Feb 4 2009 Ex 37-38, Ps 19, Acts 11

Scripture
And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. Acts 11:21

Observation
This is a story about the local Church in Antioch. These saints had been driven from Jerusalem by Saul, the arch enemy of the church. They had left land, homes, wealth, friends and even family to go out and spread the Gospel of the risen Lord. They went everywhere preaching the Gospel. It was a spiritual explosion.

How could this spiritual explosion happen? The answer lies in the text, “And the hand of the Lord was with them”.

Application
As Luke describes to us this powerful missionary church, he includes this declaration that the hand of the Lord was with them. I can’t help but ask the question, isn’t the land of the Lord with all churches?

While that might make an interesting discussion, a more important question would be, is the hand of the Lord at Adventist Fellowship? How would we even go about answering it? Would it be something that was so obvious that everyone would come to the same conclusion; either yes he was, or no he wasn’t? Or maybe it would be such that we would have different answers.

I believe the hand of the Lord is indeed with us. I believe it is so, because we have always made sharing the gospel a top priority just as these believers did in Antioch. Jesus promised all power is given in heaven and earth…go ye make teach all nations...and I will be with you always. When we are faithful in doing what Jesus said to do, God always lends a hand.

Prayer
Lord, I want to be in a church where Your presence is obvious. Where we can see people coming to You and lives being changed. Let us never do anything that would cause You not to be with us.