Daily Bible Reading Acts 12
Read Acts 12 on your own
The power of prayer: We read this passage as part of our Experiencing God study and I even used it as a sermon illustration on March 6. It is a wonderful story, yet very sad and scary all at the same time. In the story we learn that the early church is in crisis, serious crisis, their leader Peter has been taken with the intention of killing him. The story ends with Peter released. When you read Acts 12 pay close attention, because there is a turning point in the story that changes everything. Look for it carefully….
I think this story is very real and very human too. I love Rhonda! She gets to the door and is so excited she forgets to let Peter in. The people are so shocked they told her it must be an angel. How funny is this? In the early church they believed so much in the reality of angels they thought it was a better chance an angel was at the door than Peter! It also is a reminder that God didn’t always do the miraculous, even the early church was surprised by God’s response to their prayers! Sometimes we tend to think that they had a direct line to God and we are forced to be on hold for hours, months and years. This is a reminder that the book of Acts is a collection of God’s greatest hits in the first century. Though they saw many awesome and wonderful things, it may not be quite as often as we think. If we were to write a book of Acts for today we would have to cut all of the God stories down to the greatest hits. J
The end of this story tells of Herod’s response and his ultimate demise.
As I was reading today one section has been really stuck in my mind:
21 On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. 22 They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
Giving God all the glory is REALLY IMPORTANT TO HIM. We as people (me at the top of the list) are prone to desire praises. We want people to appreciate us, our gifts and what we do. Yet, God’s desire is that we would turn those praises back to Him. A visual image I received was when I receive a rose, may I immediately thank the person for it, remind them it was God who is really at work and then place those roses permanently on God’s throne.
Possibly the most powerful line of this section:
24 But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.
