Acts 2:36-38 With Footnotes

"All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that it is this Jesus, whom you nailed to the cross, that God has made Lord and Messiah!"

When the people heard this, they were deeply troubled, and said to Peter and the other apostles, "What shall we do, brothers?"

Peter said to them, "Turn away from your sins, each one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven..."

I don't wanna go home

Without sharing the Word

How He came to wash us

With His blood precious

And I start crying

Don't you wanna be free?

Things that hassle your soul

Keep your life from livin'

And your give from givin'

Are you dying?

If you could do it from the start again

And change those things that you'd rather hadn't been

Stop your lying

Jesus offers the way

You can be born again

All your past forgiven

And new life to live in

He's worth trying

Now you can do it from your heart, my friend

And change those things that you'd rather hadn't been

Stop denying!

Are you dying?

Stop your lying!

"I Don't Wanna Go Home"
©1974 Latter Rain Music and Word Music, Inc.

https://youtu.be/dfj2mUx3Gvw

Truth is...once I stop lying to myself; stop pretending that I'm basically a good person and start believing the bad news that my sin nailed Jesus to the cross...once I do that, then I'm able to appreciate the good news that it's because of that sacrificial death that I can go Home with a clear conscience.

You Have Heard That It Was Said (3)...

..."There's no time like the present," but I say unto you:

There's no time BUT the present.

Different scientists will argue in different ways, but it seems clear to me that the only moment of time in which we can actually operate is the present moment.

The past is gone and the future is just a mental concept. All we have is the eternal Now. (And no, I didn't know anything about Alan Watts until after thinking of that term.)

And Now doesn't last very long. Several Nows have become inconsequential memories since you began reading this post.

But just because they are short-lived and faster than a speeding bullet, it doesn't mean they don't add up to something pretty significant.

Something pretty valuable.

I heard the following as part of a sermon by Alistair Begg, but it comes from Marc Levy's book, What If It Were True.

If you want to know the value of one year, just ask a student who failed a course.

If you want to know the value of one month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

If you want to know the value of one hour, ask the lovers waiting to meet.

If you want to know the value of one minute, ask the person who just missed the bus.

If you want to know the value of one second, ask the person who just escaped death in a car accident.

And if you want to know the value of one-hundredth of a second, ask the athlete who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

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Truth is...Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16  NIV)

What Would Jesus Do?: Top 25 Jesus Quotes: #12

When a world-famous Hindu mentions Jesus in a positive way, a person might want to stop and think about it just a bit.

The famous Hindu is Mahatma Gandhi.

The Jesus shout-out is worthy of contemplation:

Live like Jesus did,

and the world will listen.

While I can't be sure, I'm thinking Gandhi wasn't necessarily referring to wearing sandals, keeping Kosher, and never marrying. And I'd be willing to wager he wasn't focusing on serving a carpentry internship, walking everywhere, or speaking in Aramaic, either.

What I DO think will make a difference in this world...enough of a difference that people will notice...is if we who bear the name Christian will live lives fueled by generosity instead of greed, compassion instead of selfishness, and humility instead of prideful aggression.

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Truth is...the point isn't so much What Would Jesus Do? as it is How Would Jesus Be?

Acts 2:36 With Footnotes

All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that it is this Jesus, whom you nailed to the cross, that God has made Lord and Messiah!

Open your eyes and see

That the morning comes with Me

For I am the light of the world

No one goes to the Father but by Me

Why must we be so blind and not see

That the Light is free?

Oh, just to think that He died

Thinking of you and me

And the lives we would lead

In the sins of our words and deeds

And yet He loves you

He loves me

He loves us, hallelujah!

Oh Jesus loves you

And He loves me

He loves us, hallelujah!

Hallelujah!

He took away my sin and shame...

Lord, here I am

And I can't change a thing

Except my appearance

And that don't mean a thing

I don't wanna hide

Or tear myself in two

That's not up to me, Lord

That's up to You

Oh, Lord, let me see how I've used You

To sing my song

Yes, I know I do wrong

Even though I belong

And yet You love me

He loves me

He loves me, hallelujah!

Oh Jesus loves me

Yes He loves me

He loves me, hallelujah!

Hallelujah!

He took away my sin and shame...

Lord, here I am

©1974 Latter Rain Music and Word Music, Inc.

https://youtu.be/8aO5oWS-E7Y

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Truth is...I don't know exactly what each phrase of this song means, but the main thing is the plain thing: Jesus was motivated by love to pay the debt of my rebellion, He continues to love me beyond measure, and my appropriate response to that is to place myself at His disposal.

Lord, here I am.

Being Weird Because Normal Isn't Working

It was my daughter-in-law who took the risk of recommending I read Craig Groeschel's book, Weird. I mean, it IS kind of funny to tell a person that you're pretty sure they would appreciate a piece of writing with that title.

And yet, here I am, telling you all the very same thing.

And I've got a weird way of whetting your appetite.

You know how, in order to break up endless pages of nothing but text, publishers will pull out a quote from a page and print it in a call-out box or sticking out into the margin so that it becomes a graphic instead of "just words"? Well, let me share a bunch of those from the pages of this book...

• You have enough time to do everything God wants you to do.
• While normal people continue to add items to their to-do list, maybe you should do something weird instead: start a to-don't list.
• When is the last time you were completely at rest?
• Maybe the question is not "What's in your wallet?" but "What's in your heart?"
• Giving is not something we do; generous is who we are.
• If the grass looks greener somewhere else, it's time to water your own lawn.
• Have you noticed that we tend to judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions?
• When we place the approval of other people ahead of doing what we know will please our Father, we're creating a false idol.
• Why work so hard to be normal when God created you to stand out?

Truth is...Groeschel isn't the first person to encourage Christians to be weird. You've got to read it in the King James Version to get the full impact, but Jesus' disciple, Peter, said it in his first letter: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

So go forth and be weird!

Where Do My Loyalties Lie?: Top 25 Jesus Quotes: #13

Something about watching romantic comedies makes us relationship gurus.

We can see potential threats to fidelity and loyalty from a mile away...within the unrealistic confines of one of Hollywood's steadfast genres.

• "No! Don't go out with him! Can't you see he doesn't really care about you?"
• "That guy better stop hanging out after work with her..."
• "What are they THINKING??!?"

But when it comes to real life, we struggle a bit.

In fact, we struggle so much that it wouldn't hurt to get the 13th quote about Jesus (on azquotes.com's top-25 list) put on a pair of contact lenses so it was always in front of us:

"Beware of anything

that competes with your loyalty

to Jesus Christ."  -  Oswald Chambers

Truth is...Whether it's commitment to a sports team or loyalty to a job or even dedication to a particular idea about Jesus, anything that takes precedence ahead of allegiance to the actual person of Jesus is a foundation of shifting sand.

P.S. You are invited to have Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest" daily readings actually read to you by checking out the "My Utmost for His Highest Daily Reading" Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/UtmostReading)

Or...you could subscribe to this blog's author's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/deweyroth/featured)

Acts 2:29-35 With Footnotes

Brothers: I must speak to you quite plainly about our patriarch David. He died and was buried, and his grave is here with us to this very day. He was a prophet, and he knew God's promise to him: God made a vow that he would make one of David's descendants a king, just as David was. David saw what God was going to do, and so he spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah when he said,

"He was not abandoned in the world of the dead;   his flesh did not decay."

God has raised this very Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses to this fact. He has been raised to the right side of God and received from him the Holy Spirit, as his Father had promised; and what you now see and hear is his gift that he has poured out on us. For David himself did not go up into heaven; rather he said,

"The Lord said to my Lord:'Sit here at my right side,until I put your enemies as a footstool under your feet'."

I can see how blind I really was now

My lies were eyes for a blind man

Look at me, my Lord said look at me now

And He gave sight to this blind man

The devil's lost again

The devil's lost again

I can tell how deaf I really was now

My ears were jeers of the dying

Woah, Living Word, my Lord's the Living Word now

He spoke, I woke from my screaming

The devil's lost again

The devil's lost again

The devil is a liar

The devil is a liar

I could feel how dead I really was now

My pride was the guide through a graveyard

Rise and walk, my Lord said rise and walk now

My life is yours for the giving

The devil's lost again

The devil's lost again

The devil is a liar

The devil is a liar

"The Devil's Lost Again"
©1974 Latter Rain Music and Word Music, Inc.

https://youtu.be/s1GJj1b3_pE

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Truth is...The totally rocking nature of this song absolutely fits the message of Satan's defeat because of Jesus' victory over death. "The devil ain't got no hold on me!" (Want some more righteous rock-n-roll? Click that quote and rock on.)