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Key Verse: Acts 16:30 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” There aren’t many places in Acts where Luke includes himself in the narrative, but here’s one occasion when he does. “Once when we were going to the place of prayer,” he recounts, “we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit […]

Key Verse: Acts 14:15 “…We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these vain things to the living God…” Perhaps you’ve noticed that people whom God has gifted with a genuine ministry of “signs and wonders” are generally pretty self-effacing about it. They keep […]

Key Verse: Acts 13:32,33a “And we declare to you glad tidings — the promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus.” Paul made three missionary journeys. In this chapter we see him travelling from Antioch to Derbe and back, by way […]

Key Verse: Acts 12:15 “You’re out of your mind’, they told her.” (NIV) Imagine that your local church suddenly came under intense persecution. The laws of the land had changed. Whereas once it had been legal to worship God, now suddenly, anyone caught worshipping God was thrown into prison. The obvious target for the authorities […]

Key Verse: Acts 10:34b, 35 “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.” The first major social controversy in the early church concerned the equal distribution of assistance to both Greek and Hebrew-speaking widows (ch.6). The first major leadership controversy […]

Alms, Prayer & Fasting 6: 1-18 Showing Off v. 1 In the Jewish culture of the time there were three religious core values: alms giving, prayer, fasting. All three could be done in secret but they also could be done publicly with great show of piety. One could give to the beggar, and beseech heaven […]

Key Verse: Acts 9:27 “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles…” I remember, as a schoolboy in Saskatchewan, learning to sing, “Home on the Range”: “Home, home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day.” […]

  Everywhere people are gearing up for a truncated, if not solitary, Christmas Day. The Covid news keeps deteriorating. As of the past few days we’re suddenly aware of a Covid “variant” that has emerged in the UK. Yikes! Scores of countries are closing borders to any British attempts at entry. All this while Brexit […]

Key Verse: Acts 6:2b, 4 “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables…but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word!” It never seems to fail. Get a bunch of people organized into some sort of group and, before you know it, […]

Key Verse: Acts 5:20 “Go, stand in the temple courts’, he said, ‘and tell the people the full message of this life!’” (NIV) If you haven’t said it yourself, you’re probably heard it said, “I’d just love to see one miracle! One would be enough. Then I’d be convinced; then I’d be sure…” Well, suppose […]

Key Verse: Acts 4:20 “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (NIV) The trouble started the afternoon Peter and John went up to the temple to pray. Until now they had enjoyed “the favour of all the people” (2:47). But then a crippled beggar called out to them for money. […]

Matthew 5 Love & Hatred vv.43-48 The love of enemies is the ethical bottomline of the Sermon on The Mount. It seems impossible – as does being “perfect” in v. 48. Mind you, to love your enemy is possible, in that love is essentially volitional. On the other hand, to like your enemy is virtually […]