Devotions from Acts

Passage Read: John 21 - Acts 1 Meditation Verses: Acts 1:6-8 As much as I'd like to identify when Jesus will return, my primary responsibility is to warn people and prepare a people for His return. I don't need to know when it will happen…

Passage Read: Acts 2-3 Meditation Verse: 3:16 I need to believe Jesus can and is willing to heal. I need to believe that He will heal those He sends me to, and I need to discern who He is sending me to.

Passage Read: Acts 4-5 Meditation Verse: 5:42 The proper gospel must be centered on Jesus being the Christ, the king of Israel, not on the forgiveness He grants as King to those who will believe and obey Him. He must forgive our sins, or else…

Passage Read: Acts 6-7 Meditation Verse: 7:51 I don't want to be on the side of those who resist the Holy Spirit. Whatever the Word of God says, I must humble myself and do, whether I understand the why or not. I must have nothing…

Passage Read: Acts 8-9 Meditation Verses: 9:20,22 Again, the gospel is not first about forgiveness, but about who Jesus is, about why He deserves our worship and obedience. And why we need to repent and receive forgiveness, and He's the only One who can supply…

Passage Read: Acts 10-11 Meditation Verse: 10:35 True fear of God is precious. It doesn't balk at any requirement God lays down. When you fear God, you do anything He asks, without complaint or hesitation. I want to fear God even more, and I want…

Passage Read: Acts 12-13 Meditation Verse: 13:43 I need to encourage people to ask questions afterward, to talk with me about what they heard and what they can and should do in response to the message. May God open their hearts to engage with His…

Passage Read: Acts 14-15 Meditation Verse: 15:5 Salvation is by faith in Christ alone. These is nothing to be added to that for salvation, so even someone like the thief on the cross can be saved without opportunity to live out his faith. But for…

Passage Read: Acts 16-17 Meditation Verses: 17:29-31 Whatever God did in the past, He is not now continuing that. Now He requires all men everywhere to repent of their own ways and turn to Jesus and believe and obey Him as judge of all men.

Passage Read: Acts 18-19 Meditation Verses: 19:8-9 Applying this model today would look like going into existing churches and teaching correct doctrine boldly, until they either embraced you or a sufficient number rejected you, at which point you would divide the church, taking those who…

Passage Read: Acts 20-21 Meditation Verse: 20:28 There are those who want to distort God's Word in order to gain a following; my purpose needs to be to prepare people to stand blameless before Christ. So I need to be sure I can stand blameless…

Passage Read: Acts 22-23 Meditation Verse: 23:11 Where more of a hearing is offered, more can be said about Jesus. But where such word is not welcome, acknowledging who Jesus is is sufficient testimony. Not everyone gets the same amount of information, because not everyone…

Passage Read: Acts 24-25 Meditation Verse: 24:25 Both believers and unbelievers will face a judgment, so both need to understand the conditions of that judgment. It is the same for both: We will be judged for the things done while in the body, whether good…

Passage Read: Acts 26-27 Meditation Verses: 26:2-3 It's much easier to be respectful and calm when you know your audience isn't out to kill you, or when you know there's no competition who will interrupt and argue every point. But it is an important reminder…

Passage Read: Acts 2-3 Meditation Verse: 3:15 The resurrection of Jesus is the assurance that all He taught, all He claimed about Himself, and all He promised to those who believe in Him is true. It is the evidence we need to believe in Him.

Passage Read: Acts 4-5 Meditation Verse: 5:33 This is the third time the apostles were arrested, and their courage and boldness remain undimmed. They were just imprisoned, but released by an angel and told to preach in the temple first thing in the morning. Is…

Passage Read: Acts 6-7 Meditation Verse: 7:60 Stephen drew from history to show how disobedient and rebellious the Jews were, especially this leadership. He called them out for their sin in no uncertain terms, calling them stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart, the betrayers and murderers…

Passage Read: Acts 8-9 Meditation Verses: 8:21-23 Simon believed the Gospel at Philip's preaching, but he used to be someone great, called the "Great Power of God." But he saw in Philip and the Gospel something greater, and when the apostles came to give the…

Passage Read: Acts 10-11 Meditation Verses: 10:34-35 Cornelius believed in the God of the Jews, that He was indeed the one true God. He turned away from his own gods and accepted the conditions and restraints and lesser position Gentiles had in the Jewish world.

Passage Read: Acts 12-13 Meditation Verse: 13:10 Elymas was a Jewish false prophet, who served the proconsul. When the proconsul invited Paul and Barnabas to explain the Gospel to him, Elymas opposed them and worked at turning the proconsul away from the message. According to…

Passage Read: Acts 14-15 Meditation Verse: 14:22 Paul and Barnabas have suffered tribulation in their efforts to take the Gospel to the nations of the Roman empire, but what tribulations do the people who remain at home need to go through? There is perhaps hatred…

Passage Read: Acts 16-17 Meditation Verses: 17:24-27 Paul is not afraid to speak the truth, even if it's offensive to people. He is not offering an alternative religion that people can choose to believe or not, but telling them the truth about the universe, that…

Passage Read: Acts 18-19 Meditation Verse: 19:6 Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, though Luke didn't record him receiving the Spirit like this, with a noteworthy response. Yet Paul was laying hands on others and the Spirit was coming on them. Paul went on…

Passage Read: Acts 20-21 Meditation Verses: 21:11-14 Paul and those with him, representatives from each of the churches that gave a gift for the Jews in Jerusalem, kept hearing that Jerusalem would end badly for Paul. So in several of the places where they stopped,…

Passage Read: Acts 22-23 Meditation Verse: 23:16 God had already promised to Paul that he would testify for Christ in Rome. Though Paul was willing to die for Christ in Jerusalem, the Lord had other plans, such that He had Paul's nephew in the right…

Passage Read: Acts 24-25 Meditation Verse: 25:11 Paul had been in prison two years, and he was no closer to Rome and no closer to being set free. Whatever means God intended to use to bring him to Rome to testify had not materialized. For…

Passage Read: Acts 26-27 Meditation Verses: 26:20,23 Paul proclaims Jesus as the Christ, who was foretold to have to suffer and rise from the dead, so that forgiveness of sins could be given to anyone who turns from their own ways to God, displaying their…