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LIVELY STONES MEDITATIONS

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ACTS 4:8-17

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel:
If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well,
let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marvelled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”
ACTS 4:8-17
We can see that every witness and every sermon recounted in Acts concerns the Resurrected Jesus. Acts 4 is a continuation of the events surrounding the Healing of The Lame Man, and we find a major part of the substance of Acts 4 in verses 8-17, which states unequivocally that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Both Acts 3 and 4 dwell on ‘the name’. His name is pivotal in our understanding of our faith. The name of Jesus (or ‘Joshua’) means ‘Jehovah is salvation’. This we know if we know Him at all. He is salvation, a word that carries the weight and power of saving grace, healing and life in the Spirit.

At our Tuesday gathering, Gill was given Psalm 52, verses 8 and 9 which read…
But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.
I will praise You forever,
Because You have done it;
And in the presence of Your saints
I will wait on Your name, for it is good.
PSALM 52:8-9
The Psalmist says that he will wait on Your name, for it is good. The word for ‘wait’ means to bind together, to twist together, suggesting that in believing we shall be inextricably connected to the Name of Jesus, that we have an expectation that He shall be present for us, and if we are wondering about His power and how that translates into our lives, then we must see two things…
  • The power is Jesus — His name, which is also His nature, as the only begotten Son of God,
  • That power is not ours to wield — the power is Jesus and the Holy Spirit working within us if we have faith in Him. It is Jesus witnessing to our trust and belief that He is the Son of God, because we witness to Him.

Psalm 52:8 speaks of us as a green olive tree in the house of God. The olive tree symbolically represents the anointing and thus spirituality. Green is the colour of life and we can be sure that we will have everlasting life in the spirit because of God’s eternal mercy, if we will but trust Him in all things. Trust in The Lord and His power is made manifest. There is power in the name of Jesus…
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 TIMOTHY 1:6-7
I re-iterate here from a word found in our ‘Write The Vision’ weblog:
Note the order shown in 2 Timothy. Power comes first, then love, then a sound mind, meaning a mind controlled and corrected by the Holy Spirit. The second and third come from the first. Power comes first of all, and you need the power of God to move in love and a sound or pure mind. But what is spiritual power?
  1. P – PRAISE — JUDGES 1:17 And Judah [praise] went with Simeon [hearing] his brother, and they slew the Canaanites [zealous; from root meaning merchants or traffickers] that inhabited Zephath [watchtower; a city renamed Hormah], and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah [devotion]. Psalm 52 says I will praise you forever. [KJV]
  2. O – OVERCOMING — REVELATION 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keeps my works to the end, to him will I give power over the nations: [KJV]
  3. W – WORSHIP or WALK (in the Spirit)
  4. E – ENCOURAGEMENT
  5. R – RESTORATION
These 5 comprise the fullness of His power embodied in His Name. Praise His Holy Name!
THERE IS POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS by Noel Richards
There is power in the name of Jesus
We believe in His name
We have called on the name of Jesus
We are saved, we are saved!
At His name, the demons flee
At His name, captives are freed
For there is no other name
That is higher than Jesus
There is power in the name of Jesus
Like a sword in our hands
We declare in the name of Jesus
We shall stand, we shall stand!
At His name, God's enemies
Shall be crushed beneath our feet
For there is no other name
That is higher than Jesus

A CLOSING WORD from PEACE PILGRIM
If you realised how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.

LISTEN TO THIS MEDITATION HERE…

COMING NEXT… #552 CERTAINTY

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MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS…

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
PHILIPPIANS 4:8-9

Authors

GEORGE and GILL STEWART
for Cornerstone Christian Fellowship, Kilmartin
(unless post shows otherwise)