Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals from Feb. 1-7 are provided by Cami King. Cami, a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, is about to complete her M.Div. at Gordon Conwell Seminary. She is currently serving as a staff at Journey Community Church in Raleigh.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Acts 3:11-16
While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. 12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
The famed apologist Ravi Zacharias writes: “I recall on one campus some years ago finishing a tough series of meetings. On the day I was departing from that city, my host mentioned to me that he had brought his neighbor, a medical doctor, to the last meeting. ‘She is a skeptic through and through,’ he said. ‘Would you like to know what her response was to your presentation last night?’ he asked. Knowing full well that I had no choice, I answered rather eagerly in the affirmative. This was his reply of sentiments: ‘Powerful… simply powerful… I wonder what he’s like in his private life.’ That was her one-line response to a three-hour evening. In short, the entire weight of the argument rested, for her, on the coherence between the argument and the enfleshing of the argument. The reasoning was not good enough. The practical impact in the private life of the reasoned was the final test.”
What gives us the right to speak into another person’s life? As someone in full-time ministry, I’ve had to ask this question quite a bit regarding people within the church. But what about people outside the Christian community? In our politically correct, tolerant society, it can feel not only inappropriate, but down right rude to speak (let alone preach) into someone else’s life – particularly if our words are unsolicited and potentially offensive. So how do we get a foot in the door and a listening ear? How do we get license to speak the Gospel to the outside world? In our passage for today, Peter and John’s healing of the paralytic man gave them the platform from which to speak. It was the Spirit at work in them, as they simply lived a faithful life of worship and devotion, that granted them the attention of the outside word.
As Ravi Zacharias’ story above illustrates, more so than our well-formed arguments and eloquent words, the message of the Gospel is taken seriously when the people who preach it live a life that is harmonious with the message they preach. Our lives are a better testimony than our words. Many of us never find ourselves needing to be ready to give an answer for the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15) because no one ever asks. May our lives bear witness to the goodness of God and give us a platform from which to share His good news.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, make my life a living witness to your goodness. May I live in such a way that others want to know more about the hope I have in You. And when I’m given the platform to speak, may I proclaim your truth in the power of your Spirit, to the glory of Your name. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Genesis 34-35
Very few Christians in America have ever seen a good old fashioned, New Testament healing. I personally have never seen a lame man get up and walk at a mere command. Part of me wonders if the infrequency of the miraculous is due to our lack of felt-need for God’s supernatural power. When Peter and John encountered the man in the passage above, he asked them for something – not healing, obviously, because he didn’t imagine that was something they could give, but money, a more reasonable request. However, Peter first responded by acknowledging his lack and what he didn’t have – I don’t have any money – and his dependence on God for provision – but I do have the power of the name of Jesus.
“Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavors, even the best, will come to naught. Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a true reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever.” (Tim Keller)
The late great preacher S.M. Lockridge once said, “A sermon should do at least four things for you. One, a sermon should stretch your mind… You ought to be able to learn something from a sermon. Two, a sermon should tan your hide. A sermon should correct you. Three, a sermon should warm your heart. It should inspire you. Four, a sermon should provoke the will. It should challenge you to do what the Lord would have you do.”
My journey into Christian faith consisted largely of wrestling with the truth and trustworthiness of Scripture. One of my dearest resources during that time was my dad who graciously spent inordinate amounts of time answering my questions and helping me process my thoughts. One phrase I’d constantly repeat in our conversations was, “Yes, but how do you know that?” I wanted to understand how he had become so persuaded that what Scripture was saying was true. How could he be certain? Among the slew of things that bolstered his assurance were the prophesies. I remember reading a compilation of promises and prophesies of God from the Old Testament listed beside accounts of their fulfillment (both in Scripture and in the life of the Church). It didn’t convince me at the time, but I remember one day when it clicked. I was amazed. One prophesy come true I could chalk up to coincidence, maybe even two or three. But after a while, it would have taken more blind faith to believe it was mere coincidence that aligned so many Old Testament prophesies with New Testament realities.
Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals for today are provided by Mei Lan Thallman. Mei Lan Thallman is originally from Taiwan and a graduate of Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary (M.A.) in Kentucky. She is the wife of Pastor Kirt, who serves at Grace Covenant Church (Philadelphia). They have two children, Nate (13) and Naomi (11).
War Room is one of my favorite movies of 2015. What I love the most is its portrayal to the audience of this essential, foundational truth that: prayer is the battleground on which we wage and win wars. If you have not seen it, please make a point to watch it with your family, friends and small group. It will open your eyes to see prayer in a new way.
Several years ago, while we were serving in South Carolina, we took the kids on a family vacation to Disney World in Florida. We thought we were making Nathan and Naomi’s childhood dreams become a reality—they would remember Disney as the magical place. But we were shocked to hear Naomi make the declaration upon arriving home, “It’s so good to be home; I love my home better than Disney.” In our sincere effort to give them a magical experience, we had pushed ourselves over the limit by doing too much with too little time.
What’s the point of the virgin birth? Some say that since the original sin is transmitted through the father, if Jesus had been conceived in a natural manner, He could’ve been neither perfect nor sinless. Paul probably would have disagreed since he wrote, “Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner” (1 Tim. 2:14). While we can debate this point to no end, there is another compelling reason why the virgin birth was absolutely necessary.
Perhaps no one ever feared death quite like Thomas Donaldson, then 46, who was afflicted with brain cancer in 1990. Hoping that someday science would provide a cure for cancer, he sought for cryogenic (science of the effects of low temperature) specialists to freeze him, and then sever his frozen head to store it for the future. At $35,000, freezing a head was cheaper than the cost of freezing an entire body for $100,000. Wishing also for the development of brain transplantation, the plan called for his head to be implanted to another body. “I am dying,” Donaldson said, adding, “I might later be revived and continue to live.” Ironically, he beat the disease until finally succumbing to it in 2006.
I disagree with most of what Richard Dawkins wrote in The God Delusion but not the following story. He cites a clergy who told his dying colleague, “Congratulations! I wish I was coming with you.” Noting that this clergy seemed like a sincere believer, the famed atheist says, “It is precisely because it’s so rare that his story catches our attention. Could it be that [religious people] don’t believe all that stuff they pretend to believe?” To some extent, this is true. One reason is that believers are more enamored by the men of this world who are getting all their “rewards” now, than the rewards of being with God.