Rebel

Week 2 Day 4

God wants a relationship with you!  Isn’t that amazing?  He wants to hear your voice.  He wants you to be transparent.  He wants your heart!

Simple Prayer “God, thank you for wanting to spend time with me.  You are amazing.  Teach me today more about You.  Help me to fall more in love with You.”

Spend some time in God’s Word, the Bible.

On Day 3 we saw that Saul, a killer of Christians actually saw Jesus alive.  He was so changed that he was completely changed and became a follower of Christ.  He switched teams and changed jerseys!

And remember that the foundation of Christianity is not a list of believe that’s.  It is a belief in, a single trust in the person of Jesus, that He is exactly who He says He is!

So Jesus’ followers walked with Jesus for a couple of years or more.  They went everywhere He went.  They listened to His teaching.  They saw Him heal the sick and even raise the dead!  Amazing.  But then Jesus was killed in the most brutal way possible.  And His followers denied knowing Him, they hid and wept.  They did not know what was next.  The man they thought was the Messiah was gone.  There was no Christianity!

But then something happened, read Luke 24:1-11.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵ In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷ ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”⁸ Then they remembered his words.

⁹ When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹ But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹² Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

Later that day, all the disciples, except Thomas, would see Jesus.  They would believe in Jesus.  You see, after they saw Jesus they were changed.  Just like Saul that we read about on Day 3.  The disciples came out of hiding, they celebrated and after a little while they traveled the world to tell everyone about the true story of Jesus.  And most of them died for the true story.  10 of the remaining 11 disciples would die because they believed in Jesus.

Click on www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/whatever-happened-to-the-twelve-apostles-11629558.html to see read the interesting theories of how the disciples died..from stabbing to stoning to burning.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Faith is not an intelligent understanding:  faith is a deliberate commitment to a person where I see no way.”

Prayer.  “God, thank you that you are alive.  Thank you for the faith of those who followed you even to death.  Strengthen my faith God.”

And talk to God about anything you want.  Be transparent with Him.  He wants to hear you.  He cares for you more than you know…every detail of your life.