Feb
18 |
Doing Right
Howard Peterson |
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Listen |
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About eight or ten days later, Festus returned to Caesarea. The next morning he took his place in the courtroom and had Paul brought in. The minute he walked in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem were all over him, hurling the most extreme accusations, none of which they could prove. Then Paul took the stand and said simply, "I've done nothing wrong against the Jewish religion, or the Temple, or Caesar. Period." Festus, though, wanted to get on the good side of the Jews and so said, "How would you like to go up to Jerusalem, and let me conduct your trial there?" Paul answered, "I'm standing at this moment before Caesar's bar of justice, where I have a perfect right to stand. And I'm going to keep standing here. I've done nothing wrong to the Jews, and you know it as well as I do. If I've committed a crime and deserve death, name the day. I can face it. But if there's nothing to their accusations—and you know there isn't—nobody can force me to go along with their nonsense. We've fooled around here long enough. I appeal to Caesar." (Acts 25:6-11) |
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Inquire |
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I remember a time when I was taking care of our neighbor’s dog and I had to go inside their house to feed him. I made the big mistake of locking the key inside the house. I was very upset since this was a paying gig for a pre-teen and I just knew my Dad would not be pleased. When I told him, he was not only very understanding but comforted me by letting me know he was sure he could get us back in the house. He went to his tool box and then came walking back to the house with some sort of pry bar and in about two seconds popped the door open. When I questioned my Dad as to why it was so easy to break in our neighbor’s house, he explained that we hadn’t broken in like a criminal. We got in because we were doing right and were honest men. |
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Faith |
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Are we confident like Paul in who we are and how we live our lives? Do we have a good reputation and a clear conscience in our walk with God? Are we unashamed because we know we have the fruit of the Spirit? LOVE – JOY – PEACE – PATIENCE – KINDNESS – GOODNESS – FAITHFULNESS – GENTLENESS – SELF-CONTROL |
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Experience |
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Father God, send us your Holy Spirit so that we can better follow the examples of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen |
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