Category: Bible Study

“The disciples could not but be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” –Acts 13:52 In the missals used by parishes over twenty years ago, the above verse is translated: “The disciples knew only how to be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” What a great description this is for a disciple of Jesus Christ! Disciples shake off the dust (Acts 13:51) of rejection, persecution, failure, prejudice, mistreatment, anger, bitterness, etc. They walk away from it and move on. This is part of the reason Jesus commanded His disciples to travel lightly. You can’t travel very far if you’re...

The Church “was being built up and was making steady progress in the fear of the Lord.” –Acts 9:31 The Lord leads us step by step, “from grace to grace” (Jn 1:16, our transl.), and from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18). For example, Peter took a very important step forward when he obeyed the ascending Christ by devoting himself to constant prayer prior to Pentecost (Acts 1:14). Then he took the giant step of receiving the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, and witnessing for the risen Christ to thousands of people (Acts 2:4ff). These steps prepared Peter to heal...

“Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man…” –Acts 9:13 Those who consider religion boring must not know the Lord God. He is constantly doing stupendous, amazing things. Jesus appeared to Saul, the fiercest opponent of Christians. With great power, Jesus converted him into the greatest evangelist (Acts 9:15ff). At the very time that some Catholics are losing faith in their Church, many Protestants are converting to the Catholic Church. Some Protestant pastors have even brought their entire congregations with them into the Church. Youth are populating the pro-life movement in large numbers, bringing new vigor and hope...

“Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died. This is the Bread that comes down from heaven for a man to eat and never die.” –John 6:49-50 When it comes to food, God provides and man derides. God gave Adam and Eve all kinds of good food in the garden of Eden (Gn 2:16). Sadly, their craving to eat beyond what God provided led to mankind’s downfall (Gn 3:6). God then provided miraculous manna to the Israelites when they were stranded in the desert (Ex 16:14ff). He “furnished them bread from heaven, ready to hand, untoiled-for, endowed with...

“The members of the church who had been dispersed went about preaching the word.” –Acts 8:4 When the early Christians were chased out of Jerusalem, they went to other towns and chased out unclean spirits. When the Church was being paralyzed and crippled from being persecuted, the wounded Church healed the paralytics and cripples. While the Christians mourned the deaths of martyrs, cities rejoiced because they heard and accepted the gospel (see Acts 8:1-8). The Lord works everything together for the good of the Church (see Rm 8:28). “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rm 8:31)...