• Surprised by God

    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…

  • The Gospel and Grace

    In today’s Bible reading from Acts 11, we read that several people call into question Peter’s wisdom of taking the Gospel to the Gentiles. Peter did something that ran contrary to everything he knew about Jew and Gentile relations. And now, he has to give an account to the Circumcision Party (also called Judaizers) for why he…

  • Seven Chosen to Serve

    In today’s Bible reading*, the Apostles come to a point where they realize they can’t do it all. They couldn’t even serve tables on their own. People began accusing the Apostles of overlooking the Hellenistic (Gentile) widows and giving preference to Jewish widows. That may or may not have been the case, but the accusation…

  • Devote Yourself to Prayer

    In today’s Bible reading tells us that Jesus’ Disciples devoted themselves to … prayer. (Acts 2:42) So what does it mean to devote yourself to prayer? As a pastor, I receive emails from time to time asking me to complete a survey in exchange for an ebook. I completed one of those surveys a few…

  • Encountering the Risen Jesus

    Dr. Luke describes the events of the first Easter Sunday Morning in today’s Bible reading. He begins with some of his disciples bringing spices to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for a proper burial. Because the Sabbath was only a few hours away when Jesus died, they only had time to place his body…