Category: Acts

Take a moment to read Acts 6:8-7:60 before reading the devotional below.

We don’t know a lot about Stephen, but what we do know is found in today’s passage, finishing up Acts 6 and taking us right through Acts 7. While he was not one of the twelve apostles, he is described as “full of God’s grace and power” and he had performed miracles to prove it. I don’t know about you, but if I’m ever in a situation in which people start publicly lying about me, I really hope my face starts glowing. It’s really a zinger of supernatural proportions.

Just like Peter, Stephen is thrust into the spotlight and starts preaching to the crowd. Remember, he’s addressing Jews, so he starts with Abraham and goes from there. He hits all the highlights from Joseph to Moses to David. It’s a lesson for us all: when you are suddenly called upon to preach, just retell Scripture. It’s a good starting point. But when Stephen wraps it up, he hits pretty hard and lets his audience know that they are rejecting the Holy Spirit. This doesn’t sit well and Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr. As he is being stoned to death, Stephen imitates Jesus’ words while dying on the cross.

Death wasn’t the end of Stephen’s story, even if we haven’t gotten to hear the rest of it yet. Our lives never end when we live in God’s kingdom, no matter what we face on earth. Take time to reflect on what eternal life really means. Are you limiting your view of your life to the 80-90 years you might spend here, or are you making plans for all of eternity? I have a heaven to-do list (which I cannot write down since I can’t take it with me…). It includes things like “garden” (which I refuse to do in a fallen world) and “spend at least 1,000 years with the Bethel worship teams.” I’ve got a lot to do and all the time in this world and the next to do it. I hope when I get there I find my list hanging neatly on the refrigerator in my mansion just as I imagine. But I know it will be way cooler than that…

“Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. (Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.”

I always want to be on the right side of history. We pause today on just this short passage of three verses to let the early story of Saul (who later is renamed Paul) sink in. Saul was there at the stoning of Stephen that we just covered in yesterday’s post. But he wasn’t just standing around spectating — he was in complete agreement with that violent death being the right decision. Remember, Stephen had primarily retold the stories in the Jewish Scriptures, focusing on examples of times God’s people refused to listen and went their own way. Stephen warns that the Jews are refusing the Holy Spirit. And Saul believed wholeheartedly that this message must be stopped. He wanted to be on the right side of history, but he was sorely mistaken.

As we read on, we see that Saul was “going everywhere to destroy the church.” He was a man on a mission. He believed zealously that the Jesus-following church was a danger to the Jewish tradition. I am struck by the graphic depiction of Saul literally dragging people from their homes to throw them into prison for believing in Jesus. A fate that later on as Paul he himself would experience.

Saul is noted as the person most violently opposed to the church that there ever was. Perhaps just to prove he could, God picked the worst possible candidate for the job of building up the church and turned him into the best. God is a heart-changer. He’s a life-alterer. He’s a direction-shifter. Whatever you are at your worst, God can use that weakness and turn it into your biggest asset. For Paul, it was his misdirected zeal. What is it for you?

Take a moment to read Acts 8:4-25 before reading the devotional below.

Spreading the Gospel means traveling, and here we read about Philip’s trip into Samaria. Remember that when Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, the religious elites were highly offended because they looked bad while the Samaritan was praised (and they pretty much hated Samaritans as a bunch of no-good low-lifes…). But we already know that the outcasts and low-lifes loved Jesus’ message because it made a place for them with God. So it’s no surprise that the people of Samaria were drawn in to Philip’s preaching and miraculous works.

We get an interesting look at the spiritual scene in Samaria here in Acts 8, and I am reminded of the fact that there are a lot of spiritual forces at play in our world. Demons, sorcerers and magicians are real — connected with actual spiritual power to destroy. And the power of the Holy Spirit is no magic trick. Peter​ makes this quite clear when Simon the Sorcerer asks to buy the secret.

The Holy Spirit cannot be bought and he is not just for show. God is actively working through his Spirit to redeem and restore humanity and the world. His kingdom is expanding and he’s giving anyone who’s interested a share in the family business. For free. Can’t be bought. Can’t be earned. Can’t be manipulated to bring you glory or fame. The depths of the Holy Spirit are infinite, so we know there is always more of his power available to us if we seek it for his purposes. How can you dive deeper into the Spirit today as you carry out the mission set before you?

Take a moment to read Acts 8:26-40 before reading the devotional below.

So much of the Christian life is wandering where the Spirit takes you. And that is exactly what Philip does as he travels south from Samaria to Gaza. Along the way, he encounters an Ethopian eunuch (a high-level servant of the queen). Philip explains Jesus’ fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah that the eunuch was reading. Throw in an impromptu water baptism and you’ve got a pretty speedy conversion.

What happens next might be so confusing that you actually don’t notice what you are reading. Philip vanishes. Like out of thin air. Gone. The eunuch never sees him again. And in one of the coolest events in all of the Bible, the Holy Spirit zaps Philip on over to a more northern town called Azotus. Philip just “finds himself” there (and not like in the psychological, search-for-self kind of way). Teleportation on some kind of Holy Spirit Express.

The Holy Spirit can take you where he wants you to be. For Philip, that meant a supernatural 30-mile trip. For me, in a much less dramatic fashion, the Holy Spirit has carried me to a city famous for sinning. Where is the Spirit carrying you? Are you tuned in enough to hear his leading? Don’t worry about how you are going to get there, just pay attention to the move of the Holy Spirit as you take each step of the journey.

Take a moment to read Acts 9:1-19 before reading the devotional below. 

Have you ever been so determined to follow your own plans and then God finds a way to interrupt them? In today’s passage, we find Saul more determined than ever to end this Jesus business once and for all. He had obtained legal authority from the high priests to arrest all the believers (at that time known as “followers of the Way”), and he could not wait to drag them all right back to Jerusalem in chains. Who knows what his plans were after that…

But because God is God, Saul got knocked off his horse and blinded when he bumped into Jesus on the road to the city of Damascus. Jesus was already back up in heaven, but he had no problem making an appearance that Saul would not be likely to forget. And Jesus just asks a simple question: “Why are you persecuting me?” For all his former gusto, Saul seems to lack an answer.

Meanwhile, a believer named Ananias heard from God during a prayer session and it was one of those “Is this really you, God?” moments… Saul is the most notorious persecutor of Christians, and God asked Ananias to go meet him on the road. When he found Saul, he greeted him as “brother” and demonstrated the depths of love and forgiveness that only God can bring.

God will always set you on the right path. You don’t even have to be looking for it (though that certainly does save some time). Saul was on a mission of destruction, but God saw fit in his wondrous mercy to stop Saul in his tracks and turn his life around. Don’t worry that you’ve somehow “missed” God or his directions. He has his ways of getting our attention when we go astray. And if you are praying and God asks you to do something scary (as he did with Ananias), argue a little to make sure you’ve got those instructions down pat and then go and do it. It might just impact the world for generations.