February 4, 2020
Acts 3:6
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
New International Version (NIV)
It was a Beautiful place to beg.  Every day, someone deposited the lame man there near the temple gate called Beautiful.  His thinking was simple:  people who go up to worship God must also care about people who are hurting.  So he begged.  Most people looked past him, averting their eyes from him.  Peter and John looked promising with a joy in their hearts which radiated up toward their faces.  Like they had seen Jesus do, Peter and John lifted the man to his feet, healing his feet and ankles.  First he walked.  Then he jumped.  Joyfully, he shouted praise to God. 

What do we Christians really have to offer to the broken world?  Money.  We can help the poor.  The poor need help.  Or we could offer them advice and tell them to clean up their act.  This may make us feel better, but I’m not sure it is working. 

All we really have is what Peter and John had.  We have the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  In Jesus’ name we can still lift people to life.  Healing is never guaranteed.  Still, salvation is available in his name.  Jesus is all we really have.  Jesus is the One the world most needs.  We should share.  When the crowd wondered at the healing, Peter preached the truth.  Healing happened when the man trusted in his name.  Peter urged the observers to repent and turn to God for forgiveness so that they might experience a season of refreshing.

Today we will meet people who desperately need help, hope and healing.  Let’s repent of anything that prevents God’s power in our lives.  Turning to him, find forgiveness.  Let his refreshing power wash over you.  Then be sure to take Jesus with you.  He is the only hope for a broken world.  He is still all we have and all the world needs.
Pray with me:       
Father, you are all that we really have.  Please open our eyes to see the people in need today.  Let our hearts be broken with the things that break your heart.  Give us the grace to give them the gift of grace.  Let Jesus live in us and shine out of us so that when others look at us they will see him.   Make us instruments of your peace, harbingers of healing and hope in a helpless world.  Through Jesus we pray.  Amen.
Join us in memorizing the Word.  Scripture for this week:    
Matthew 5:11-12
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan.  Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG 
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week.  In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year.  Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.  
Joyfully, 
Duane 
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