While reading in Acts 7 the sermon Stephen preached as his defense against the accusation of blasphemy, I was struck by his strategy. He gave his opponents a history lesson that ended with Jesus. The accusation against Stephen was that he had spoken against the law...
Christians should live in a heads-up frame of mind. “Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, ESV). The man who wrote these words shows us how he did it in Acts 6. The...
This Sunday at Grace Community Church we will again consider the early stages of persecution against the infant church in Jerusalem. I encourage you to read Acts 5 this weekend to prepare yourself for our time together. A common but unhelpful approach to Bible passages about...
The great potential of marriage is that it can help us honor God, follow Christ, and walk in step with the Holy Spirit. Sadly, marriage can also be a relationship in which a husband and wife find no help in their discipleship or in which...
Our brothers and sisters who first tasted the grace of Jesus and were filled with the Spirit’s power soon felt the pressure of opposition. Acts 4 is their story. A new day has dawned as the Holy Spirit is poured out on the people of the...
I had been a Christian a month or two when I began thinking about the Holy Spirit. In conversations with other Christians, it was suggested that there might be more to the Christian life than faith in Christ and following him as Lord. That “more,”...
To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be devoted to the church. Here’s an interesting bit of trivia. The first known use of the word “decouple” was in 1938 (according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary). I would have guessed it was one of the newer...
This morning, I will write about the murder of Charlie Kirk. I was not trained, nor am I particularly gifted, to give immediate responses to public tragic events. I have been in many personal tragic events. I have stood at the deathbeds of people of all...
The main message in Acts 2 is that Jesus of Nazareth is both Lord and Christ, and that the Holy Spirit fills Jesus’ disciples in their witness of him. This Sunday at Grace Community we will focus our attention on this message from the sermon...
It’s common for people to think that the book of Acts begins with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which is recorded in Acts 2. The first chapter of Acts is often overlooked. But by slowing down and taking a...
