Acts 28:23-31<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying.\u00a0He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God,\u00a0and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets\u00a0he tried to persuade them about Jesus.\u00a024\u00a0Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.\u00a025\u00a0They disagreed among themselves and began to leave\u00a0after Paul had made this final statement:\u00a0\u201cThe Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said\u00a0through Isaiah the prophet: 26\u00a0\u201c\u2018Go to this people and say, \u201cYou will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.\u201d\u00a0 27\u00a0For this people\u2019s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>28\u00a0\u201cTherefore I want you to know that God\u2019s salvation\u00a0has been sent to the Gentiles,\u00a0and they will listen!\u201d\u00a029 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.\u00a0 30\u00a0For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.\u00a031\u00a0He\u00a0proclaimed the kingdom of God\u00a0and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ\u2014with all boldness\u00a0and without hindrance!<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cThey arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying.\u00a0He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God,\u00a0and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets\u00a0he tried to persuade them about Jesus.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Onesiphorus was a friend of Paul.\u00a0\u00a0Not a fair-weather-friend, but a true friend who stood by him when others scattered. Of him Paul wrote in\u00a02 Timothy 2:16-18<\/b>\u00a0\u201cMay the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus,\u00a0because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed\u00a0of my chains.\u00a017\u00a0On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me.\u00a018\u00a0May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day!\u00a0You know very well in how many ways he helped me\u00a0in Ephesus.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0When Paul was in prison, his friend Onesiphorus regularly visited him and provided for him.\u00a0\u00a0He was a brother who truly loved Paul and who knew how to express it.\u00a0\u00a0Many of us genuinely love each other.\u00a0\u00a0Onesiphorus knew how to express it.\u00a0\u00a0For him love truly was a verb. (James 2:14-17<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Paul remembered him and prayed for him.\u00a0\u00a0Paul also mentions him in\u00a0V4:19<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0He loved the Apostle Paul.\u00a0\u00a0As Paul prayed for him we can be sure that he knew that the Lord will reward Onesiphorus for his kindness to Paul\u00a0\u201cAnyone who welcomes you welcomes me,\u00a0and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.\u00a041\u00a0Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet\u2019s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person\u2019s reward.\u00a042\u00a0And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0Matthew 10:40-42<\/b><\/p>\n
Remembering that Onesiphorus loved Paul, it is said that he described Paul\u2019s appearance to Titus as \u201csmall in size, bald-headed, bow-legged, well built, with eyebrows that met, rather long-nosed and full of grace.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It is consistent with other descriptions of him.\u00a0\u00a0This causes me to pause and consider how God does not judge a person by physical appearance, but by the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0The Lord knew the heart and character of Paul when he was the number one human enemy of the church.\u00a0\u00a0The devil used Paul\u2019s misdirected zeal for God to fight against God (as he still does today with innumerable people today.)\u00a0\u00a0Bowlegged Paul was tireless for the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0A small man who, walking with God, had no fear of man (Galatians 1:10<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0A man whom people could have considered physically inferior because of his short stature (he has been described as 4\u20198\u201d tall).\u00a0\u00a0And yet, after all that he has been through here is Paul, standing, among the \u201csuccessful\u201d people of the world, people of his heritage, who came to see him because he invited them to.\u00a0\u00a0A large crowd to see this physically unimpressive man.\u00a0\u00a0And Paul, not short Paul, but Paul who was mighty in the Lord, spoke from morning till evening, with them hanging on his every word.\u00a0\u00a0Paul spoke with the authority of a man not endeavoring to his own eloquence, but in the power of the Spirit to reveal the Truth in the scriptures to them, the scriptures that they all very well knew.\u00a0\u00a0Paul\u2019s goal was not to lift up himself, but to lift of the beauty and majesty of the plan of God to save the world.\u00a0\u00a0Paul was unveiling the scarlet thread of Jesus throughout the Bible, telling them how the Messiah was revealed throughout their holy scriptures.\u00a0\u00a0He followed the woven path in scripture that lead to the unveiled Messiah that was the Hope of Israel.\u00a0\u00a0He followed it from the books of Moses through the inspired prophecies of the prophets of God.\u00a0\u00a0He pulled the thread up that was sewn into scripture and followed it to show them that the end of the thread was found at the feet of Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0This is what the Apostle Nathanael (who was a dedicated student of scripture) understood so quickly. (John 1:45<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0Jesus said of this scarlet thread \u201cThis is what I told you while I was still with you:\u00a0Everything must be fulfilled\u00a0that is written about me in the Law of Moses,\u00a0the Prophets\u00a0and the Psalms<\/i>.\u201d (Luke 24:44<\/b>)<\/p>\n
Paul spoke from morning to night, as the Holy Spirit led him (Mark 13:11, John 14:26<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Family, if we want the Holy Spirit to remind us of the Word to witness to people, first we must have loved it, studied it, caressed it in our minds, sought God for the truth of it, and cherished it in our hearts, deep into our very spirit.\u00a0\u00a0Paul was such a man.\u00a0\u00a0He loved God and sought God.\u00a0\u00a0The Holy Spirit precedes the Word.\u00a0\u00a0It is the Holy Spirit who calls us and a tool that He uses is the Word.\u00a0\u00a0The Holy Spirit sanctifies us and He uses the Word.\u00a0\u00a0We cannot separate the Word from the God who gave it.\u00a0\u00a0We cannot understand it and have the completed puzzle of it formed within us unless it is the work of the Holy Spirit within.\u00a0\u00a0And yet, the beauty of it is that God wholeheartedly loves to pour forth His wisdom that is contained in the Word into us. (James 1:5<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0When in our burning pursuit of God we have read all of His Word (again and again) while simultaneously pushing in to fellowship with Him and know Him better, then the Holy Spirit reveals the mysteries and beauties of the Word of God.\u00a0\u00a0As He does, He brings us to the throne room of God, to the presence of God, and there we know the Father God, and we see Jesus beside Him.\u00a0\u00a0We see the things of God not with physical eyes, but with the spiritual insight that becomes ever the more fine-tuned as we seek Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0We learn that our physical eyes are limited, but our spiritual eyes (only opened by being born from above (John 3:3<\/b>)) are able to see what only those who love Jesus can see.\u00a0\u00a0Paul received (the wisdom of God) with a mind transformed by the Spirit of God (Romans 12:2<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0He sought and was driven to stay on the guided tour of spiritual insight whose tour guide is God the Holy Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0Paul was only a man.\u00a0\u00a0Yet he was a man possessed to know and love all of God that He could.\u00a0\u00a0God can give us all of that knowledge also.\u00a0\u00a0God searches our hearts and knows them (Romans 8:27<\/b>) and He know those who seek Him with all their heart, their soul, their strength and their minds.\u00a0\u00a0He knows those who have Him placed on the throne of their hearts and minds and have no idols to pollute His throne room.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we love and seek God as Paul, a mere man, did, then we too will be able to have the Holy Spirit flow through us and be able to be God\u2019s witness from morning till evening.\u00a0\u00a0It will be because we don\u2019t merely have doctrine and words memorized, but because the whole of it lives within us and is unveiled evermore day by day.\u00a0\u00a0Oh Lord, help us and Lord, please make it so.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n
P<\/b><\/span>salm 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 Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 28:23-31\u00a0–\u00a0They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying.\u00a0He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God,\u00a0and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets\u00a0he tried to persuade them about Jesus.\u00a024\u00a0Some were convinced by what…<\/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":[82,1969,1700,100,106,93,101,94,1874,17,10,2187,2036],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-galatians","tag-james","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm","tag-romans","tag-samuel","tag-timothy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250","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=2250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2251,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions\/2251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}