I was reminded today, as I read from Acts 22, a statement that Jesus made to the religious leaders as he was teaching them and trying to explain to them how far they had strayed from what God really wanted for them. He quoted Isaiah and said of them: These people honor me with their […]
It is amazing how often we act based on half-truths and confusion. In the reading today in Acts 21, we see that Paul is led by the Holy Spirit to Jerusalem and, upon arriving, the local believers there know that there is trouble that will be awaiting him. The Jews have been talking about Paul […]
Saul was there when the crowds stoned Stephen. He also led and took part in the great persecution that broke out amongst the Christians in Jerusalem. Now, having scattered the believers in several directions, he wanted to go to other cities as well to begin to bring those believers who had fled back to Jerusalem […]
In John 3, as Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, he said that those who are born of the Holy Spirit are like the wind: you can hear the sound but you can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going. The Spirit moves as it pleases. As much as we might like it […]
The disciples – now the apostles – had been continuing their work of proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah and carrying their message from house to house and in the temple courts. They were also dealing with persecution from the religious leaders in the Sannhedrin as well as healing people as a miraculous confirmation of […]
After the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples in Jerusalem, as we read yesterday in Acts 2, the disciples-now-apostles began to walk and live in the power of the Spirit, doing miracles amongst the people. Aside from the 3,000 people that were baptized on that first day of the Holy Spirit’s broad work here […]
Sometimes, we as human beings, with our limited understanding, can be very good at missing the point. We misunderstand the things that are happening around us, especially the spiritual things that are happening. We go about our daily lives thinking that we understand, even making decisions that we think are right, when all along we […]
The chief priests in Jerusalem brought Jesus to Pilate. They told Pilate that he needed to kill Jesus, accusing him of being an insurrectionist, accusing him of telling the people to not pay taxes to Rome, and accusing him of being the king that would overthrow the Roman government. Of course, Jesus didn’t say that […]
Jesus routinely attracted people to himself who wanted to know how they could be justified before God, how they could go to heaven. In this particular case, there was a young man who was rich who came to Jesus asking this very question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”, he asked. Jesus begins […]
Most of us don’t realize that we need to repent. “I’m pretty good,” I might think. Or, “I’m certainly not as bad as that other guy,” and in the eyes of other people, that might be correct. But there are some important things that we need to remember. While we might think that other people […]