APRIL 26
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38).
True repentance means sorrow for sin and the forsaking of it. Samuel Johnson's father, who was a book merchant, had a stall in various towns on market days. Being ill one day, he asked young Samuel to take his place in the market at Uttoxeter. The lad was proud and clever and refused to go. The poor old man, ill as he was, had to go himself. When the father returned that night very tired and worn, he said not a word to his son; but the boy's heart smote him.
Fifty years later after Samuel Johnson had become famous throughout England, he went to Uttoxeter on market day and stood bareheaded for hours close to the spot where his father's bookstall had been. People stared at the burly man standing there in the wind and rain without a hat on his head. But the brave man, remembering his old unkindness to his father, was showing his repentance.
In his great Pentecostal sermon Peter mentions baptism as a step to be taken by those who have believed and repented of their sins. Baptism is an act of faith. It is a reenaction of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:1-6). It shows the believer's death to sin the burial of the old self, and the resurrection to walk "in newness of life." It is an act of obedience, and Jesus is the "author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" (Heb. 5:9).
The disciples at Pentecost and afterwards were endued with the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. They were filled with wisdom, faith, and power (Acts 6:3, 8). D. L. Moody said, "The Holy Spirit is God at work."
Have you repented? Have you been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins? Have you received the gift of the Holy Ghost? Let us walk in the path of obedience.
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me" (Ps. 51:11).
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38).
True repentance means sorrow for sin and the forsaking of it. Samuel Johnson's father, who was a book merchant, had a stall in various towns on market days. Being ill one day, he asked young Samuel to take his place in the market at Uttoxeter. The lad was proud and clever and refused to go. The poor old man, ill as he was, had to go himself. When the father returned that night very tired and worn, he said not a word to his son; but the boy's heart smote him.
Fifty years later after Samuel Johnson had become famous throughout England, he went to Uttoxeter on market day and stood bareheaded for hours close to the spot where his father's bookstall had been. People stared at the burly man standing there in the wind and rain without a hat on his head. But the brave man, remembering his old unkindness to his father, was showing his repentance.
In his great Pentecostal sermon Peter mentions baptism as a step to be taken by those who have believed and repented of their sins. Baptism is an act of faith. It is a reenaction of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:1-6). It shows the believer's death to sin the burial of the old self, and the resurrection to walk "in newness of life." It is an act of obedience, and Jesus is the "author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" (Heb. 5:9).
The disciples at Pentecost and afterwards were endued with the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. They were filled with wisdom, faith, and power (Acts 6:3, 8). D. L. Moody said, "The Holy Spirit is God at work."
Have you repented? Have you been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins? Have you received the gift of the Holy Ghost? Let us walk in the path of obedience.
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me" (Ps. 51:11).
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