SCRIPTURE: Acts 18:18-28 OBSERVATION: It is amazing to me that in a time with so little information available (no “Christian” books, bookstores, seminaries, catechisms, etc), the Lord still got His message out, even through Apollos, who was a follower of John the Baptist, yet taught about Jesus in a remarkably accurate way. This passage shows how…
Author: Norm
Sep 15 — Acts 18:1-17
SCRIPTURE: Acts 18:1-17 OBSERVATION: Paul’s preaching inspires faith and provokes conflict. Regardless of the response, the Lord wants us to declare the message. If people reject it, or refuse to listen, that is their decision. We do not force people to believe (or not believe) something, like the Jews did, but respectfully allow people to make…
Sep 14 — Acts 17:16-34
SCRIPTURE: Acts 17:16-34 OBSERVATION: Paul starts with the “faith” of non-Christians, and builds his message on what they already believe, expanding their present “faith” with what God is like (not a statue!), and how God is ultimately revealed in Jesus. The resurrection is too much for these philosophers, as it still is for many today. And…
Sep 13 — Acts 17:1-15
SCRIPTURE: Acts 17:1-15 OBSERVATION: There are a variety of responses to the message, and this passage suggests that the response reveals something of the person’s character (v.5, rounded up some bad characters, v.11, the Bereans of more noble character). APPLICATION: An interesting thought, that our response to the message of Jesus will reveal something about our…
Sep 12 — Acts 16:16-40
SCRIPTURE: Acts 16:16-40 OBSERVATION: This passage suggests that some people can do supernatural things because of the (evil) spirits at work in them, still happens today! Why didn’t Paul deal with the spirit right away? Stripped, beaten, severely flogged, thrown into prison, feet fastened in stocks… praying and singing hymns to God… how is this possible?…
Sep 11 — Acts 16:6-15
SCRIPTURE: Acts 16:6-15 OBSERVATION: Why would the Lord (by His Spirit) keep Paul from preaching the message in Asia, or from entering Bithynia? The answer lies in the next vision, because He wanted Paul to go to Macedonia (v.10). No synagogue in Philippi, he goes to riverside to find religious people worshiping (Jews, God-fearing Gentiles, or…
Sep 10 — Daniel 9:20-27
SCRIPTURE: Daniel 9:20-27 OBSERVATION: God sends the angel Gabriel to Daniel after he prays… must be nice! The “insight and understanding” is mysterious, yet the gist of the prophecy is clear: a time of restoration is coming when the messiah will come, but he will be cut off and the city and temple destroyed (AD 70)….
Sep 9 — Daniel 9:1-19
SCRIPTURE: Daniel 9:1-19 OBSERVATION: Daniel has read Jeremiah’s words about Israel’s exile (Jeremiah 25:11-12), and is praying for the end of the exile. The right response before God is always humility and repentance, and Daniel demonstrates this. Honesty about our failures is hard, we usually minimize or justify our failures, yet Daniel is very explicit about their…
Sep 8 — Daniel 8:15-27
SCRIPTURE: Daniel 8:15-27 OBSERVATION: The angel Gabriel (looking like a man, yet frightening) explains that the vision applies to the future rise and fall of kingdoms (Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, etc.). Unsettling times are coming – for the world and for God’s people (v.24), not peaceful, quiet years. Gabriel assures that the rise and fall of worldly…
Sep 7 — Daniel 8:1-14
SCRIPTURE: Daniel 8:1-14 OBSERVATION: Another bizarre vision, rams and goats with horns (is the goat a unicorn, v.5?). It is a symbolic vision depicting the ongoing political upheavals that characterized the world at that time (and still today). In the process, the Jewish nation will be trampled, the temple destroyed, and the people trampled underfoot. But…