Tagged: Daily Reflections

“My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life.” —John 10:27-28 When we talk to someone or walk into their life, we are talking or walking into the middle of something. God has been at work, and many things have already deeply influenced that person. We need to enter into that conversation and that life so as to fit into God’s plan. Thus, Barnabas walked into Antioch and immediately picked up on what the Lord was doing. “On his arrival [Barnabas] rejoiced to see the evidence of God’s favor. He encouraged them...

“As I began to address them the Holy Spirit came upon them.” —Acts 11:15 Peter, a Christian and a Jew, took the unprecedented step of entering the house of a Gentile, Cornelius (Acts 10:25). Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, were excluded from the company of Jews. However, the Holy Spirit made it crystal-clear to Peter that he was to enter Cornelius’ house (Acts 11:5ff; 11:12). The Spirit hadn’t yet instructed Peter what to say to the assembled Gentiles. So Peter “proceeded to address them” with a standard witness to the risen Lord (Acts 10:34ff). Then Peter brought up the subject of...

“You must reform and be baptized.” —Acts 2:38 Peter, on whom “tongues as of fire” had just descended (see Acts 2:3), preached at the first Christian Pentecost. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter witnessed for the crucified and risen Christ. Peter invited the thousands of people who heard his message to receive the Holy Spirit by being baptized. “Those who accepted his message were baptized; some three thousand were added that day” (Acts 2:41). Philip was sent by the Holy Spirit to proclaim Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29, 35). Then “Philip went down into the water...

“Peter first made everyone go outside; then he knelt down and prayed.” —Acts 9:40 Simon Peter was forgiven his three denials of Christ, met the risen Lord, and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He became a new man. The Lord used him to convert three thousand on the first Pentecost (Acts 2:41). He healed hundreds just by his shadow (Acts 5:15-16). He raised up Aeneas, who was a paralytic for eight years (Acts 9:33). God still had more for Simon Peter, much more. He was invited to Joppa. The invitation simply reads: “Please come over to us without delay”...

“Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus which would empower him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, living according to the new way.” —Acts 9:1-2 As Saul was cruising on the road to Damascus, he was likely thinking of his return trip when he would be moving a chain gang of Christians on that same Damascus road. Saul reacted to being an accomplice to the murder of Stephen by violently trying to justify his murderous sinfulness....