NIPTO, Day 201

Blah. Blah. Blah.
That's kind of how I feel right now.

I'm watching Chuck right now... It's almost over! Season 4 starts on September 20th. Gotta get caught up. But we're in the last minutes of the season finale.

Today... I slept in... wasn't ready for the day until 12. Ate brunch, I guess.
Played the piano for a bit... watched the second half of an episode of The Office that I had started during lunch...
I read for a while.
Then I got my hair cut!

Before

After!

I really love it!
So I was there for a long time... then I came home and did I don't know what.
We ate dinner, went on a walk, and are now watching Chuck! And it's almost over. I really really love this show...  =D ... Okay. It's over (and it's late. Like almost always.)

NIPTO, I guess.

Acts 19:13-22

¹³Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out."
Seems... self explanatory? But the question is, did it work? Were they "authorized?"  


¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵(One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" ¹⁶Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

Sooooo there were these 7 guys (brothers... sons of a Jewish chief priest) were going around driving out these evil spirits. The evil spirit started talking to them (through the person it was possessing? I'm guessing Yes.) He knew who Jesus and Paul were, and knew about their authority, but he didn't know anything about these guys. Then the guy who was possessed jumped them and beat them. Erm. Don't mess with things you're not in charge of?


 ¹⁷When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. ¹⁸Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. ¹⁹A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. ²⁰In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

After the attack happened, a lot of people knew about it. And the people in Ephesus were scared... and they held Jesus' name high! It deserves to be held in a place of honor.
A lot of the people who believed in Jesus came and confessed what they had done wrong, things that were evil (is this where "confession" started?)
Some of the people who had practiced sorcery came and burned their stuff... their very expensive stuff!
Because of all of these people's public acts, God's word spread around quickly and it was powerful. The word of God still is powerful. I don't think we tap into its power as much as we could. We go there when we're... tired. When we're in need of something. But what about going to the Bible for celebratory reasons? A few verses in Psalm were brought to my attention recently and I love love love them! Psalm 126:1-3 *See the bottom of the post!*





 ²¹After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. "After I have been there," he said, "I must visit Rome also." ²²He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
Paul kept on traveling! He went to Jerusalem, going through Macedonia and Achaia. And he decided that once he had gone to those 3 cities that he was going to go to Rome. But he sent a couple of "the guys" along to... somewhere while he stayed in the province of Asia a bit longer.




A'ight. I'm out. I'm tired. I have to get my rest! I'm helping with the K-1 group tomorrow at GVUMC's Back to School Bash! It should be a blasttt. I'm looking forward to it... but I'm not looking forward to getting up tomorrow. But I'm trusting God to help me. He's pretty awesome like that. And to help me to have a good attitude. yup.
Alllll right. It's night-night time for Abby.
G'night everyone! (Have I mentioned lately that y'all are awesome? I didn't think so. Y'all are awesome!)

¹ When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,

we were like men who dreamed.

² Our mouths were filled with laughter, 

   

our tongues with songs of joy.

Then it was said among the nations, 

 "The LORD has done great things for them."

³ The LORD has done great things for us,

and we are filled with joy.

(sorry the spacing is funky. I don't know how to change it. It's funky.)