Monday, June 3, 2013

Week Two Devotional



Just Go: Acts Chapter 3-4 (June 3-June 9)
Day One:
            Thank you for joining me again this week as we continue our walk through the book of Acts with chapters three and four.  I pray that last week’s devotions were a blessing to you and your family and pray the same for this week.
            As I read through Chapters three and four I found that God put one word on my heart.  Boldness.  Bold is what Jesus Christ was, is, and will forever be.  It is what we should pray for and aspire to be daily.  It is the power that sets us free from the bonds of the life of this world.  There was no greater boldness than when Jesus — God in the flesh — humbled himself and endured a slave’s death on the cross to save humanity from its heinous sins.
            Understandably boldness isn’t so easy; otherwise I suppose it wouldn’t be bold at all.  It is definitely a particular struggle in my faith walk at the current moment.  I am an introvert.  In new or uncomfortable settings I am very quick to observe and very slow to speak.  Talking with new people and finding the right words to say in a face-to-face conversation can be challenging at times.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  It has been a blessing in the sense that for the most part, I am very careful about the words that come out of my mouth.  Conversely, it has been a curse because there have definitely been times when God has called for me to speak and my over analysis of the situation has caused me to ignore his gentle calling.
            The question is, “What is the enemy of boldness?”  I believe that you will read chapters three and four and come to the same conclusion that I have.  It is fear that incapacitates us.  Fear of what others will think.  Fear of upsetting your best friend.  Fear of correcting our children because we might say the wrong thing and lose them forever.  But wait there is a solution!  It says in chapter four that all the believers came together to pray for the boldness to speak the Gospel.  Their prayer was so powerful that the place in which they were praying was shaken!
            Boldness is something we are called to as a group of believers.  It is not something we have to do in isolation.  As Hebrews 10:24 encourages us “to spur one another on to love and good deeds”, so also should we encourage one another in boldness to spread the gospel of Christ.  Before we dive into chapter three with tomorrow’s devotion, I would like to leave you with a quote that really spoke to me about the importance of Christian community in acting out in boldness.  In the historical-fiction novel Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, a Spartan soldier recounts the infamous battle of Thermopylae.  In the midst of marching into battle it reads, “But he heard the roar of his friends, his soldiers, his comrades behind him, and then all of the selfishness went away, and he realized he would sacrifice himself for them.”  Thank you and go with God and be at peace.
- Kyle Bogner

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