Tagged: Daily Reflection

“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...

“It is His name, and trust in this name, that has strengthened the limbs of this man whom you see and know well.” –Acts 3:16 The name of Jesus has ultimate power. In Jesus’ name, the lame walk (Acts 3:6ff). At the name of Jesus, every knee must bow, in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth (Phil 2:10-11). “There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12). No wonder the secular world removes pictures of Jesus from...