What Happens If I Stop?
So why don't we stop? Fear.
It's not that we fear rest — it's what rest might reveal.
Bible Study - Romans 2
You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
Romans 2:23–24 ESV
Bible Study - Romans 1
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Romans 1:24-25
Bible Study - Acts 27
The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape. 43 But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, 44 and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.
Acts 27:42–44 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 26
To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: 23 that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
Acts 26:22–23 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 25
If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar." 12 Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, "To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go."
Acts 25:11–12 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 24
So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.
Acts 24:16 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 23
The following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome."
Acts 23:11 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 22
But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, "Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?" 26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, "What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.
Acts 22:25–26 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 21
Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”
Acts 21:39 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 20
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 19
He answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?””
Acts 19:15 NIV
What I Learned the Day the Title Changed
But the one I struggle with most on expectations isn't a person. It's God.
What do you do when the God you've known since you were eleven years old — the God you surrendered your life to, the God with no limits on His ability — doesn't do what you expected Him to do?
Bible Study - Acts 18
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
Acts 18:26 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 17
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
Acts 17:23 ESV
I Don’t Want to Lose what I Got
"Green you grow, ripe you rot. If you just sit there and say 'I made it,' well — you're either moving forward or you're moving backwards. You're never in the same place. Growth doesn't come naturally just because it's in your nature. You have to practice it. You have to hone it.”
Bible Study - Acts 16
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
Acts 16:6–7 ESV
Bible Study - Acts 15
But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses." The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
Acts 15:5–6 ESV