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NASB | Acts 5:11 And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 5:11 And great fear and awe gripped the whole church, and all who heard about these things. |
Subject: Why was there fear here? |
Bible Note: One question for us to ponder is whether the verbs and pronouns in Ephesians 6:10-18 are in the singular number, or plural. I slipped your note into my Bible so I could sneak a peek at it as I visited with the five (5) churches on our schedule for the Lord’s day. As it was, I could read about it and look up and see the things you spoke of. By the end of the day, I thought I had an answer. The first church (Dou you want to hear about them?) it is one I know quite well, a source of many clients. I listened to people talking in Sunday School, people whose lives I knew, and I was almost overwhelmed. I wondered if they thought it possible I would speak up and ask some personal questions. In the end I decided it was because they had confidence in the confidentiality we promise. Of course, our ministry depends on it, and I could not violate. But they knew that I knew that they know. I thought there must be some way to address this in general without putting any individual at risk. The second church had been bolted shut. The neighbor across the street said there had been a fight and they had decided to close the church for two weeks until things were settled. The fact is the pastor had invited me to preach and to “do whatever else you do, as the Lord would lead”, and he had not called to cancel. I felt there was a need here to help people who were to weak to even call for help. I will call them. Care to guess what the response will be? The third one was like a dream. Together, they openly acknowledged a need, accepted what we had to offer, and immediately asked us to come back next Lord’s day to minister. Church number four accepted our ministry and asked us to pray for them. But there were needs the pastor did not see. He believes that preaching solves everything and in fact he gave us only half the meeting, reserving the second half to continue with his series. It was the assistant pastor who had invited us and he wants to meet with us again to discuss the needs. I think we are walking a tight rope here, but we are addressing only the need for evangelism and I hope we can arrive at something that all can approve. The last church was a shocker and a tear jerker. It is in a large building that we had seen virtually full. Now there were a few people sprinkled over the auditorium, and they were to be in court with some who had left one day this week. The amazing thing was the façade that was still being shown in the meeting. I wondered what was really going on in the mind of the pastor as his eyes met mine. He knew that I knew that he knew he had failed to show up for his last appointment and had not even called to say why. I guess I had been persuaded that these brethren need help. I sat with that pastor and looked at him for thirty (30) seconds and then asked, “Why don’t you let us help you?”. He said he had been asking himself the same question and could not come up with an answer. He had often thought of calling, but something would stop him. And I was thinking, “Not something. Someone”. Let me just say, mommapbs, that I agree with what you have said. We have an enemy who is actively involved in opposing what we stand for. Why does he win? I will tell you what I think: It is because he is able to divide us. We think of the battle as an individual tussle with him, and most of us fight it so. But we are not lone fighters. We are the Lord’s army, and we need to fight together. It is so sad to see believers not only fighting the enemy in solitary battles, but also fighting each other. This is a sure formula for failure, and we do fail. But then, because we know we are supposed to win the fight, we talk as though we’re winning. So there’s my theory. The hypothesis is that we will get victory if, God before us, we fight together. I will get to test it this week. The pastor of church number five promised to get his leadership team together and take them to see us. It’s so we can fight together. Do you think they will follow through and keep that promise? I told him Satan would influence him again to not call. He said Satan won’t succeed this time. They’ll be there. What do you think? |