TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2022
TEXT: Acts
14:8-18
8.
There was a man in Lystra who couldn’t walk. He sat there, crippled since the
day of his birth.
9. He
heard Paul talking, and Paul, looking him in the eye, saw that he was ripe for
God’s work, ready to believe.
10. So
he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “Up on your feet!” The man was up in
a flash – jumped up and walked around as if he’d been walking all his life.
11.
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they went wild, calling out in their
Lyconium dialect, “The gods have come down! These men are gods!”
12.
They called Barnabas “Zeus” and Paul “Hermes” (since Paul did most of the
speaking).
13. The
priest of the local Zeus shrine got up a parade – bulls and banners and people
lined right up to the gates, ready for the ritual of sacrifice.
14.
When Barnabas and Paul finally realized what was going on, they stopped them.
Waving their arms, they interrupted the parade, calling out,
15.
“What do you think you’re doing! We are men just like you, and we’re here to
bring you the message, to persuade you to abandon these silly god –
superstitions and embrace God himself, the living God. We don’t make God; he
makes us, and all of this – sky, earth, sea, and everything in them.
16. “In
the generations before us, God let all the different nations go their own way.
17. But
even then he didn’t leave them without a clue, for he made a good creation a
good creation, poured down rain and gave bumper crops. When your bellies were
full and your hearts happy, there was evidence of good beyond your doing.”
18.
Talking fast and hard like this, they prevented them from carrying out the
sacrifice that would have honored them as gods – but just barely.
(The
Message Holy Bible)
TOPIC: DO
NOT TAKE THE GLORY OF GOD
God empowered Barnabas and
Paul and they healed a man who had been crippled from birth. When the man
jumped to his feet and started walking, the crowd that was watching concluded
that Barnabas and Paul were gods in human form and decided to worship them.
But they strongly rejected
this and explained that they were human beings just like them. Like Barnabas
and Paul, we must not allow people to worship and unduly praise us because of
our achievements.
All the glory must be given
to God who made such achievements possible through us. Pride sets in when we do
not give God the glory for our achievements.
QUESTION: Do
you take the glory for what God has done through you?
PRAYER: Glory,
honor, praise and adoration belong to You, O Lord. I pray that I never ascribe
these to myself, in Jesus name, Amen.
Remain
Blessed
No comments:
Post a Comment