Use Bible Gateway to Read Acts 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Sunday, March 7,2010
Read Acts 10: 34 – 48 Sue and Ted Larson
There is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
Acts 10:36
Cornelius, a Roman army officer, was in an interesting position: he represented Rome, but his home was in Caesarea. He had a solid reputation as a man he revered God and was generous in meeting others’ needs. And at the end of the day, Cornelius was a Gentile, not a Jew.
However, Cornelius’ charity and reverence distinguished him among the Gentiles and Peter was called to share the good news of Jesus Christ with him. Peter was as surprised as anyone about this request and learned a new lesson himself that “God doesn’t show partiality.” And it wasn’t only that Cornelius was to hear and accept for himself this good news; the gift and assurance of the Holy Spirit was showered upon Cornelius, sealing for him the truth of the Word.
What can we take away from this story during this Lenten season? Several lessons seem clear to us:
1. The gospel is for all people
2. God finds a way to reach those who are open
3. The light of God sometimes comes to us in unexpected ways
This day, and this season, may we open ourselves anew to all that God has for us. And, may we remind ourselves that this light, this gift of God, can sometimes come in unexpected ways. May it be so for us. And, may we in some way, help to be God’s emissary of that unexpected gift for others.
Monday, March 8,2010
Read Acts 11:1-18 Lily Liu
God has richly blessed all the people of the earth! Everyone around the world is a child of God and God loves His every child. This is my reaction after reading Acts 11:1-18.
When Peter arrived Jerusalem, the disciples in favor of circumcision had heated debates with him because he went to the houses of gentiles and ate with them. Peter explained that he was following God’s instruction. He described how God showed the vision three times, telling him to eat the beasts, insects, birds. God had instructed him that God can make clean anything and God had warned them not to make judgments. When Peter shared the Good News with the gentiles, the Holy Sprit went into these gentiles. God has granted blessing upon them, a witness that God will bless everyone all around the earth. It is God’s will to baptize gentiles, and this blessing can not be stopped by anyone.
Everyone around the world is a child of God. God loves them. It is God’s wish that everyone enters God’s house. There should not be any difference between race, group. There should not be any difference between us and them. Let everyone under the sky have the opportunity to enter God’s sanctuary, to be blessed by God. They should have the chance to repent and to gain a new life. This is God’s instruction, and all Christian should follow God’s will. We should take the Gospel to everyone around the world. We should spread God’s love and allow as many as possible to hear God’s word and enter into God’s big family. Just like the Good Samaritan church holding ESL classes and helping the Chinese community to gain citizenship whether they are Christian or not. We even help those who have never been to any church, or people who just show up. Through the citizenship ministry, some people stayed and became part of the church. Some went back to their home church while some, though do not know God yet, went away with an impression of God’s love in their hearts.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Read Acts 11:19-30 Craig and Lucy Love
Rethinking Church in Antioch
“Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.” Acts 11:20-21
The book of Acts has many stories of growing churches and people receiving the good news, but what makes the church in Antioch extraordinary is that its members were Greek. This is significant because in Acts 10, we are reminded that it was against Jewish religious laws to associate with Gentiles, which would certainly include worshiping with them! Clearly, the church in Antioch required the Jewish Christians to “rethink church” to be able to join with them in ministry and outreach.
Over the past several months, we have been challenged to “rethink” our own church ministries and outreach. So what can we learn from the early church at Antioch? First, it was missional. This is evidenced by the fact that it was bringing people to Christ with a “go to them” attitude vs. a “come to us” mentality. Paul later launched his three missionary journeys from the church in Antioch. Second, it was relational. This describes both their relationships with God: “The Lord's hand was with them...”, and with other believers: Barnabas and Saul taught and lived with the Antioch community for a year. Third, it was incarnational. When Barnabas first arrived, he “...saw the evidence of the grace of God” among its members and ministry. Add to that the fact that “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” and it is clear that the church was living out the teachings of Jesus.
In short, the church at Antioch is one answer to the question “What if church was the way church was in the beginning: unbound, outbound, a true social network?”
Prayer:
God, let us remember the church at Antioch as we continue to rethink our church as an outreach rather than a building. To think of church as people, rather than a place. Challenge us go into the world and stand with people that Jesus misses most. To meet them where they are and include them in our lives together. Guide us Lord, to be a community of believers practicing radical hospitality, contagious fellowship, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity. In spirit of Christ we pray, Amen.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Read Acts 12:1-25 Cliff & Gretchen Ludwig
I did a little digging to figure out how this Herod (Herod Agrippa) fits in with all the others in the Bible. His paternal grandfather was Herod the Great, the guy who met the Wise Men and massacred all the baby boys at the time of Jesus’ birth. So much for greatness. Herod the Great married ten times and had a number of sons, five of whom show up in the Bible. Agrippa’s father was Aristobulus, apparently a disfavored son, since H-the-G killed him. Herod Agrippa was also the nephew of Herod Antipas to whom Pilate sent Jesus for trial. And finally, Agrippa’s son, Agrippa the Second, was the king who tried Paul in Acts 25-26.
In addition to this stellar family legacy, Agrippa’s paternal grandmother was a princess, descended from Maccabaean heroes. Herod Agrippa was a savvy politician who pandered to his Jewish subjects. He had been raised in privilege and schooled in Rome, but he played up his Jewishness, making a great show of adhering to the law and traditions of his citizenry. He further ensured his popularity by pointing out his Maccabaean ancestry.
The execution of James and the arrest of Peter may well have been ordered only to appease the orthodox Jews among Agrippa’s subjects. Likewise, the delay of Peter’s execution was almost certainly in conciliation to Jewish law prohibiting such acts during Passover.
So I don’t grieve when Herod Agrippa is struck down to be eaten by worms after he starts believing he’s the god his people think he is. And I cheer Peter’s fantastic escape from prison. But I also wonder how delicate the survival of the early church must have been for God to have intervened often and unequivocally during those early years.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Read Acts 13:1-12 Catie Lycurgus
When first reading this passage I thought about how strange it would be to go into a town today and meet a local magician like Elymas. Most people will not accept a claim like that without some sort of evidence, and so I wonder what Elymas did to be known as a magician. Maybe he had a different hometown or education from the average citizen and his foreign ways won them. He might have accurately predicted a future event and thereby proved his powers, or possibly performed some unexplainable feat no one in Salamis had ever seen before. He could have had knowledge that made his insight and advice revolutionary. All of these would inspire trust and awe in his abilities. It is not a stretch to think then, that if two strangers were to come and claim to have different special powers like Saul and Barnabas did when they were “sent out by the Holy Spirit,” the governor would have difficulty choosing what to believe.
Thinking more, I realized that having someone claim to be a magician isn’t so strange. We have self-proclaimed magicians all around us—people who offer miracle answers to our problems, who can help us “live a satisfied life,” “find true happiness,” or “lose the last ten pounds,” all of which may seem impossible without magic. We are lured with many solutions for a full life. The pursuit of success, the quest for financial prosperity, the desire to be appreciated, to fill our days, to stay fit, to be the best parents, caretakers, children, spouses, siblings, friends that we can be all top out our lists. I know that some of these are goals of mine, and none on their own are bad. But they can distract me from the one solution that has no magic at all: a full-life through surrendering to what Christ wants for me. Easier said than done.
Sometimes I think it does take blindness. Sometimes I feel like God has to whack me over the head and take away the basics, like sight. He has to make it a little harder to run in my hamster wheel on track to achieve all the things I want. Maybe, much as I hate to admit it, God has to blind me some. Like Elymas, only when we can’t see and when our abilities to make things right have failed us, do we turn to God and say that we can’t do it alone, that we were going in the wrong direction and that our magic solutions ended up worthless. In the text I think of his “punishment” as his saving grace. Because he can’t see he came to believe in God, and others came to recognize the true power of the Holy Spirit. As we move forward this Lent, I pray that I can learn to accept the blind spots in my life not as punishments, but as places where I have the opportunity to reach out for God’s hand. As places where I don’t have to make the magic myself. Where I can just be wowed by a God who sees.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Read Acts 13: 13-52 Ginny Lycurgus
Lately I question whether God actively works in my life and in the world. The destruction in Haiti, countless wars, conflict and senseless loss leave me despairing over the prospects for goodness and light. So many hurt, hunger and thirst around the world and here. At times the painfulness of life seems unending and unbearable.
Then we read Paul’s witness to the people of Pisidia.. God took his people out of bondage, led them for forty years through the desert and delivered them into the promised land. It all took 450 years. 450 years is a really long time! No one who started the journey saw its end. Those who eventually made it found the new land was no heaven on earth. They fought constantly to make a home for themselves in a hostile world. They still fight today against another dispossessed people for the right to live in security and peace.
Where is the encouragement in this story? Reaching the promised land, peace, health and plenty for all – these are goals we strive for. Maybe we are called even to sacrifice for these goals, but we may not see them achieved. Moses could look down on the promised land before he died, but he would never arrive. Martin Luther King would envision a time of equality, but he would not be there to taste its sweetness. Did God work in their lives and can he work in mine? Was he present for them and is he present for me?
Paul’s narrative assures me that God does work for good and is present now. When God’s people wandered homeless and hungry in the desert, he sent them manna and water. His cloud by day and tower of fire by night were proof of his presence with his people. He did not leave them alone – he was on the journey with them. I eat no manna; instead, God has given me Bread of Life to sustain me. There is no water springing forth from barren rocks for me, but I have been given Living Water. No pillars of cloud or towers of fire lead me through my deserts; rather, I am assured of his presence by his Word and by his very likeness in the hands and faces of his loving people. He is on the journey with me and he is on yours too. And someday we will arrive. I am assured of that!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Read Acts 14:1-28 Heather Miesle
There is an old saying by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that declares, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” When my parents divorced during my teenage years, this became my mantra. I was set against being defined by my predicament – forever one of those people who pointed to their parent’s failures as the moment their life took a nosedive. I clung to Nietzsche’s words because they reminded me that something better would come from the confusion and suffering – that what was happening around me would ultimately make me a stronger person.
As I grew, I forgot the mantra and started to believe that there was really no rhyme or reason for the bad parts of life. Our best hope in the midst of despair is merely to survive. What a sad way to live because there is no room to learn from mistakes or situations…. No room to grow.
Acts 14:1-28 tells the story of Paul and Barnabas as they spread the Good News throughout Iconium, Lystra, Antioch, and Derbe. They directly took on the nay sayers and spoke “boldly” about the Lord. Even in the face of miraculous miracles - of Paul and Barnabas literally healing the crippled – the nay sayers plotted their demise. Eventually, they stoned Paul and left him for dead. Paul lived through the abuse and got up the next day and continued preaching beside Barnabas. The hardships were worth the ultimate goal. In fact, Nietzsche was actually just restating what Paul and Barnabas were living and teaching when they told the church, “ We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
The Lord is teaching us everyday to trust in him. Those tough times give us opportunity to get back up, like Paul after he was stoned, and go forward with his plan. In fact, I would guess that during those bumps in the road, God is even more near as he bends and shapes us into his instruments of love.
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