SCRIPTURE: Acts 13:49-52 “They shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium.” (Acts 13:51) To shake the dust off one’s feet is the same idea as ‘I wash my hands of it.’ It is to give people the freedom to decline the offer, to reject the message. It should not…
Author: Norm
Appointed?
SCRIPTURE: Acts 13:42-48 “Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life…” (Acts 13:46) Some chose to accept Paul’s message, others chose to reject it. If results were up to us, we might take pride in good results, or despair at bad ones. But when all is said and done, the results are…
The freedom of forgiveness
SCRIPTURE: Acts 13:32-41 “Through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.” (Acts 13:38) Forgiveness is proclaimed, announced, declared. God has forgiven us, without our doing anything to deserve or earn it. We do not need to believe to be forgiven; we are forgiven… believe it! “Through him everyone who believes is set free from every…
How great is Your faithfulness
Talia Biel is a member at Crossroads Church. She is a sincere Jesus follower with a gift for connecting her faith to real life, and for sharing that through her writing. Check out her blog “Holding On To Faith. This week marks one year since I have started working at my job at Big Hearts Childcare…
Don’t recognize Him?
SCRIPTURE: Acts 13:24-31 “The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus…” (Acts 13:27) God is all around us, we many people do not see Him. He is at work in our lives all the time, yet people don’t realize its Him. “Though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”…
Repeat after me…
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 136 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1) Repeat after me, ‘His love endures forever’. If the message doesn’t sink in the first time, how about 26 times? How He does love us, let us count the ways: 1,2,3… If we really understood how much the Lord…
Our God family!
SCRIPTURE: Philemon 1 “No longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother…” (Philemon 1:16) Jesus changes the way we relate to each other. Our world likes to divide people into categories and statuses. Everyone has their place in the caste system (even if we deny there is one). You will see the…
Spirit-ignited goodness!
SCRIPTURE: Titus 1-3 Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness AND to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:13-14) Saved from sin, saved for goodness… yet some Christians only see the first one. We are not just forgiven, we are…
This is my story!
SCRIPTURE: Acts 13:13-23 “From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised.” (Acts 13:23) Although I am not a Jew, I am closely connected to their story. To become human, God had to choose a specific race and culture. He worked through the everyday stories of Abraham and David to raise…
Use me, Lord
SCRIPTURE: Acts 13:4-12 “Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said…” (Acts 13:9) I have never experienced the Spirit’s leading like this. As Jesus-followers, we all have the Spirit of Jesus. (Matthew 10:19-20). The Spirit is not a power we control (making people blind, or healing people, at our disposal). The Spirit is a power…