Rooted Together

Paul, stands before Felix and defends himself and finds many opportunities to share the gospel.

Paul has his trial in front of the Sanhedrin. He must have felt discouraged but we see that Jesus doesn’t just send a get well soon card he is standing by Paul. He stands by us as well.

Introducing my new podcast, or at least my rebranded podcast.

Paul shares his testimony and is beaten for it and yet his primary concern is sharing the gospel.

Paul’s journey to Rome begins that will ultimately take him to Rome.

I’m this chapter we see that when God is first in our lives it impacts how we relate to others, how we see and expend our time, and how we live our lives.

Have you ever met a person who was by all metrics religious but devoid of the Spirit? Paul brings life-giving hope and clarity to the people of Ephesus.

Discipleship is dynamic and can happen in structured settings or everyday life and ministry. In this episode we see how Paul disciples Aquila and Pricilla who disciple Apollos who disciples others. We too should be discipling others as we are also being discipled!

We are all called to intentionally and faithfully share the gospel with everyone we meet. In Acts 17 Paul demonstrates how to do this as he is recorded as going to the synagogue "as usual" for it was his habit to do so. Whether it is our schools, jobs, or social clubs we must have places where we intentionally build relationships in which we can have gospel conversations.  Paul shared the gos...

God uses all things, even hardships to advance His Kingdom. In this chapter, Paul follows God's call to go to Macedonia where he will be beaten and arrested. Why would God call Paul to go to a place where hardships would be waiting? Hardships can sometimes be a vehicle of God's grace. For Paul, being placed in the prison wasn't ideal but it leads him to a chance to share Christ and lead the jailor...

What do we do when there are disagreements? We see in Acts chapter 15, that a correct view of God will mend division and broken relationships.  #Journeyingthroughscripture #bible #God #Newtestament 

How do we measure success or even calling? If we take the world's definition, then Paul and Barnabas should have quit after the first two cities. The formula for this chapter is preaching-interest-opposition-persecution-ran out of the city. But I've left an important detail out. Paul and Barnabas made many disciples in each city, evidenced by their going back to encourage and build up those discip...

In all we do, we do them in the power of the Holy Spirit, being saturated in the presence of God. What does this look like? It looks like understanding the importance of seeking God. It's been a part of my personal journey recently, as it seems to be a theme God is teaching me through my Bible reading, a book I'm reading, and sermons I am listening to. This was important to the early church it sho...

God triumphs over all opposition, even persecution and imprisonment lead to God's glory and growth of His kingdom! God's people will endure persecution. James is killed and others were violently attacked. Peter was arrested. The church's response was to pray. They do not pray as a last resort but as their primary weapon. Pray especially and initially in troubled times.  Peter for the second t...

What do we do when God is moving, but some of His people aren't? To make that clearer, what do we do with naysayers? You will have times of ministry that are going well, but some of the church people aren't excited to see God moving. What do we do with that? We see, that the gospel isn't hindered by naysayers. Our hope is that the gospel will change the hearts of those who don't get excited about...

This chapter is much more than about food. It is about all of us. Who can be made pure? All people who believe in Jesus for salvation. Join me as I dive into chapter 10 of Acts and explore this much beloved, often perplexing and misinterpreted passage. 

We will see that Saul's encounter with the risen Jesus forever changes the direction of his life. How has Jesus changed yours? 

This is actually one of my favorite passages in the book of Acts. So much so in fact that I wanted it to be its own episode. In this episode, we glean what it means to truly listen to the Holy Spirit as He guides our lives. 

The church faces intense persecution and yet they do not shrink back but instead go everywhere preaching. In this episode, we will zoom in on one of those scenes. The gospel will overcome Simon's jealousy and continue to spread to the Samaritans. 

Stephen faces a difficult trial. He is thrown into a mob scene where the witnesses are false and the truth doesn't matter. He doesn't respond with anger, nor plead for his life. Instead, he doubles down on the truth of the gospel. He was never truly alone. God never left him.  #Acts #NewTestament #Bible #God #Journeyingthroughscripture 

I feel that it is necessary to respond to a friend's class they have started to activate people's prophetic ministry. In this episode, I specifically want to lock in on how this friend used Acts 2:14-18 and applied to it a meaning that was not meant by the writer or Peter who is speaking. It is important to know how to read Scripture and not to simply read it to get what we want to see out of it....

The early church saw exponential growth. Such growth was not without its growing pains. We look in today on a situation between the Greek-speaking widows and the Hebrew-speaking widows and how the early church solved the complaint. More importantly, we see how the church used this situation to continue to grow.  #Acts #JourneyingthroughScripture #Bble #God 

There is a grave danger in spiritual hypocrisy. Such actions have deadly consequences in the lives of believers and in the life of the church. This is a difficult story. What do we do with it? How do we put feet to this text?  #Acts #Newtestament #christianpodcast #hypocrisy 

How do we speak the Word of God with boldness? Step one is we will not be able to unless we have been with and met with Jesus. Two, the Holy Spirit must be working through us. We see in this chapter the Holy Spirit has filled Peter and John and they boldly proclaim the gospel. When they face threats from the religious leaders of their day they go to the church and pray for more boldness. God grant...

What a revolutionary thought for modern times from ancient times. We don't have to live according to the cravings of our earthly bodies. Our modern culture screams that we must live according to the orientations of our "true selves" as if the apex of existence is self-realization. Yet God has called us to self-sacrifice. We must be and are called to be more than the sum of ourselves, likes, orient...