Day 7 - Acts Acts as a Reminder

It's been a long week.  Lot's of stuff made it difficult for me to get some good reading time in this week.  I'm writing this blog on Saturday, for Day 7's reading, which I did on Tuesday morning.  Regardless, I have the rest of the day to get all caught up.  So here we go.


History According to Stephen
I really like how Stephen sums up the Bible from Abraham to Jesus in Acts 7.  I've read through those stories before, but I don't think I've ever been real good at realizing the whole time line in which these events are ordered.  Reading through this chapter of Acts, um, acts as a good reminder.


The Holy Spirit Will Come on You When...
I had always believed that we are filled with the Holy Spirit when we choose to believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  Part of the reading today seemed to contradict this belief.  In Acts 8, when Philip was in a city in Samaria and brought the word of God to the people there, he baptized them.  But then Peter and John travel to that city because they have heard the good that Philip had done there and they "prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."  So this is where my confusion lies.  It seems to me that these people accepted the word of God and were baptized in the name of Jesus, but apparently that was not enough for them to receive the Holy Spirit.  Acts goes on to say, "Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit."


I've accepted Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Savior and I've been baptized.  So do I have the Holy Spirit in me?  Or do I need Peter or John, or both of them, to place their hands on me before I receive the Holy Spirit?


Later on in today's reading, towards the end of Acts 10, Peter is talking to a room of Gentiles and sharing the good news with them.  In the middle of Peter's speaking, the Holy Spirit comes on all of the people in the room that are listening to him.  They hadn't been baptized AND they hadn't had hands laid on them.  It seems as if the moment they became believers, the Holy Spirit filled them up.


After reading this, I went back to the first story above and the only thing I can think of is that the people of the city in Samaria did not truly believe until Peter and John witnessed to them.  I looked around on-line a little for more information or possible explanations, but I could not find any.


Holy Spirit Can Act on Earth
In the story where Philip converts the Ethiopian eunuch, it stood out to me what the Holy Spirit did.  "The Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away..."  I had always thought of the Holy Spirit as something that could not be seen, heard (with our ears) or felt.  To me the Holy Spirit was what whispered in my thoughts to help guide me through my day, would comfort me in times of need, etc.  But in this story, the Holy Spirit does a physical act on earth.  It takes Philip away and places him somewhere else.  I'm not sure why I had placed a limitation on what the Holy Spirit is capable of doing, but I did not think that it could physically interact with objects on earth.


All Knowing God
Knowing how this story plays out, I found it interesting what God says to Ananias in Acts 9:16 regarding Saul, "I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."  If this was the first time a person was reading this story, the reader might think "Oh, God is going to punish Saul for everything he's been doing to Christians."  That may have even been my first reaction to this verse.  But to know what effect God has on Saul and how the rest of his life plays out, it gives this verse a whole different meaning.


More to Come
Well, I have 3 days worth of reading to do tonight, about 30 more pages.  Not sure if I'll be able to blog for each one of those days tonight, since I'm running short on time.  But I'll be taking my notes to journal about later.  I should be able to read all 3 days and journal each of those days between tonight and tomorrow... fingers crossed.