I'll Do It Late.

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Acts 1:8 says, “ But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

     Acts 8:1 says, “And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

     I picture a “whopper” as a giant cheese burger with lettuce, onion, tomato, ketchup, mustard and dill pickle.  I ordered one online not too long ago and it came with a meat patty on a bun and nothing else.  I had failed to list what I wanted on it so I got nothing on it at all.  It was a basic whopper but didn’t taste like one.  You have to be specific when  you want something the exact way it is supposed to be.  I had failed to read all of the instructions on the page.  Instructions are important and need to be followed exactly or there can be some other results encountered.

     The early church before Pentecost was given some instructions just before the Lord Jesus Christ ascended.  They were to start out in Jerusalem but thn they needed to go out from Jerusalem with the message of salvation to Judea,Samaria and the uttermost part  of the earth.  They didn’t do it but were staying in the city of Jerusalem.  I sometimes make the comment, “If you don’t do Acts 1:8, you will get Acts 8:1.  God had His way of getting the gospel out of Jerusalem and it began with persecution.  There was a man named “Saul” who we know later became known as “Paul” who was persecuting the church to the point that the believers were being scattered “abroad” as a result.  God, in His plan, even with grace and mercy, moved the church forward by implementing persecution in their lives.  The gospel was going out even though the apostles were still in Jerusalem.  Then, they also began to move as Philip moved to Samaria to begin an evangelistic ministry  that was reaping many souls for the Kingdom of God.  There is a lesson for believers today in this passage and it is basically, “Do what God wants you  to do.”  If you decide to delay or not plan on doing what He says, He may do something in your life that you may not like.  In His working in your situation, you may not like His methods, but the result will be there that God desires for your life.  If you are holding on to  possessions that restrict your ministry, you may find God removing them and He has a large inventory of methods to do just that.  So, just do what God wants in the first place and you may avoid His rod of correction.  Praise God for His plan  for our lives.  It is always the best course of action.