{"id":1756,"date":"2019-08-16T06:33:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T14:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1756"},"modified":"2019-08-16T06:33:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T14:33:11","slug":"devotion-acts-1421-28-faith-perseverance-and-reward-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1756","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 14:21-28 Faith, Perseverance And Reward Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 14:21-28\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>They preached the gospel\u00a0in that city and won a large number\u00a0of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium\u00a0and Antioch, 22\u00a0strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.\u00a0\u201cWe must go through many hardships\u00a0to enter the kingdom of God,\u201d they said.\u00a023\u00a0Paul and Barnabas appointed elders\u00a0for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting,\u00a0committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.\u00a024\u00a0After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia,\u00a025\u00a0and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.\u00a0 26\u00a0From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch,\u00a0where they had been committed to the grace of God\u00a0for the work they had now completed. 27\u00a0On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them\u00a0and how he had opened a door\u00a0of faith to the Gentiles.\u00a028\u00a0And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cPaul and Barnabas appointed elders\u00a0for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting,\u00a0committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 By spending time with their Brothers and Sisters, Paul and Barnabas, led by God, recognized the hand of God on men and appointed them to be elders over the church.\u00a0 In the early church all the Pastors were considered elders.\u00a0 Being someone who meets the qualifications of an elder are the qualifications to even be considered a pastor.\u00a0 Being ordained and revealed by God to be anointed to be so is the test.\u00a0 Financial or business success have no place as an essential qualification. In fact, make sure that an elder is not a \u201clover of money.\u201d\u00a0 He must clearly be a lover of God and of the family of God.\u00a0 Being financially successful is neither a condition for, nor a condition against, being a leader in the church.\u00a0 A pastor, elder, teacher, deacon are people who love the Jesus, are fully submitted to Him, and have lived a life that is evidence of loving God.\u00a0 Love of the Word is essential, formal scholarship is not.\u00a0 Research the Word on the qualifications of an elder or deacon.\u00a0 See\u00a01 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9<\/b>.\u00a0 Beware of the person who strives for the position.\u00a0 The position should be filled by the one who is living a life that reveals his calling, not a person whose ambitions cause them to grasp for it.<\/p>\n

Paul and Barnabas appointed elders to love the people of God, to teach and lead them, to comfort, protect and care for them.\u00a0 People will follow elders willingly who exhibit the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-<\/b>23a) and not because a person holds an office.\u00a0 People with a free will, who are not servants or employees, willingly respond to being led, not so well to being pushed. A wise, Holy Spirit led elder understands that.\u00a0 Beware those who don\u2019t.\u00a0 In fact, beware those who tell you what they think more often than what the Word says and how the Spirit leads.\u00a0 How do our elders hold up against the elders of the first generation church?\u00a0 If they are all wealthy, is that a coincidence or a troubling revealing of why people voted them in or appointed?\u00a0 Paul and Barnabas fasted and prayed to be guided by God.\u00a0 By the way, these elders were not voted in, but were appointed as God lead.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t trust our Pastors to be led by God to appoint the elders, why do we trust them to be our pastors?\u00a0 There is much more to this, pray and seek the truth by the leading of God and revealing of His Word.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia,\u00a025\u00a0and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.\u00a0 26\u00a0From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch,\u00a0where they had been committed to the grace of God\u00a0for the work they had now completed.<\/i>\u201d Again reviewing the provided map, we see how the missionaries had basically retraced their steps, following up where they had previously shared the Word of God and they checked in on the converts.\u00a0 The only difference was that after preaching the Word in Perga (It is not stated that they preached there the first time they passed through) they did not sail from there, but from Attalia.<\/p>\n

They went back to Antioch.\u00a0 It is where they were commissioned and from where the mission started.<\/div>\n
\"Inline<\/div>\n
\u201c27\u00a0On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them\u00a0and how he had opened a door\u00a0of faith to the Gentiles.\u00a028\u00a0And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 As is still done today the missionaries reported back to the Brothers and Sisters who has commissioned them.\u00a0 All the people at Seleucian Antioch were blessed to know all that God has done, just as the modern church is blessed to hear reports about what God is doing throughout the world.\u00a0 Paul and Barnabas stayed there \u201ca long time.\u201d\u00a0 It is thought that they stayed there for several months and may have been where Paul wrote Galatians.<\/div>\n

Praise God who sees us through what He commits us to.\u00a0 God is faithful!\u00a0 All the time He is good to us and always and forever He loves us.\u00a0 Whatever we face in the future, may we always remember His goodness to us and His love of us.\u00a0 It will keep us to be faithful to He who is first faithful to us.\u00a0 Oh glory to God!\u00a0 He indeed is the Precious One of our hearts and guardian of our minds.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/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 14:21-28\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They preached the gospel\u00a0in that city and won a large number\u00a0of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium\u00a0and Antioch, 22\u00a0strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.\u00a0\u201cWe must go through many hardships\u00a0to enter the kingdom of God,\u201d they said.\u00a023\u00a0Paul and Barnabas appointed elders\u00a0for them in each church and, with prayer…<\/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":[82,1969,94,17,2036,105],"class_list":["post-1756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-galatians","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-timothy","tag-titus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756","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=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1757,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions\/1757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}