Good Morning MBC. Our Scripture reading today is Acts 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1<\/sup><\/em><\/strong> About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 <\/sup>He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 <\/sup>and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 <\/sup>And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 <\/sup>So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter is here imprisoned under heavy guard, but that is no problem for our omnipotent God. Verse 5 is so important. God is never handcuffed by our lack of prayers, but He often chooses to work through the prayers of His people. So, the \u201cearnest prayer\u201d of the church was crucial in God\u2019s act of freeing Peter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 <\/sup>And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, \u201cGet up quickly.\u201d And the chains fell off his hands. 8 <\/sup>And the angel said to him, \u201cDress yourself and put on your sandals.\u201d And he did so. And he said to him, \u201cWrap your cloak around you and follow me.\u201d 9 <\/sup>And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 <\/sup>When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 <\/sup>When Peter came to himself, he said, \u201cNow I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 12 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 <\/sup>And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 <\/sup>Recognizing Peter\u2019s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 <\/sup>They said to her, \u201cYou are out of your mind.\u201d But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, \u201cIt is his angel!\u201d 16 <\/sup>But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 <\/sup>But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, \u201cTell these things to James and to the brothers.\u201d Then he departed and went to another place.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 18 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 <\/sup>And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The disciples were praying for Peter, but they didn\u2019t really think he would show up at their door\u2026not in such a miraculous way. They insisted it was Peter\u2019s angel at the door. Jews at the time believed in guardian angels, and the disciples believed it was Peter\u2019s angel rather than Peter himself at the door (I would be running to see either way!). Church, if we\u2019re not careful, we also will be tempted to explain away the works of God around us instead of praising Him for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 20 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king\u2019s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king\u2019s country for food. 21 <\/sup>On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 <\/sup>And the people were shouting, \u201cThe voice of a god, and not of a man!\u201d 23 <\/sup>Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 24 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>But the word of God increased and multiplied.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 25 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is easy for me to scoff at Herod and say he got what he deserved. It is harder for me to admit that my sin also fails to \u201cgive God the glory\u201d He deserves. A couple of days ago, I heard someone say: \u201cSin is where man substitutes himself for God. Salvation is where God substitutes himself for man.\u201d It\u2019s true! We will either pursue sin (idolatry) with our lives, like Herod, or we will forsake sin to receive God\u2019s salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hope you have a blessed day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Tim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6347,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346\/revisions\/6347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}