text: June 12, 2019 – StopAndPrayTV
  June 12, 2019 by StopAndPrayTV
  VIDEO However… – Persecuted for Truth's Sake
  And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed. Acts 4:3-4
  When Peter and John walked into the temple precincts one day at 3:00 p.m. to join in a time of prayer, they were met by a lame man asking alms. Peter replied, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6). The healing of the lame man occasioned an impromptu sermon, but Peter's message was interrupted when he and John were arrested by the temple priests and dragged off to a jail cell for the night.
  But the Bible says, "However…"
  "However, many of those who heard the word believed." The disciples' plight and their preaching spread the Gospel further than ever, resulting in more people hearing of Jesus.
  Disruptive moments in our lives are upsetting, and none of us likes unwelcome surprises or sudden crises. But the Lord watches over His children and He has a purpose in every problem and a pathway through every pain.
  Learn to add the word however to your vocabulary and watch to see how God is working.
  God will never allow any action against you that is not in accord with His will for you. Jerry Bridges
  Fruit-Bearing Christian
  The apostle Paul here was commending the Christians at Philippi as the only church that had sent an offering to help defray his expenses on his missionary trips. He calls such gifts "fruit" that would abound to their "account" (Greek logos, probably better rendered as "testimony"). Thus, God considers gifts of money to scriptural ministries to be like life-giving fruits on a healthy vine.
  There are other types of fruits that a Christian life can produce. Paul regarded those he had helped lead to Christ as fruits. He wrote to the Christians at Rome: "I purposed to come unto you . . . that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles" (Romans 1:13).
  Have You Made to Worship?
  And from what we can learn from the Scriptures we believe that the seraphim and cherubim and powers and dominions are still fulfilling their design—worshiping God who created them and breathed into them the breath of life. Man alone sulks in his cave. Man alone, with all of his brilliant intelligence, with all of his amazing, indescribable and wonderful equipment, still sulks in his cave. He is either silent, or if he opens his mouth at all, it is to boast and threaten and curse; or it's nervous, ill-considered laughter, or it's humor become big business, or it's songs without joy. WMJ006-007
  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me.—Psalm 138:7.
  It is very helpful to make a habit of offering, morning by morning, the troubles of the day just beginning to our dear Lord, accepting His will in all things, especially in all little personal trials and vexations. Some persons have found great benefit from making, when first they wake, the act taught! To Madame de Chantal by St. Francis de Sales, accepting "all things tolerable and intolerable" for love of Christ; then at midday, a moment's inward search to see whether there has been any voluntary slackening of submission, any deliberate opposition to God's will, any hesitation in resisting the distaste or fretfulness, the impatience or discouragement we are tempted to feel when things go contrary to our own will and likings, making a fresh resolution to go on heartily; and, at night, a quick review of the day's failures for which to ask pardon, and strength to go on better anew. Some such habit as this is a great check to that terrible hindrance of the spiritual life which, terrible though it be, is so apt to steal upon many good and earnest souls,—a complaining, grumbling, self-pitying spirit.
  Let No Cause to Blush
  "Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed." Isa. 54:4
  We shall not be ashamed of our faith. Carping critics may assail the Scriptures upon which we ground our belief, but every year the Lord will make it more and more clear that in His Book there is no error, no excess, and no omission. It is no discredit to be a simple believer; the faith which looks alone to Jesus is a crown of honor on any man's head, and better than a star on his breast.
  We shall not be ashamed of our hope. It shall be even as the Lord has said. We shall be fed, led, blest and rested. Our Lord will come, and then the days of our mourning shall be ended. How we shall glory in the Lord who first gave us lively hope, and then gave us that which we hoped for!