Reading
SAA Notes
This chapter shows that an Assembly of elders governed the church. An Apostle chaired the meeting and another, Peter, was the influential speaker, who set the scene for James to propose the way forward for the inclusion of Gentiles into the Church. Think about the four Apostolic requests made of Gentiles.
SJA Notes
* Merciful God, thank You for Your faithfulness which we read of in Your word and experience in our lives.
“And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.”
Faith is a gift from God.
Faith cleanses our hearts.
What then is faith?
Hebrews 11 tells us,
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Regardless of what the world tells us, this is what God says faith is. And He gave it to us as a gift!
Paul tells us in Ephesians 2,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
From all nations God calls His people. And He gifts us faith. And this is a wonderful thing, a thing that outworks into the hope of glory!
* Father God,
Thank You for the hope we have in You.
Thank You that we can have a life now that is marked by Your saving grace, gifting us with faith.
And thank You that we look forward to glory, a conviction of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for.
Amen.