Verse of the Day 6/17

Through the Bible - Nehemiah 6-8, Acts 3:11-4:22   Good morning, In yesterday's devotional I referenced the wrong edtion of the Bible for the beginning of Romans 8:5 -8Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them — living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored. (from THE MESSAGE.) We considered some of the things that the Holy Spirit does.  John 16:8 tells us that "when He has come, He will convict the world of sin,"NKJV Another way to translate the phrase, "to convict" is "to convince." The Holy Spirit is not coming to merely convince us of certain sins, but also to get to the root of our problems: sin itself.  Before we can turn from our sin to follow Christ we have to become aware of and become "convinced" of our sin.  Peter's great evangelistic sermon touched the peoples heart, they were convinced and they asked in Acts 2:37 "what should we do?"   Peter's answer was to "turn from your sins and turn to God" and they would "receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.   Today's verse comes from Acts 3 which has a similar message.  Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,   NKJV or from the NLT Acts 3:19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. 20 Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.  NLT When we turn from our own ways, which lead to frustration and dissatisfaction and turn to Christ, He will bring refreshment to our lives and to our souls.  It's not that everything will by rosy, but even during times of trial He can bring comfort.  The turning may be painful, like going through the withdrawals of an addiction, but it is worth it.   Once we've turned, it should be natural for us to seek Him more, it is what following is all about.  He will bring refreshment.   Hos 6:3 Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring." NLT   Why do we live without Jesus, why would we wait another day?  Why not follow Him today and be found in the way.   In Christ, Mike Acts 3:11-4:1 Preaching in Solomon's Portico 11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. 12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 14 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 16 And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 17 "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,   21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 22 For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.  23 And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.'   24 Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'   26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities."   NKJV