1332. The Council at Jerusalem — Acts 15:1-21

1332.

The Council at jerusalem
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Today's Passage: Acts 15:1-21
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Or, for your convenience I have typed the verses below from the
New Living Testament (NLT).

​2.
Invite God to join you in your reading. Ask Him for wisdom.
If there is anything in your spirit hindering you, confess it now.
He knows it. You are forgiven. 
Ask Him to help you embrace that truth to live it out.

a prayer:
Thank You for meeting me, LORD.
I welcome you into this place.
Please prepare my heart Jehovah.
Thank you, Omnipotent God for insight.
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3.

11th strategy.
Reading... Simple Act of Meditation
© RR&BC, LLC 2020

• Begin with asking God to open your heart to what He has for you to hear today.
• Read a passage of the Scripture
• Is a miracle in the passage? Is a relationship deepened in some way? Has God stepped in and shown His power, 
• Has he shown His discipline or even His protection or His end goal? 
• Has Jesus, lived life, shown love, or taught?
• Whatever the passage holds that brings you an awareness of who He is, praise Him for that revelation. 
• Give Him glory and honor and praise. Thank Him for what He has given.
• Think on these things. Ponder them. Reread the passage. Write about what you read. Pray! This is Worship!
• Thank God for His presence this moment.

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1. While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: "Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved." 
2. Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul nad Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question
3. The  church sent the delegates to Jerusalem, and they stopped along the way in Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers . They told them — much to everyone's joy — that the Gentiles too were being converted.

4. When  they arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul were welcomed by the whole church, including the apostles and elders. They reported everything God had done through them.
5. But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted, "The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses."

6. So the apostles and elders met together to resolve the issue.
7. At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: "Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among  you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the God News and believe.
8. God knows people's hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us.
9. He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith.
10. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?
11. We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus."

12 Everyone listened quietly as Barnabas and Paul told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

13. When they had finished, James stood and said, "Brothers, listen to me.
14. Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself.
15. And this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted. As it is written:

16. 'Afterward I will return and restore the fallen house of David.
I will rebuild its ruins and restore it,
17. so that the rest of humanity might seek the LORD, 
including the Gentiles --
all those I have called to be mine. 
The LORD has spoken --
18. he who made these things known so long ago.'

19. "And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood.
21. For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations."
Acts 15: 1-21 NLT

4. 
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Thank God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for meeting you today.
 
We, Robyn and Biff
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~Robyn