Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

[The council of the Jews] called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” The miraculous healing of the lame man attracted great attention. This gave Peter a further opportunity to speak to the crowd....

Acts 3:4-6 Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” At 3pm, Peter and John went up to the Temple for the service at which one of the daily sacrifices was made. As t...

Acts 2:46-47 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. What amazing days these were! The believers were seeing astonishing things happen and, not surprisingl...

Acts 2:43-45 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. In his Pentecost day sermon, Peter referred to the fact that in his earthly life Jesus did “powerful miracles, wonders and...

Acts 2:41-42 Those who believed what Peter said were baptised and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. I love the fact that what churches do today is so similar to this earliest description of the Church. The world looks completely dif...

Acts 2:38 I was very fond of my first satnav. I knew that I could completely trust its wise directions. On one occasion I was taking a group of friends to a railway station at the end of a conference. I spoke to them about the excellence of my satnav and the help that it had been to me. We weren’t far away from the station when my passengers expressed some surprise at the route we had taken. There...

Acts 2:36-37 In his Pentecost sermon, Peter carefully explained to his Jewish audience that what had happened to Jesus had been in fulfilment of God’s plans. He had been very respectful
of their patriarch King David but pointed out that, despite all his greatness, David had not risen from death, unlike Jesus, whom they had had a hand in crucifying. Peter’s sharp challenge pierced them to the heart...

Acts 2:17-18 Peter responded to the suggestion that Jesus’ followers were drunk by making the practical observation that it was far too early in the morning for anything like that (v15)! He then went on to point out that Joel, in the ninth century BC, had prophesied that in the last days the Spirit would be poured out upon everyone in exactly this way. In Old Testament times we often see the Spiri...

Acts 2:11-13 I love the carefulness of Dr Luke’s account of the day of Pentecost. He is giving us only a very brief summary of what actually happened, but he doesn’t miss out the fact that many people struggled to work out what on earth was going on! For us it is absolutely clear what a significant day it was, but for many people at the time it was thoroughly perplexing. Some asked genuine questio...

Acts 2:5-7 The arrival of the Holy Spirit caused a stir in Jerusalem. The city was packed with Jewish pilgrims who were eager to find out what was going on. When they heard God’s name being praised in their own languages, they were amazed. Dr Luke provides us with a fascinating list of where the pilgrims had come from. To use their modern names, there were visitors from, among other places, Rome,...

Acts 2:1-4 Pentecost Sunday marks the birthday of the Church. Jesus had asked his followers to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit – and now he has arrived. Pentecost was a Jewish harvest festival and was held 50 days after Passover. It was one of the three annual pilgrimages and so Jerusalem would have been heaving with visitors from all over the region. Jesus’ followers were probably gathered i...

Acts 1:24-26 After the ascension of Jesus, the eleven disciples needed to find a successor to Judas Iscariot. They identified two candidates whom they considered to be suitable, Barsabbas and Matthias. We don’t know anything about them, but clearly they had spent time with Jesus and were part of his wider circle of followers. What might strike you as strange is that, having committed the decision...

Acts 1:12-14 The days between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost were filled with prayer. The disciples knew that they had to wait and they didn’t want to do this alone. We read that they met together in an upper room, which may well have been the place where they had gathered for the Last Supper. What matters is that they were together and it is interesting to note that the eleven disciples were join...

Acts 1:9-11 The ascension of Jesus brought his ministry on earth to an end in an amazing way. It is not surprising that the disciples looked intently into the sky to see where he had gone. They were probably longing for him to come back down again. As they stood there, they were told that the day will come when Jesus returns in the same way as he left. The second coming of Jesus should be our conf...

Acts 1:8 What an amazing day this must have been for the disciples! They were just about to see Jesus disappear before their eyes and, before he did so, he commissioned them to take the good news to the whole world, no less. These days we know a great deal about the world and can easily communicate across the globe. But for Jesus’ disciples, this must have seemed an overwhelming challenge. Where o...

Acts 1:3-4 Dr Luke wrote two books – his Gospel and what is often called ‘The Acts of the Apostles’. The first tells us what happened during Jesus’ earthly ministry and the second describes the story of the birth and growth of the Church. However, before Dr Luke launched into the story of the Church, he wanted his readers to know that there is no doubt about Jesus’ resurrection. He knew that every...

Proverbs 16:32 It’s good for us to ask the question: “What matters most in life?” Time and again the book of Proverbs helps us to think through this question. Many people would assume that it is good to be powerful, to have control of people and even whole communities. But the writer observes that it is far more important to have patience and self-control than great power and influence. He is talk...

Proverbs 13:20 When we think of wisdom we may be inclined to think about books and formal education. However, the writer of Proverbs is clear that key to wisdom is spending time with the right people. Quite simply, if we spend time with wise people, some of their wisdom will rub off. On the other hand, spending time with fools will be sure to get us into trouble. The book of Psalms begins on a sim...

Proverbs 13:16 Much of the wisdom that we find in the book of Proverbs is so obvious that you wonder why it needs to be said. But a moment’s reflection shows that it doesn’t just need to be said, but needs to be said repeatedly. I suspect we can all think of numerous times when we acted too quickly. Perhaps it was an impulse buy. A clever salesperson persuaded us to act quickly or an alluring adve...

Proverbs 13:11 Oscar Wilde wrote: “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” Work is often seen as something negative, to be avoided if at all possible and, if not, then one should aim to retire as early as possible. This thinking is in complete contrast with Proverbs, where work is seen as something inherently good. It is worklessness and laziness that are to be avo...

Isaiah 58:6-7 It is incredibly sad that Isaiah’s call to action, written more than 2,500 years ago, still applies today. There continue to be people who are wrongly imprisoned, hungry and homeless. God’s word to us today is, therefore, unchanged from Isaiah’s day. He declares that the reality of our worship will be revealed by our willingness to care for those who are denied justice and as we reac...

Isaiah 58:4 Nothing is more unattractive than hypocrisy. When I have talked to people who don’t go to church, time and again they have pointed out the gap between churchgoers’ faith and actions. This was precisely the situation that Isaiah was addressing. The people were regular in their attendance at the Temple and said all the right things. They seemed to take their faith seriously but, in fact,...

Isaiah 57:20-21 It was Augustine of Hippo (354–430) in his famous Confessions who observed: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.” There is no doubt that Augustine was reflecting on his own experience. He had lived a promiscuous life before he became a Christian at the age of 31 and had lurched from one philosophy to another. He knew how...

Isaiah 56:9-11 As a church leader I find these words both incredibly challenging and agonisingly sad. I am sure that we have all known church leaders who have worked extremely hard and rightfully earned people’s love and respect. But there are lazy leaders as well. Here Isaiah depicts the way in which spiritual leaders in his own day totally missed the point. They were the opposite of shepherds. T...

Isaiah 56:6 In the Old Testament, God’s people were often told to be welcoming to foreigners. God’s love was not confined to the Jews and they were reminded that, as a nation, they used to be foreigners in Egypt so it was only right that they should be generous and loving towards foreigners. The people of Israel had spent 400 years in Egypt so there was nothing that they didn’t know about the vuln...