Peter addresses his persecuted, exiled readers (1 Peter 2:11) in today’s Bible reading and tells his readers to submit to every human authority. Some time ago I commented on the historical context around the middle of the First Century. I mentioned Nero was the Roman Emperor at the time. Under Nero’s reign, Christians were persecuted far beyond…
Paul paints a pretty grim picture of fallen mankind in today’s Bible reading*. We saw him paint the same picture a few weeks ago in the beginning few chapters of Romans. But God …. He says we were dead. He says we were alienated from God. He says we lived according to our fleshly desires (that’s all we had!). He…
At the end of today’s Bible reading, we see Paul being left in a Roman prison for two years as Governor Festus attempts to do the Jews a favor. (Acts 23:27) What might seem to be a bad situation, God uses for His glory and for Paul’s good. Dr. Luke tells us that Paul was put…
Well, things finally come to a head in today’s Bible reading. The Judaizers have raised such a ruckus that the church has its first council, the Jerusalem Council, to codify how the church should handle its first major problem. The problem: Does a new convert to Christianity have to be a good Jew in order…
In today’s Bible reading, Paul brings out the fact that believers are not servants; they are sons. There is a tremendous difference between the responsibilities of a servant and the privileges of a son. Several years ago, some friends of ours adopted a baby girl from an unwed teen. It was a win-win-win, and to…
In today’s Bible reading in Acts 12, we see that Herod kills James. Because the Jewish leaders respond favorably, Herod imprisons Peter, presumably to be executed. Knowing how badly things have turned out in the past with Jesus and His followers, Herod assigns four squads of soldiers to guard Peter. This seems like overkill since there were…
