Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Magistrates today have a bit of "come to Jesus" moment.  The lightbulb goes on that they have MISUSED the authority that they have been given. Having authority = Being accountable for that authority Authority OVER = Authority UNDER We too have lots we are authoritative over.  You might be president of a country, or of a family, or of a work section, or of a sibling, or of a pet.  In addi...

Following the great question: "What must I do to be saved?" is an action. But, it is not an action of DOING, it is an action of BELIEF.  We are very tempted to always be "working" our way to God.  Even the question betrays that bias, "What must I DO to be saved?" The easy work of God is the hard work of our belief.  The work of God is to believe.  We are even tempted...

Imagine having a job that if you fail in it for a single day, you would be eager to take a sword and stick it into your own body so violently that you would kill yourself. Where do you find a job like that? Try being a jailer for the Romans.  If you lose any prisoners overnight, you are certain to die a death so horrible at the hands of the Romans, that you'd be willing to fall on your sword...

Listen 7 minutes and hear an exciting story of opposition from both ANOTHER world, as well as THIS world. Paul encounters spiritual opposition from the demonic world and deals with it.  Then he encounters FINANCIAL opposition from this world and IT deals with HIM.  He gets beaten with rods, specifically designed, planned, prepared, and carried around just for this purpose.  Bare skin.  Nice detail...

We meet a woman who goes ALL IN for the Lord.  That is, she votes with her all.  She votes with all she has.  She votes with everything precious to her. She votes with her PURPLE. The purple comes from the mucus of the hypobracial gland of the murex shellfish.  Each little mollusk could deliver a speck of dye.  1000's of them would be required for a gram and it was very expensive.  The dye wa...

The phrase that unmoored me a bit is "The Spirit of Jesus" that's used in Acts 16:7 Then I was unmoored by a Person Then I was unmoored by a God of Trinity Then I was moored by the phrase Then I was moored by the Person Then I was moored by a God of Trinity. What if God has given me everything I need of Him?  What if He is a God of relationship and intimacy who wants to be known, so...

Either the  phrase  "the Spirit of Jesus" or the  Person  of "the Spirit of Jesus" has disturbed the soul of your podcaster.  (Yikes, do I really want a podcaster who gets unmoored at a little turn-of-phrase from the Bible?)  I sure hope you do.  He put that in the Bible for a reason.  I think He wants us to pause here and consider what He is trying to tell us about the Trinity...

Vast amounts of Asia real-estate is covered.  Over most of it, the Holy Spirit says NO.  Don't go east.  Don't go south.  Go west for a while until you cannot go any further.  Then what?  Wait for it: a vision of a Macedonian man begging for help.   There is a great commitment here on Paul, Silas, Timothy and now Luke's part. There is a great commitment here on the Lord's part...

Timothy makes a serious, painful, anatomically-altering decision in the opening verses of Acts 16.  Of great interest, the whole of Acts 15 was about this very topic.   The question was, "Do you need to be circumcised to be saved?"  After much debate, opposition, and correction, the answer was a resounding NO.  Commissions were sent.  Letters were written.  No No No.  We cannot burden ne...

Today we look at the worst thing in the Bible about Paul and Barnabas.  (Yes, I know that Paul probably killed people.) It is so bad, we have to wonder why God put this in the Bible for us.  It is a full-dose of human reality today. Frankly, I am disappointed in them. (Probably some day they will have a chance to be disappointed in me as they learn the record of my life, but that is for another da...

How do you make a decision when God is "silent?" How can I find the will of God when His voice seems non-existent?   The church in Jerusalem experiences this in our passage today.  They make a big decision, a soul-impacting decision, in the absence of any clear "writing on the wall".  The book of Acts is fun because there are many examples of the clear will of God: spiritual di...

Five things strike me today: 1. The humanity of humans.  They get some critical theology wrong despite the indwelling Holy Spirit for well more than a decade. 2. Awe. God is taking a people for His name.  God with us.  This concept always gets me. 3. Cooperative Sovereignty. Yes He is taking and calling a people to His name. Yes, He tells us to turn to God. 4. Representation.  His NAME represents...

Chapter 15 of Acts is one big fight. Even two big fights.  There is debate, dissension, bad theology, emissaries sent to disagree, opposition to people's faces, and then finally: UNITY.  We won't get their today.  We need to know what the big fight is all about. The sweeping work that the Lord was doing with the gentiles was the catalyst for this fight.  What are previous Jews, now Chris...

When Paul and Barnabas return from the first missionary journey they find things back in Jerusalem in error and actual disobedience.  Peter was told, in no uncertain terms, by a vision repeated three times and a direct voice from the Holy Spirit to make peace with the Gentiles.  Tear down the wall.  Go with them. Associate with them.  Eat with them.  Do not call any food (iguanas) or person (genti...

Galatia isn't a city, it is a region. This is the region that "God opens a door of faith" to the gentiles. Essentially, the "first missionary journey" is to this region that includes the cities of antioch of pisidia: "we are turning to the Gentiles" and dust shaking fame Iconia: they wanted to stone him there Lystra: this is where they killed Paul by stoning* Der...

" Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God ." No kidding.  How about stoning to death.  Paul is stoned just after they wanted to worship him in Lystra.  But, it was not a surprise to him.  15 years prior, the Lord showed him how much he was to suffer.  I wonder if it was like a movie trailer showing him all the exciting suffering parts.  Anyway, he probably was not shoc...

One verse, they think Paul is so wonderful, they want to WORSHIP him. In the VERY NEXT VERSE, they KILL PAUL by stoning. At least, they  think they kill Paul.  They leave him for dead. What would cause such a revolutionary, radical transition of thought? Paul heals a guy, and  they get out a few cows to begin to sacrifice to him.  Paul says no! I am a mere man, but let me tell you the good news ab...

God has left a witness in the common grace that He has given to mankind.  In addition, 3 miracles happen in today's account.  One is inside a crippled guy. (He gets faith). One is inside Paul (He  sees this invisible faith). Finally, everybody gets to see the guy get healed and walk. He goes from Lame to Sprang. The Lystra folks respond and want to worship Paul and Baranabas.  They literally...

The Lord Bore Witness to the word of His grace.  There are some other inputs, but this is the essential one.  Eloquence by men and women, faithfulness, etc are all good, but the one that is crucial is HIM. Think about this math equation to end up with BELIEVERS: Election + Human Mouthpiece - Persecution + Time + Decisions + Bearing Witness by the LORD = Believers. The Lord and His witness, His han...

The doctrine of divine sovereignty is God's love letter to us.  Our response is our love letter to Him.  The Language of Election in the Bible is God's love language.  The language of faith, belief, receiving, agreeing, repenting, "I could be wrong about this," and "Oh, what have I done?!" is our love language back. In our story of Acts, the Gentiles find out they hav...

The sharp sticks of opposition point to Paul's ARGUMENT and then point to Paul's PERSON.  That is called reviling.  It is where you attack the person rather than the argument.  It is speech that seeks not to win the debate, but to demean, denigrate, and disrespect the guy you are arguing with.  It is a cheap shot.  Below the belt. I think it is Paul's first personal experience with...

Paul is preaching #2 on the Christianity almost "Too-good-to-be-true" list.  There are three responses.  The ideal is to BELIEVE. The worst is to scoff. He tells them to BEWARE.  The middle ground is to BEG for more information.  Come back tomorrow.  I'll listen to another podcast.  You got my attention, but not yet my belief. His topic is FORGIVENESS of sin.  That God can forgive s...

God has been talking about Jesus in the Old Testament for a long time.  It is not His first day, and God made PROMISES that are now FULFILLED in Jesus.  Just don't say that I never told you so. Paul is making a big speech to Pisidia Antioch people. He cites three Old Testament passages that point to JESUS.  Yes the Old Testament is about Jesus.  How could it not be.  Specifically, Jesus did n...

Metaphorically, we are all running a course that has some unique and universal obstacles.  We  bring to it some particular strengths and weaknesses. For some of us, today will be the earthly course finish.   We would do well to consider the races that others have done.  This is the purpose of funerals.  We look at that person's race, their particular challenges and the way they brought their...

Oh the humanity!  There is a lot of it in Paul's 450 year summary of the Jews.  God had to "put up with you."  The Jews had not exactly been faithful in response to the Lord being faithful with them.  David is highlighted.  He was a very imperfect person.  A sinner.  Here is what God repeatedly states about David's attractiveness:  "He is a man after my own heart.  I have...