SATURDAY SACRIFICE: Nothing You Can Give and Don’t Forget God

This past week, I was talking to a close friend about the Holy Ghost. The conversation was really great! He expressed that he knew about the Holy Ghost and how he wanted it.

However, he added that he didn’t know whether he could do it.

This is the first time I ever heard someone say that, I was a little shocked a bit. For the reason that my close friend was talking about receiving the Holy Ghost, and speaking in tongues as if it were a skill you acquire through practice.

I immediately assured him that it is not us; it is God’s Spirit moving in us. There’s nothing we can give or do to receive the Holy Spirit. All we can do is repent, be baptized, believe and receive. God will do the rest.

VERSE: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ~Acts 2:38

Like, Simon in Acts 8:1-25, my friend thought that it was in his own power that he could receive the Holy Ghost. It says “when Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹ and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ~Acts 8:18-19

Then Peter answered him and said,

 “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!”~Acts 8:20

God’s gift is free to us. It’s priceless.

 

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When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant.~Deutoronomy 31:20

In Deutoronomy God knew the Israelites once again will forget all the battles he brought them out of, and all the blessings he provided. So, he told Moses to write down a Song that he will give to remind the Israelites of who the true God is.

One part of the Song says, ¹⁰ In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye,¹¹ like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.

è We are God’s children; we are the apple of his eye. He provides, leads, and guards us every day and in every aspect of our lives.

¹² The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him.¹³ He made him ride on the heights of the land
    and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock,
    and with oil from the flinty crag,¹⁴ with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats ,with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.¹⁵ Jeshurun^[c] grew fat and kicked; filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.

è Everything we have God provided because he is with us. He gave us a way to go to school, to get that car, to receive that A on the test. He led us to meet the right people so that we would have God’s favor on the job or in school.

They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior.¹⁶ They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.¹⁷ They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear. ¹⁸ You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

è A few weeks ago Chris talked about things we put before God. It says in the bible somewhere (can’t recall right now) anything put above God is an idol. Don’t forget who the true God is. Don’t forget who created you, and what you were created for. In everything you do, do it for God.

 

Stay in God’s Peace, not in pieces=)

Saturday Sacrifice: Hannah