Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 16, 2022: SOAP #4458:  Leviticus 26-27; Acts 23

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) 23:23 Then he called two of his centurions and ordered them, “Get ready a detachment of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight. 24 Provide mounts for Paul so that he may be taken safely to Governor Felix.”

OBSERVATION: The irony of the situation cannot be missed.  Here the same Roman government that crucified Jesus at the insistence of the Jews, now goes to great ends to protect Paul from those same Jews!

It is interesting to me how God used the Roman government for His glory.  First was the tax that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.  Then the crucifixion (Acts 4:28). The arrest of Paul by the Romans protecting Paul from the Jews.  The peace of the Rome (Pax Roma) allowed Paul to move freely to spread the gospel.  The later imprisonment of the Romans gave Paul the impetus to write much of the New Testament as letters to churches.

Paul’s life was serving God.  That which limited Paul focused him!  Prison limited his visiting the churches, but it focused his ministry on writing letters.  Prison limited his travel but expanded his ministry.

APPLICATION:  That which seems to stand against my ministry may be used by God to expand my ministry!  Lack of resources may limit Leon’s plans, but it can never limit the gospel!  Like blowing wind and flowing water, when its movement is limited, it will find another way around, or over, or under.  The Holy Spirit is more powerful than blowing wind and flowing water!

If your ministry is limited to your family, focus on what God is doing in their lives.  Pray for them; encourage them.  If your ministry is limited to a small group, focus on them and their growth in loving Jesus. 

PRAYER:  Holy Spirit, may I be a channel through which you can readily flow. Keep reminding me that what limits me does not limit you! Keep reminding me that what seems to be against me, may work out for good! Keep me walking in faith that it will!  Amen

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 15, 2022: SOAP #4457:  Leviticus 25; Psalm 25-26; Acts 22

SCRIPTURE:  Psalm (NIV) 25:4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; 5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

OBSERVATION: Here is a logical prayer of someone who loves the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind. (Matthew 22:37)   

If they love God to this extent, they will want to know God’s ways.  They will want to know why God does what He does.  They will want to know what is important to Him. 

They will want to know the paths He takes.  They will want to know His character.  Where He likes to go.  What bothers Him. 

Since He is the embodiment of truth, they want their facts to line up with His facts.  They want to know how His truth deals with the facts. 

APPLICATION:  I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and mind.  Why are these important to me?  Because the Lord is not just a god, the Lord is MY God, MY Savior!   God is more than an occasional thought that crosses my mind, He is the source of my hope all day long!   He is an active part of each conversation! 

PRAYER:  Show me your ways, O LORD.  Teach me your paths.  Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior.  My hope is in you all day long.  Amen.

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 14, 2022: SOAP #4456:  Leviticus 23-24; Psalm 24; Acts 21

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) Christians in Jerusalem advising Paul on a way to prove he still practiced the Jewish law—Acts 21:24 Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law…
Jews in Jerusalem starting a riot over Paul—Acts 21:29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)…
Roman commander arresting Paul—Acts 21:38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert some time ago?”

OBSERVATION: The elders of the church in Jerusalem assumed that Paul’s paying the temple tax for himself and four other men who had taken a similar vow would be proof that Paul was following the law. 

Some Jews in Jerusalem were zealous to protect the temple and Jewish religion.  In seeing Paul in the temple area, they assumed that he had brought his non-Jewish friends there also. 

Upon hearing the rioting happening in the city and seeing Paul at the center, the Roman commander assumed that Paul was an Egyptian who had started riots in the past. 

APPLICATION:  The above assumptions changed the course of Paul’s life.  As tragic as they were, God used them as the first steps to get Paul to Rome.  God used Paul to minister to many along the way to Rome.  While in prison, God used Paul to write letters that are now part of our scriptures.  I feel certain that Satan now knows the great mistake he made in having Paul locked in prison! 

At times my life can be affected by the assumptions of others.  But I can rest in God.  God’s will for my life is greater than any man’s assumptions about me!  What the devil meant for evil, God turns for good.  A diamond dropped in the mud is not changed by its circumstances, neither can my circumstances change me. 

PRAYER:  Lord, your power on the inside is greater than any power on the outside!  Wrong assumptions by others cannot determine my eternal destination nor my usefulness in God’s kingdom!  Amen.

Pastor Leon                        
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 13, 2022: SOAP #4455:  Leviticus 20-22; Acts 20

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) 20:32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

OBSERVATION: These are Paul’s final words to the elders of the church in Ephesus.  He began by giving them a report of his own life and ministry.  He gave them a warning and committed them to God and God’s Word.  He ends with words about money.  He gives himself as an example of working to supply his own needs and those who traveled with him.  He gives himself as an example of a “hard worker.”  He gives himself as an example of a giver.  His work had purpose: to supply his own needs and to enable him to help the weak. 

APPLICATION:  It is true: it is more blessed to give than to receive!  As a giver, God has added a joyful purpose to my work.  I am not just serving me; I am serving God; I am serving others. 

When it is hard to get up early and go to work, the Lord provides joy in considering the blessing I will have in giving.  When the children are way too loud, when the weather is way too cold, when the country roads are way too dusty, I have found that the joy of the Lord is my strength!  HE rides my bus!

PRAYER:  Lord, what a privilege that you would use me to work in my community.  You have provided special opportunities to minister.  Those I meet at work every morning know that I am a pastor, but most of all they know that I am a Christian. Shine through me! Amen.

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 12, 2022: SOAP #4454:  Leviticus 18-19; Psalm 13; Acts 19

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) 19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. 4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.

OBSERVATION: Paul had the same emphasis as Jesus.  Jesus did not begin His ministry until the Holy Spirit descended on Him when He was baptized in water by John. (Luke 3:21-22)   Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world, but before He ascended into heaven, He told them not go anywhere until they had received the Holy Spirit.  (Acts 1:4-5) 

Paul received the empowering Holy Spirit when Ananias laid his hands on Saul (Paul).  Here Paul is concerned that these new believers in Ephesus also receive the same Holy Spirit.

If I am going to be like Jesus, then I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and learn to rely on the Holy Spirit.   

APPLICATION:  In Jesus command and again here in the actions of Paul, I see that God is not depending on my strength and wisdom.  He already knows that without Him I can do nothing. (John 15:5)   But he also knows that with Him I can do all things! (Ephesians 4:13)  I need the empowering of the Holy Spirit!  God needs me to be filled with the Holy Spirit!  The world needs Leon to be filled with the Holy Spirit!

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, you knew what I would need to be like Jesus.  You are not depending on me to accomplish your will.  You are depending on me to be filled with the Holy Spirit and submit myself to his guidance. Holy Spirit, I surrender to you and receive what you have for me.  Amen.

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 11, 2022: SOAP #4453:  Leviticus 15-17; Acts 18

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) 18:9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no-one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed for a year and a half [in the city of Corinth], teaching them the word of God.

OBSERVATION:  As Paul was moving from city to city, preaching the good news about Jesus, God would give him specific direction.  It is interesting to me that God gave Paul general directions in sending him out on these journeys, but the specific instructions came as Paul was moving in obedience to the general call.  Stay here; Go there; Do not go there. 

Two reasons for Paul to continue preaching in Corinth.  The first: God was with Paul!   The second:  God already had people in the city. 

APPLICATION:  I can easily see God’s similar plan working in my life.  As I am faithful to continue writing out the daily SOAPs, God fills in the specifics as we move ahead.  God has Pastor Andrew, in Sierra Leone, who has a vision for spreading the SOAPs around Africa.  He has arranged for thousands of copies to be printed each month and distributed in Freetown.  In reaching out to Liberia, God has a man who conducts conferences for pastors in the West Africa countries.  Bishop Emmanuel has taken laptops to seven countries where they have internet and printers to print out SOAPs and distribute them in their country.  Tomorrow he leaves with seven laptops for the remaining seven West African countries where God has pastors to print and distribute the SOAPs.  And in the heart of it all, God has a businessman, Joshua, who has provided laptops at a good price. 

God had “many people” in Corinth.  God has many people helping with the SOAPs, people in America, Asia, and Africa. 

PRAYER:  Lord in so many ways you have blest me in preparing and sending out the SOAPs.  I ask that you bless each one who reads them, forwards them, prays for them, invests their time and money in them, prints them, distributes them.  First, speak to their hearts, then through them to others. Amen.

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 10, 2022: SOAP #4452:  Leviticus 13-14; Acts 17

(Reworked SOAP from 2012)

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

OBSERVATION: Some people in Thessalonica had become so angry at Paul’s teaching that they incited a riot in the city.  In the cover of night Paul was safely escorted out of the city and sent on to the city of Berea.  The Bereans listened and “examined the Scriptures every day.”

[The mention of the “prominent Greek women” stirs my curiosity.  The synagogue would have a scroll of the Torah and some of the writings, but most households probably did not.  Could it be that the prominent Greek women were able to have some portions of the scriptures in their homes and could check on Paul’s teachings. ???]  

Hearing the preaching of Paul brought conviction, but the study of the Scriptures—they had confidence in the scriptures.  Paul was new in town, but the scriptures had been with them since the prophets.  Their study led many Jews and Greeks to become believers. 

APPLICATION:  The Bible is my standard for checking what I hear and see.  When I hear something different, I should check it out with the Scriptures — with the Bible.  The better I know the Bible, the better I can make good judgments.  Like the Bereans, it is good for me to examine the Scriptures every day!

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, you knew what I would need to live a victorious life in today’s world.  So, you provided the scriptures.  How foolish I would be not to take advantage of what you have provided.  Amen.

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 09, 2022: SOAP #4451:  Leviticus 10-12; Acts 16

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) 16:6 Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

OBSERVATION: Paul had learned to carefully follow the Holy Spirit.  He had been sent into the traveling ministry by the Holy Spirit. (Acts 13:2-4)   And here in chapter 16, Paul is moving ahead to continue the ministry given by the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit says, “No!”  They were not allowed to go into the province of Asia, nor into Mysia.  Then through a dream, Paul and Barnabas were led to the Macedonian city of Philippi.  A church was established in Philippi to which Paul later wrote a letter which is a part of the New Testament. 

Later we read that Paul spent two years ministering in the city of Ephesus and that everyone, “Jews and Greeks,” who lived in the province of Asia “heard the word of the Lord Jesus!”  (Acts 19:10)   Paul also wrote the New Testament book of Ephesians, a letter to the church in Ephesus. 

APPLICATION:  God’s “No” to Paul was not because God did not care about the people in Asia.  The people of Macedonia were not better favored by God than those in Asia.  God loved both and both were included in God’s timetable. 

God’s “No’s” are just as important as God’s “Go’s.”  To have the greatest effect for God in this world, I must listen to both.  At times God will hold me back; at times God will spur me on. 

PRAYER:  Holy Spirit, it is so important that I be in time with Heaven’s plan. A word at the right time can mean so much to my wife, to my son.  A visit at the right time can open doors for ministry, for employment, for relationship, and so much more.  I want to be sensitive to your impressions, your thoughts, your voice, the scriptures you bring to my mind.  I will not be offended when you say, “No.”  I will be quick to respond when you say, “Go.”  Amen.

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 08, 2022: SOAP #4450:  Leviticus 7-9; Acts 15

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) 15:14 Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: 16 “‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’ 18 that have been known for ages.
Acts (MSSG) 15:17 So outsiders who seek will find, so they’ll have a place to come to, All the pagan peoples included in what I’m doing. “God said it and now he’s doing it. 18 It’s no afterthought; he’s always known he would do this.
Acts (NKJV) 15:18 “Known to God from eternity are all His works.
Acts (KJV) 15:18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

OBSERVATION:  It was always God’s intention to include Gentiles (non-Jews) in His overall plan.  With sin affecting all of mankind, a perfect sacrifice would be required sufficient to cover the sins of every person in every race.  One perfect sacrifice would be needed.  The Father sent His One Son to make that one sacrifice. 

Jesus was sent for the world, but He was sent to Israel.  The work of God in the Old Testament was to insure everyone could easily identify that Jesus was the one sent from the Father to be that sacrifice.  Once that sacrifice was completed, the Holy Spirit began drawing in the Gentiles.  This was not an afterthought!!!  Including Gentiles was a part of God’s original plan!   

APPLICATION:  God’s work among mankind has progressed as planned.  From God visiting us to God dwelling in us!   From the nation of Jews to the world-wide church.  From a temple of stone to a living temple of flesh!   It is still progressing according to God’s plan.   From anticipating and dwelling in the Promised Land to anticipating heaven and eternity in God’s Presence! 

God’s plan is progressing in each of us.  He is changing us from what we were to what He wants us to be.  As I surrender my heart and will to my loving Heavenly Father, He works for my good and His glory. 

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, it is special to know that my life is not an afterthought.  What a privilege is mine to have you living and working in my life.  The highest purpose for me is to bring you glory.  Amen.

Pastor Leon
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
February 07, 2022: SOAP #4449:  Leviticus 4-6; Acts 14

SCRIPTURE:  Acts (NIV) 14:21 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

OBSERVATION:  Starting the life as a believer in Jesus Christ is so important.  We must be born again.  It is just as important that we “remain true to the faith.”  We cannot let “hardships” keep us from finishing what we started! 

Paul had the same concern for these believers as Jesus had for his disciples.  In His time with them before being crucified, He encouraged them to “remain” in Him and “remain” in His love.  (John 15:4-10) 

APPLICATION:  As my wife, Sharon, and I visit churches in Kansas, our goal is to strengthen and encourage the Senior Adult believers.  We want to encourage them to remain on fire for Jesus—to keep the fire of the Holy Spirit burning in their church, in their homes, and in their daily lives.  The ministry of the Holy Spirit is much too valuable to allow to dry up as we get older.  It is too valuable to limit to just Sunday mornings.  It is for every day, and for every age.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit are needed in the home, in the work place, in the retirement center.  They are needed at graduation time, at middle age, and in retirement!

We must not allow hardships, illness, disappointments, lack of appreciation, being passed over in favor of someone younger—we must not allow anything to put out our passion for Jesus!  Let us be good examples of keeping the fire burning in our heart. 

PRAYER:  Lord, you were worthy of my passion when I was young.  You have not changed.  You are still worthy of my passion in my older years.  May those who know me, know that You are my everything! Amen

Pastor Leon
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