Series: Advancing
Message: Best Frenemies
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Reflection: Japhet De Oliveira
Live Wonder: Zan Long 
Live Adventure: Zan Long
Live Purpose: Jessyka Albert
Editor: Becky De Oliveira

Refresh: Begin today in prayer. Ask God for understanding through the Holy Spirit and for God’s character to be revealed.

Read: Acts 8:1-25 in the English Standard Version (ESV). Note 1–3 insights or questions.

Reflect: We had just finished wrapping up our conference and were packing up the registration table when several people arrived, thinking that ours was the registration table for their political conference. I am not even going to share with you the single agenda item they focused on nor the affiliated party that they represented. However, one of the guests clearly wanted me and my colleague to agree with him on the issue they organized themselves around. He was initially friendly and I encouraged him to make his way to a room called “California” where his group was meeting, but he was not interested in moving along. Instead, he really wanted to force me to agree with his agenda. When I finally indicated that I did not agree with him, he got so angry that he walked off in a huff shouting that I should leave the country—not the county but the country. What do you do when a seemingly normal conversation becomes hostile and threatening? Was this person being a frenemy? Was I being a frenemy? Who was appearing friendly but was actually an enemy? 

In this text, when Simon heard the good news and was baptized, was his motivation the good news or did he have some other hidden agenda? Authenticity is called for, but impossible at times to judge in others and even in ourselves. One of the most amazing truths of the Bible is that it teaches that Jesus wants for us to simply be honest with Him. Especially since He already knows what is in our hearts. He wants us to admit where we are and to allow Him to restore us. The prophet Isaiah writes:

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: 
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; 
though they are red like crimson, 
they shall become like wool. —Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)

What holds us back from being honest? Why are we at times behaving like frenemies with Jesus?

Recalibrate: What would need to change for you to be more honest with Jesus?

Respond: Share a pray for thankfulness for Jesus who restores all.  

Research: Read all of Isaiah 1.

Recharge: Wonder/Adventure/Purpose

Go for a walk with your child and see how many things they can recognize and name. God made a wonderful world for us. Enjoy it together.

Grab your favorite fruit and see if what is on the outside is what is on the inside. Sometimes fruit can look OK outside, but turns out to be yucky on the inside. How can we tell? Ask Jesus today to live inside you so that your inside will match your outside.

When was the last time you had an open, honest conversation with Jesus? Take some time to think about what led you to that conversation. Set some time aside today for a conversation with Jesus. Don’t rush through it. Pause and take time to be honest with Jesus and with yourself.