18 Oct (Acts 12)

Acts 12

(v.2) Satan was working through Herod, and he killed one of the Sons of Thunder, which was James, the brother of John. The persecution of the church was already at hand, but now we are seeing the persecution of the leaders. All of them will ultimately be killed, except for John.

(v.5) It is so important for us to pray for those who are persecuted in the name of Christ. We in America get some persecution, but it's nothing compared to what believers in China, Africa and other places in the world endure. We may be ridiculed or have some rights denied us, but in many places in the world today, worshiping God is a matter of life and death.

A great website to see more about this is called Voice of the Martyrs:

http://www.persecution.com/

(v.14) If God has plans for you, He will make sure that evil will not keep us from doing His will. Peter found this out first hand!

I love how the woman who heard Peter's voice got so excited, she forgot to let him in, and ran to tell the others! My daughters do that when we have company come over...they jump up and down and yell in jubilation, but they forget to open the door!

(v.17) Notice that Peter tells the people to tell James what happened to him. This is not the James that was killed by Herod...he was the brother of John. The James that Peter is speaking of is the half brother of Jesus...he and Jude didn't believe in Jesus while He was alive, but after His resurrection, they believed. James is the pastor or head of the Church in Jerusalem. This is a big problem for the Roman Catholic Church, for if Peter was the first pope, then why did Peter defer to James as the leader?

(v.22) Blasphemy is equating anything with God, and it's worse when someone equates themselves to be God! We see that God doesn't take that lightly, and if we look over history, for the men who proclaimed to be God on earth, were all fated to terrible ends before it was over. (Re: Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, etc.) It all goes back to pride.