2022_01_19 Insight Post- Rusty Coram

  -   January 19, 2022

This week’s reading- Acts 5-6

Our reading this week includes two very sobering events. The first is in chapter 5, regarding the deception attempted by Ananias and Sapphira. Whatever their motive was, they chose to lie about the amount of money they gave to support the church. They were under no obligation to give anything but wanted to be seen as generous beyond the truth, and God allowed them to be caught, disciplined, and used as an example to the whole church. Kim Feld addressed this really well in her post earlier this week. The bottom line is that we may fool others but never God. Be careful!

The second event is when the Peter and the apostles were arrested and brought before the High Priest and his counsel. When Peter, speaking for all the apostles, respectfully declined their command to stop teaching about Jesus the counsel was furious and ready to have them all executed. Before the official execution order was given one of the counsel leaders named Gamaliel strongly urged caution saying, 38 “So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!” Acts 5:38–39 (NLT) The counsel still had the apostles beaten but stopped short of killing them. Gamaliel’s advice to be careful was spot on.

What we should take away from these two events is that we always need to be careful with our attitudes and actions. God is fully aware of everything, including our upspoken thoughts, and no matter how we try to spin or justify He knows the truth. A verse, and reality, I learned as a new follower has helped me with this (though I must be reminded often!) “We can always “prove” that we are right, but is the Lord convinced?” Proverbs 16:2 (The Living Bible)

Rusty Coram
Senior Pastor