Today Our Daily Bread Rom 16:19-20, Acts 17:6 & John 16

Romans 16:19-20 19 For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Ever think about fame? The Bible actually says Jesus became famous, His fame was known. Do you think He wants your to be known? I can answer a wholehearted yes to that question, but it is not as the world sees fame. It’s not for the purpose of promoting one’s self. It is for the purpose of promoting Him. So you are just being who you are in Christ. You are walking out the fruit of the spirit in your everyday life and the blessings of God overtake you and people notice. Your obedience has become known, That’s kingdom fame, or we rather call it, a witness. I call it influence of the godly kind. It’s not me pointing to me and making statements about myself that I want to be true and I’m trying to have everybody believe is true as I put on some act. It is Christ in me evidenced by how I live and love. I love to tell this- I tell it over and over. Did you know it takes the average person hearing a fact or truth 8 times before it becomes real to them? Here I go again….# 5,6, 7….One introverted person possibly has influence upon 10,000 people in their lifetime! Isn’t that astounding? Ok, say you are far from introverted, you are an extrovert on PURPOSE! How many people do you think the witness of the good news of Christ could spread to in YOUR lifetime? How ‘bout trying it???…..They’ll think the world was being changed, what a thought!
Acts 17:6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
John 16:1-33
Jesus Warns and Comforts His Disciples
1"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3And these things they will do to you F80 because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4But these things I have told you, that when the F81 time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. "And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. The Work of the Holy Spirit5 "But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, "Where are You going?' 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. F82 Sorrow Will Turn to Joy16 "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father." 17Then some of His disciples said among themselves, "What is this that He says to us, "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, "because I go to the Father'?" 18They said therefore, "What is this that He says, "A little while'? We do not know what He is saying." 19Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'? 20Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. 21A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. 23"And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 24Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Jesus Christ Has Overcome the World25 "These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. 26In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; 27for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. 28I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father." 29His disciples said to Him, "See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! 30Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God." 31Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? 32Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will F83 have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Footnotes
F80: 16:3 NU-Text and M-Text omit to you.
F81: 16:4 NU-Text reads their.
F82: 16:15 NU-Text and M-Text read He takes of Mine and will declare it to you.
F83: 16:33 NU-Text and M-Text omit will.
Lena’s Jouirnalin’
Listen, please, some of us need to be thrown OUT of the synagoge! It could take you right out of religious thinking and religious behavior and put you on the edge, where you become more visible and able to be proven to the world for Him. No longer hidden under religious cloaks, but exposed to the world. So how will we prove Jesus to the world? How will we survive out from under our masks? Only with the Holy Spirit. There is no other way, and maybe that is why people won’t get outside of the 4 walls of the "churches." Maybe they don’t have reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit and are afraid to take off their masks and see themselves as they are, in need of God’s help. How can we preach (by our lives) Christ and the good news of His help if we do not inquire of His help for ourselves and by example show our own dependence upon Him?Many humans need to depend on someone or something, it could be a person or a substance, but we were made by God to be dependent (no, I did not say- independent!) But any dependence that is not leading you to God or is not on God is not at all healthy for you. Look at Jesus and His disciples. He was leading them to His and their Father, He wanted them to be led by the same spirit He was led by, God’s Holy Spirit. He had to leave so that they would (be forced, as in birthed, to)do that. To hear the voice themselves, to obey the call themselves. Jesus was speaking to them in His God language, His eternal language, "in a little or short time/while"…He was seeing in the light of eternal life with God. When we get born again and begin to serve God, we begin our eternal life and destiny, right then, we are now on earth for a period of time to do a specific work, because now we are joined and intertwined with God’s will and plan. Earthly time seems to tick very fast, because you know you only have so much earthtime to accomplish your portion of His will (of course, this depends on how old we already are when we get this understanding, right?) So it seems Jesus is saying for those who have this eternal sight or view, that there’s only so much time left to accomplish as much of the work as we can accomplish while we are still here and He has not returned for the accounting of the stewardship of His prized possession, the earth and all of it’s fullness, the people and all who dwell in it.
What if you alone were left on earth? Or in a specific city, the only believer, because the government exhiled you to a place away from other believers and friends of likemind? Would you see it as opportunity or punishment? They thought it punishment, but as they sought God their Father they saw very clearly, that what the enemy meant for evil, God turned into that which caused the gospel message to spread further than it had before. Now were back to Acts 17:6 Turn your world over into the hands of Almighty God!