Passage of the Day - January 7, 2011

Acts 18:9-17

 ⁹And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent;

 ¹⁰for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city."

 ¹¹And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

 ¹²But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,

 ¹³saying, "This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law."

 ¹⁴But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you;

 ¹⁵but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters."

 ¹⁶And he drove them away from the judgment seat.

 ¹⁷And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio was not concerned about any of these things.

When the followers of Christ did something with one accord, they succeeded.  When those who rejected Christ rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat with one accord, to use the current vernacular, it resulted in an epic fail.  Unity is only useful when the unity includes the Father’s will, the Son’s kingdom, and the Holy Spirit’s wisdom.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)

Passage of the Day - January 6, 2011

Acts 18:7-8

 ⁷Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue.

 ⁸Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.

It is interesting how the whole household believed.  Although we read teachings on the matter, we never see an example in the Bible of someone becoming a follower of Christ being rejected by their family.  (At least I don’t recall there being one).

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,

© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)

Passage of the Day - January 5, 2011

Acts 18:6

 ⁶But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

Just like the master who told his servant to stop asking his friends and neighbors to come to his banquet and instead find the lowly people, Paul, God’s servant, was to now forsake the Jews and focus on gathering the Gentiles into Christ’s kingdom.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,

© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)

Passage of the Day - January 4, 2011

Acts 18:1-5

 ¹After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth.

 ²And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them,

 ³and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers.

 ⁴And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

 ⁵But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

We can’t properly read verse 3 without reading verse 5.  Paul’s tent making in Corinth was only for a season.  He endured much disheartening persecution in Thessalonica and he was without Timothy and Silas.  The spreading of the gospel is very draining, especially when facing persecution.  Since Paul’s support system wasn’t there, he dialed it back a bit until Timothy and Silas arrived.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,

© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)

Passage of the Day - January 3, 2010

Acts 17:22-34

 ²²So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.

 ²³"For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD ' Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

 ²⁴"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;

 ²⁵nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

 ²⁶and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

 ²⁷that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

 ²⁸for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'

 ²⁹"Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.

 ³⁰"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,

 ³¹because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

 ³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, "We shall hear you again concerning this."

 ³³So Paul went out of their midst.

 ³⁴But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Paul did not get into an argument over God and Christ with the nonbelievers.  He simply stated the Truth and some believed and others categorized his testimony as simply one of many different philosophies.  These are the typical results.  Among the "intelligent" and the "philosophical", the results were pretty good I'd say.  A heart that isn't turned to God is not a reflection of our talents and we should not feel like failures when people we testify the Truth to don't repent and become followers to God.  It is a better reflection of their hearts than our talents.

"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,

© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Passage of the Day - January 2, 2011

Acts 17:16-21


 ¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.

 ¹⁷So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.

 ¹⁸And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"--because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

 ¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?

 ²⁰"For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean."

 ²¹(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Is Christianity one among many ideas in the philosophical landscape?  Is it on equal footing with Islam, Confucius, and Marshall Applewhite?  We can be tempted to think so.  We can be tempted to worry about winning arguments with philosophers who simply refuse to believe instead of living as a disciple and servant of Christ.  As we will see, Paul will handle it the best way.  Christianity is not a club or some pyramid scheme that we are trying to influence people to join; it is a rescue mission in both a temporal and eternal sense.  It isn't an idea, it is a kingdom, Christ's kingdom.  Christ isn't one of many equals; He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life.  In the courtroom of the world, it is our job to be the witnesses, not the lawyers.

"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,

© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Passage of the Day - January 1, 2011

Acts 17:10-15

10The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

11Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

 12Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.

 13But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

 14Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there.

 15Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

The Jews of Thessalonica, not Berea, were the ones stirring up the crowds.  Although they continued to persecute them in Berea, this is a transitional point in Paul's, Silas', and Timothy's ministries and Church history as well.  God can use anything for His glory.

"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)