Exodus 9-11; Psalm 14; Acts 5

"But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men."
Acts 5:29

I believe the word for today would be "obedience." Acts 5 opens with Ananias and Sapphira being judged for their hypocrisy and lying to God. Later Peter and the disciples are on Trial for preaching in the temple. Ananias and Sapphira's lack of obedience led them to death and the Disciples obedience to the Lord led to many great miracles. Can you imagine walking down the street and people being healed by your shadow. I have found in my life and in the life of others that obedience leads to life and a lack of obedience leads to death. Before I was on staff at the church I was working in the financial services industry. So many times I would witness successful branch managers and employees lose their careers as a result of not being obedient to company policies or regulations. Whether it was an inappropriate relationship or fraud it brought a certain death to a career and many times a family. Daily I found myself confronted to be obedient to who I was in Christ or how the industry or others would want to shape me and my career. Later I found myself leaving the industry to come on staff full time at the church. Many people close to me felt I was making a big mistake, but I knew I had to be obedient. Acts 5:29 was the verse I held on to. So as you go about your day choose life, choose to be obedient to who God has called you to be. You might think that you will lose your job, client, or even family but that's just Satan working just like he worked on Ananias. I was a top producer at the company I worked for and I know that it was all because of the Lord's favor and choosing to give him each phone call and relationship or contact that was made. So today do as the Angel said in verse 19. "Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life."

In Him,
Pastor Joe

Next reading: Exodus 25-27; Acts 6