Shaken: Part 1 – Prayer-Powered Results

The incredible events of Pentecost were now over. There had not only been the birthday of the Church, but an explosive birthday, with thousands coming to the Lord! They are meeting every Lord’s Day in the temple courts, as that was the only place that could hold the assembly. Everyone is getting plugged into home groups in the midst of daily fellowship taking place. There is constant work to be done, extensive responsibilities for the apostles to shoulder, and how does the third chapter of Acts open?

“Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer” (Acts 3:1).

Seriously?!?! With all they have to do, they leave all their duties and responsibilities, take precious time in which a lot of work could be done, and walk all the way to the temple to have an appointed time of daily prayer?!?! Why? Because they knew that was the most important thing for them to do EVERY day – talk with God.

How do you think everything else will turn out during their day?
How do you think results are going to happen?
How do you think God is going to get involved and bless, bless, bless?
How do you think it would affect your life if you were doing that EVERY DAY?

No, seriously, think about that for a moment. If you were to have an appointed, designated time of prayer EVERY single day, what do you think that would do to you?
Give you some peace?
Give you some clarity, purpose, direction for your life?
What do you think that would do with how good of a husband you are? How good of a wife you are? How good
of a father, mother, sibling, friend, coworker, member of the Lord’s Church you are?

For Peter and John, a miracle takes place. A 40+ year old man who had been lame since birth, was now able to walk. Miracles of this manner were performed to give authority to the spoken word as they did not yet have the Bible, and as “all the people ran together to them at the portico named Solomon’s, completely astonished” (vs. 11), Peter sees this, realizing the opportunity God has afforded him.

He says, “¹²Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why are you staring at us, as though by our own power or godliness we made him walk? ¹³The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you handed over… ¹⁵but put to death the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses… ¹⁹Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away… ²⁶God raised up His Servant for you first, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:12-26).

Peter preached Jesus – Jesus is the sole focus of his preaching. Why? Because he was one of hundreds of witnesses who had seen the risen Lord! The world had tried to kill Jesus, but death can never defeat the Author of life; He will always triumph, and Peter had seen his victorious Savior face-to-face!

Having seen the Lord, Peter and John had devoted themselves to His Kingdom, experienced tremendous results, and yet they still turned to the power of prayer in order to take their next and every following steps, and prayer-powered results happened!

As we begin studying the events of Acts 3-4, we will see the story begins and ends with prayer that shook the Church and the world. Might we be so SHAKEN in 2023.

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September/October 2025 Printed Newsletter

October 2, 2025

Flooded Marine Reptile

By Matt Miles • October 2, 2025

The Flood during Noah’s day was a devastating judgement against the sin and wickedness of the time. Most people focus on what the Lord did as He saved the eight people and animals on the Ark. Yet while they were being saved, the Flood destroyed the earth and left behind some remarkable things. Geology around the globe shows water burial of plants and animals. Many of the animal remains show signs of drowning and then burial. One particular reptile that shows this is the Ichthyosaurus. From what we can understand, water was her home for everything in life, even giving birth to live young. This well designed creature may even help us trust the Word of God when it comes to the history of the Flood. In our Mobile Museum of Earth History we exhibit a research replica of an ichthyosaur called Stenopterygius quadriscissus . She is from Holzmaden, Germany and is one example of hundreds that have been found in the area. The reason we can so confidently state this fossil is a “her,” when we rarely know for sure about fossil animals, is because she is pregnant. She has three babies present with her remains: one under her tail, one in or near the birth canal, and one still inside. Our fossil is in situ, which means the fossil remains in the rock matrix it was buried in. So, the presence of momma and babies are how they were buried and not articulated in some manner after excavation. This is important to show the rapid, watery burial that must have taken place to lock this scene in the fossil record. The Flood trapped organisms all over the world in different life positions. Sometimes the fossils left behind have shown eating, hunting, sleeping, swimming, nesting, or drowning. When it comes to ichthyosaurs around the planet, there is a significant number of females that seem to be pregnant. They have been found in the fossil record on at least four continents. A fair assumption would be that Ichthyosaurs had a certain time of year they mated and gave birth to young, much like sea turtles today that nest from late spring to late fall depending on the region around the world. So it should come as no surprise that we find pregnant ichthyosaurs all around the world as the Flood lasted an entire year. It would have buried the females that were pregnant near their location of habitat. Evolutionists maintain that ichthyosaurs lived tens to hundreds of million years ago and each of the mothers found in the fossil record just died while giving birth. This is difficult to support in a millions magnitude time scale. That would mean every time a disaster happened, millions of years apart, the right conditions existed to quickly bury ichthyosaurs that just so happened to be pregnant. It just might take some “faith” to trust that “miracle” would happen over and over again through eons of time. Or you can have faith that the Word of God’s history is correct with a judgement of man’s sin bringing global devastation through the Flood during Noah’s 600th year of life. The Word of God is trustworthy, with even the fossil record showing us glimpses of historical evidence in support of our faith. I’m so thankful we don’t need blind faith to trust our salvation! Blessings.

Our God Whom We Serve Is Able

By Ryan Cox • October 2, 2025

14 Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? 15 …if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:14-18 In the 6th century BC, three young men stood up for their faith in the one true God, for which someone attempted to kill them. Today, in the 21st century AD, one young man was gunned down for his faith in the one true God. And sadly, Charlie Kirk is not the only one. According to The Esther Project, martyrdom for the cause of Christ is commonplace around the world ( theestherproject.com/statistics ). On average: 322 Christians are killed monthly. 214 churches or Christian properties are destroyed monthly. 772 forms of violence (beatings, kidnappings, etc.) against Christians are committed monthly. 100,000 to 160,000 Christians are killed annually in the 21st century. 1.093 million Christians were martyred between 2000 and 2010. And more than 70 million Christians are believed to have been martyred since the 1st century, with more than half killed in the 20th century alone under communist and fascist governments. And how should Christians respond? Peter wrote, “ if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God in this name ” (I Peter 4:16). Jesus took this a step further; He told us, “ …love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ” (Matthew 5:44). Now, as Shawn Grant, minister at Kissimmee Christian Church, FL, preached on the Sunday following the assassination, th at may not be what you want to hear right now, but that is what Jesus has told us we must do. Why? So the world will see the difference Jesus makes! The night of and the days after the assassination, businesses did not have to board up their stores. Police and soldiers did not have to be deployed. There were no riots, no property damages, no police spat upon – only tears, prayers, and a witness to the world that Jesus is the answer. So noticeable is this to the world, there were more international press requests for the Charlie Kirk memorial service than are requested for Super Bowls. Within seven days of his death, Kirk’s ministry Turning Point USA had received over 54,000 campus chapter requests. And most importantly, scores of videos of young people considering or even deciding to give their lives to Jesus have been posted to social media platforms.