is hard to even put oneself in his shoes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark,\u00a0where many people had gathered and were praying.<\/i><\/span>\u00a013\u00a0Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.<\/span>\u00a014\u00a0When she recognized Peter\u2019s voice, she was so overjoyed\u00a0she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, \u201cPeter is at the door!\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cJohn, also called Mark\u201d is sometimes called John Mark and is the person whom the Spirit used to write the book of Mark.\u00a0\u00a0He accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary trip.\u00a0\u00a0However, he (a young man) did not stay the whole time causing Paul not to trust him on a future trip.\u00a0\u00a0However Barnabas, Mark\u2019s cousin, disagreed and that caused a temporary schism between Paul and Barnabas.\u00a0\u00a0Years later it seems that all is forgiven between Paul and Mark as Mark is again with Paul in\u00a0Philemon 1:24<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

His mother Mary (a common name of the time) is thought to have been a widow who was well off.\u00a0\u00a0Her home must have been a large home as she often hosted the community of believers.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was not considered safe to open the door to a knock in the nighttime.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The servant girl Rhoda (her name meaning either Rose, or servant girl) heard the knock and did not at first know who was knocking, but then she recognized Peter\u2019s voice.\u00a0\u00a0Rhoda may have been very young.\u00a0\u00a0It is mindful of small child today who hears a knock at the door, recognizes the person knocking, but has been told not to open the door, especially at night, so the child will run to tell its parents who was at the door.\u00a0\u00a0Rhoda was so excited to hear that it was Peter who was knocking that she hurried to excitedly tell the praying adults that that Peter, whom they were praying God would release,\u00a0\u00a0was at the door.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cYou\u2019re out of your mind,\u201d they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, \u201cIt must be his angel.\u201d<\/i>\u201d At first the adults, who were earnestly praying for Peter told the girl that she was crazy because Peter was in jail.\u00a0\u00a0But she kept insisting so they proffered that perhaps it was Peter\u2019s angel.\u00a0\u00a0To us, that would seem an odd idea that it was an angel knocking at the door and that Rhoda mistook the angel for Peter.\u00a0\u00a0However, they had a tradition at that time that stated everyone has a guardian angel and that the angel looks exactly like the person that is being guarded.\u00a0\u00a0Intriguing, but not found in scripture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that while the believers were earnestly calling out to God to save Peter, when God had saved him, they were not believing that their prayers were answered.\u00a0\u00a0In that we see the miraculous part of this whole event.\u00a0\u00a0The fact that Peter was out, either released or had somehow escaped the imprisonment of Herod, seemed too unbelievable to them.\u00a0\u00a0They knew that in the natural there was no escaping the situation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So even though they knew that God could save Peter, they were not sure that He would.\u00a0\u00a0After all, hadn\u2019t James been killed before Peter\u2019s imprisonment?\u00a0\u00a0There seems to have been a lack of faith, or at least understandable uncertainty on the part of the prayers.\u00a0\u00a0Yet we do not judge them harshly for that.\u00a0\u00a0After all, don\u2019t we all need to confess the same?\u00a0\u00a0We pray without fully believing we will receive (Mark 11:24<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Now there is much to discuss about that topic that we cannot discuss at this time.\u00a0\u00a0However, we know that when we pray we must pray with the knowledge that God may provide exactly as we have asked.\u00a0\u00a0We know that one way or another He will answer.\u00a0\u00a0Too often, however, we pray without full confidence because we often don\u2019t know what the will of God is in the situation.\u00a0\u00a0However, if a person sick, we know that it is the will of God that we should pray for the sick (James 5:14<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0We should pray continuously and especially motivated by love (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Family, let us not doubt and become discouraged, let us pray in faith and having done that, trust our God who in every circumstance knows best.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pray and believe that even the seemingly impossible may come true as God wills.\u00a0\u00a0Our God is good and He loves us.\u00a0\u00a0He will provide the perfect answer, whether we understand or not.\u00a0\u00a0Pray to our good and loving God and believe that He may provide a miraculous answer, just as He did in the rescuing of Peter.\u00a0\u00a0Our God is able.\u00a0\u00a0He still is supernatural and all powerful.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Praise our God!\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/span><\/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 12:11-19\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Then Peter came to himself\u00a0and said, \u201cNow I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me\u00a0from Herod\u2019s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.\u201d\u00a0 12\u00a0When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark,\u00a0where…<\/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":[82,1700,93,94,2519,17,757],"class_list":["post-1675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-james","tag-mark","tag-micah","tag-philemon","tag-psalm","tag-thessalonians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675","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=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1676,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions\/1676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}