Painful Obedience

I'm still trying to work out some kinks in this new blog... so I haven't written anything new. But here's an old post from 2005 in another blog I had:

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Who of us have always been a perfect Christian? Have you been perfectly obedient? No matter how good of a Christian we this we are , we are still disobedient from time to time. I'm guilty of it. But obedience is something that is greatly appreciated by God, and He'll reward you for it. He's been showing me that lately.

About a week ago, I was with some brothers and a sister, and something amazing happened during prayer. God showed me a verse, Acts 5.38-39, a verse that, since that day, has become very very familiar to me. Although I have read through Acts last summer, I had forgotten what happens in each chapter, so I really didn't know what to expect. A few of the believers that were with me at the time were really struggling with some stuff we were trying to do for God. We knew He wanted us to do something, but didn't know if it would be as good as we were hoping.This is what Acts 5.38-39 said: "therefore in the present case I advise you: leave these men alone! Let them go! If their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourself fighting against God."

What more can you say when you've just been praying for God to make your work for Him go smoothly, than for God tosay to you through His word, "don't worry about it, nobody can stop you". Wow.

Anyways, I thought that since God was speaking to me through Acts, I figured this would be a good time to go back and study that book. Reading through the various stories and trials the early believers faced, I realized that they went through a similar pattern each time.

First- The believers faced a trial
Acts 5.17Thenthe high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18Theyarrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

Second- They were obedient to God
Acts 5.19Butduring the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors... 20"Go, stand in the temple courts," he said...21At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told..."

Third - God rescued them from the trial
Acts 5.40 They called the apostles ... and let them go.

The apostles learned from this that obeying God would definitely pay off from them, and the result of this experience led to bear more fruit for God. (Acts 5.42Dayafter day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.)

In Acts 7, there is the story of how Steven, a very faithful man, was put to death, because of his faith. Some may see this as a defeat, but Steven was being led by the Holy Spirit. He was filled with it! He knew how real and powerful God was, and knew that obedience would pay off. He was obedient right to death. We can only imagine what kinds of rewards he must be enjoying now in Heaven!

I'm still studying Acts and reading the remarkable stories about these first disciples and how they risked their lives daily to serve God,knowing that God's rewards were worth it to suffer the pain they recieved.