NIPTO, Day 165

Hello!

I decided to make a list of things that I want to do/get done today. There are only 5-6 things on the list... so it seems manageable. Here's the list:
1. Blog
2. Finish listening to Tammy Smith's breakout session
3. Finish reading The Princess Bride (I have less than 100 pages left... and I'm really almost done with it)
4. Clean up my room
5. Walk
6. Maybe write a blog post for LiveGrounded...
Okay. I'm adding 7 now..
7. Start working on what I'm talking about on Sunday... because it's Thursday.


This week has flown by. It's Thursday! It seems like it should be... Tuesday or something... but not Thursday.
Craziness.

NIPTO, I guess.

Acts 8:1-8

¹And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.

Important: Saul was approving of Stephen's death.




    On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 


This is intense stuff. Persecution galore breaks out against the church in Jerusalem. And everyone but the apostles were scattered. That was a huge church to be scattered. I'm not sure, but it was in the thousands. It was a "mega-church." And all except the apostles were scattered. 

²Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. ³But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison

Godly men buried Stephen. Men who loved him as a brother had to bury him... and they were sad. They mourned for him. Deeply. And to make things worse, Saul starts to destroy the church house by house. He was grabbing every single person who was a Christian and put them in jail.

⁴Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Even though so many people had been scattered, they still were telling people the good news wherever they were. That's awesome! And encouraging... and challenging. We should be sharing the good news wherever we are, no matter the circumstances.

⁵Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. ⁶When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. ⁷With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. ⁸So there was great joy in that city.

Philip traveled a little and he proclaimed the gospel. The Good News. People heard what he was saying and saw the miraculous, amazing things he was doing, they stopped and paid attention to what he was saying. People were released from evil spirits and people who had been paralyzed and people who were cripples were healed. And because of that there was great JOY in that city.

Could we make our cities joyful by proclaiming Christ?? I think we could. I hope Akron becomes a city that is joyful because of Jesus. That would be amazing.

Alrighty... I can check "blogging" off the list now! ;)
Hope you have/are having/had a good day