Read: Acts 19 Some of the most difficult people to reach with the gospel are those who worship other gods. Many of them are blinded by fear and the loss of wealth or status. Here in this chapter, we read about Demetrius, who is a silversmith and idol maker who is trying to turn the…
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Read: Acts 18 Here we again see the importance of knowing what you believe and why. Verse 4 says that Paul “reasoned” with the Jews and Gentiles every Sabbath to try and “persuade” them. It doesn’t just say Paul prayed for them and God revealed himself to them… God certainly could have done that, but…
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Read: Acts 17 In this chapter, Paul meets two kinds of people; the Bereans and the Areopagites. These two groups illustrate some important things about the way people receive information. The Bereans were a people that were not naive. They did not just believe something because they were told to. The passage says that they…
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Read: Acts 16 Sometimes God works in mysterious ways and we just have to trust him until the mystery is revealed. In Acts 16, we read that Paul and Silas, “had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.” How confusing this must have been? Clearly Paul had been tasked with…
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Read: Acts 15 The Jerusalem council and the discussion that developed out of it is of great importance to the Christian faith. Paul and Barnabas were seeing Gentiles coming to faith and receiving the Holy Spirit just like the Jews did. However, many of the Jews made the argument that these Gentiles should still be…
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Read: Acts 14 Starting in verse eight, we have a peculiar story about Paul and Barnabas visiting the people of Lystra. There is a man who had been lame all of his life who listened to Paul and because of his faith, he was healed. When this happened the crowds were naturally amazed! Who could…
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Read: Acts 13 In the beginning of Acts 13, we see that the church at Antioch had many prophets and teachers. Because of this, they saw the need to send out some of these leaders to carry the gospel message to new places. They were led by the Holy Spirit to choose Barnabas and Saul…
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Read: Acts 12 Here we see that James has already been killed by King Herod. For those who have read the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), it is clear that though Jesus had twelve apostles, there were three that he invested in to greater extent. These three men were Peter, James, and John. All…
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Read: Acts 11 The story from Acts 10 continues in chapter 11. Peter’s Jewish buddies were wondering why he went to spend time with a Gentile man. As was mentioned previously, the Jews did not have a very high view of Gentiles or non-Jewish folk. Because of this, Peter recounts the vision and experience he…
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Read: Acts 10 In this chapter, we see Peter having a strange vision. Jewish people were not supposed to eat certain animals that were considered unclean. In the dream, Peter sees these animals and is told to kill and eat them. Peter declines, saying he has never eaten anything impure. The voice replied, “What God…
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