Category: Daily Reflections

“You must all be begotten from above.” –John 3:7 One simple test of whether or not you’re living the radically different risen life is your attitude toward money. If you live the risen life, you aren’t preoccupied with money. Like Barnabas and other disciples in the early Church, you’d gladly sell your “property or houses” for the Lord (Acts 4:34). It isn’t a problem to tithe and give alms, for you’re more concerned with the welfare of the needy than with possessions (Acts 4:34). Risen life is completely different than life before the resurrection. The difference is even more striking...

“After being released, the two went back to their own people.” –Acts 4:23 The Church has completed the eight-day celebration of the Octave of Easter. We have been celebrating Jesus’ return after three days in the tomb. When Jesus rose from the tomb, He returned to His followers. He then acted with great power, teaching the Scriptures and conferring the Holy Spirit in a life-changing way. Peter and John imitated Jesus’ pattern when they were set free after being held captive. Upon “being released, the two went back to their own people” (Acts 4:23). Together, they prayed with such confidence...

“With power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” –Acts 4:33 Pope John Paul II called our culture a “culture of death.” This seems to indicate that the new life in the risen Christ has not been widely accepted. Why have we not been effective in witnessing with power for the risen Christ? To witness with power, we must witness with our lips and our money and possessions. “None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather, everything was held in common” (Acts 4:32). However, even if we did pool our resources, we would probably...

“They called them back and made it clear that under no circumstances were they to speak the name of Jesus.” –Acts 4:18 Jesus is risen, and we are His witnesses (see Acts 1:8; 2:32; 3:15; 4:33; 10:41; 13:31). Satan could not keep Jesus from rising from the dead, but he can try to keep us from being witnesses for the risen Christ. However, we should never stop “speaking of what we have heard and seen” (Acts 4:20) from the risen Christ, no matter how much we may have to suffer. The risen Jesus Himself will back us up by reprimanding...

“When they landed, they saw a charcoal fire.” –John 21:9 When Simon Peter denied Jesus three times, he was standing beside “a charcoal fire” (Jn 18:18). After meeting the risen Jesus several times, Simon Peter then decided to return to his pre-Jesus career of commercial fishing (Jn 21:3), in effect denying Jesus’ call to be a fisher of men (Lk 5:10). In asking Simon “Do you love Me?” three times by a charcoal fire, Jesus also took him back to the scene of his three denials. Jesus allowed Simon Peter to undo his denials and replace them with professions of...