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My text is Acts
23:11
The following night
the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so
you must also testify in Rome.’
Wouldn’t it be great if the Lord stood near you and me and
said: ‘Take
courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify
in Rome’; or, as He did on another occasion: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be
silent’; or “Quick!” he said. “Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people
here will not accept your testimony about me”; or ‘My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ (see18:9; 22:18; 27:23; 2Co
12:7–10). Wouldn’t it be great if God actually spoke to us as He did
to Paul; that we could be so aware of His presence that we could say, as Paul
does on other occasions that we sense the Lord standing next to us? What is it
for God to be with us and how do we live with the presence of God? There’s a
lot