Day: June 5, 2013

Morning Reading: Acts 4.1-4 NLT – growing church

Reading: Acts 4:1-4 NLT

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees.

People attend a Mass led by Catholic priest Marcelo Rossi at the Mother of God sanctuary in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. Rossi, a Latin Grammy-nominated Christian music singer and author of best-selling books in Brazil, inaugurated on Friday the massive new Roman Catholic church that will hold about 20,000 worshippers when complete. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
People attend a Mass led by Catholic priest Marcelo Rossi at the Mother of God sanctuary in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012.
Rossi, inaugurated on Friday the massive new Roman Catholic church that will hold about 20,000 worshippers when complete. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead.

They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning.

But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.

Prayer: Lord Jesus – Fill your church with your Spirit. Guide and direct your servants to seek and save those who are lost. Baptize them into your family and make them spirit and truth worshipers. Teach and train them to become more like you and send them out to tell others of your mercy and grace. And may you receive all the glory. Amen.

Hymn: “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations” – H. Ernest Nichol (1896)