Read: Acts 23 Persecution is something most people in the west have never really experienced to the extent that people in some parts of the world do. Maybe we are afraid someone may make fun of us for our beliefs or there might be atheists or political leaders who ridicule us because of our views,…
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Read: Acts 22 There are few things more powerful than the testimony of a changed life. Paul was a zealous persecutor of Christians, who had a dramatic transformation. His approach to reaching these Jews was to tell them about his conversion story because many of them knew him before he was converted. They had surely…
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Read: Acts 21 In chapter 21, we see Paul do something peculiar. Paul’s fellow Jews in Jerusalem tell him that people in the city are claiming that he is teaching the Jews who are among the Gentiles to completely abandon the law of Moses. They then tell him to go into the temple and purify…
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Read: Acts 20 Here in this chapter we see Paul’s unflinching faithfulness. Starting in verse 17, Paul says his farewell to the Ephesians. He recounts his time with them and reminds them of his faithfulness to proclaim the truth about repentance and faith in Jesus even when he had to face many trials and difficulties.…
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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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