GROWING IN CHRIST
“Boldly Choosing Christ”
Acts 4:18-19 “Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.’” (NIV)
Throughout each day, you are confronted with choices to obey God or man. Sometimes a choice may require a public profession, while most of the time the choice is made quietly, known only to you.
These choices, though made in secret, quickly become visible to those around you. What appears personal and private begins to construct the web within which you live. Before you know it, you have become like a spider’s prey and are constrained within the spider’s web.
Peter and John boldly confronted ungodly decisions that could have produced compromise by choosing to smash the world’s web of deceit. Instead, they chose to live under the Lordship and freedom of Christ. For them chains and prison bars offered more freedom and pleasure than compromise and sin which would entrap them within Satan’s web of destruction.
Acts 16:24-25 gives you an illustration of the freedom and joy that results from living for Christ instead of the world. “Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Not only had Paul and Silas chosen Christ over their personal comfort and safety, but they also were using this opportunity to minister to others.
Ask God to make you sensitive to areas of compromise and temptation. Choose Christ instead of any imitation or substitute for the magnificent glory of His righteousness!
Acts 5:40-42 (NLT) “They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”
