NO STUDY THIS MONDAY

On the ninth of Februay there will be be no study.
A few of us have some other places we will need to be.
I will be at the church in the hall at 6:30 if anyone wants to meet for a few minutes. Other wise I will see you all on the 16th of February. I will post again before then....
Rich

Monday- Jan. 26- Acts Chapter 13

Road Trip!!!
The beginning journeys of Paul.
Although earlier in Acts we have mission trips... This starts the on going travels of Paul.

If in today's world you find yourself spending much time at the airport on business, the rest of the book of Acts will sound familiar

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Acts 10:1-49

Acts 10:1-49
• A Gentile Soldier- Cornelius, his vision, his action
• Peter, falls into a trance and has a weird dream.
• Both respond without question V7, 21, 29
• Peter speaks to the Gentiles
• The Holy Spirit comes among the Gentiles V44-46
• Chapter 11 Peter is held responsible for his actions with the Gentiles

Read all of Chapter 10.
What are the major themes?
____________________________________________________________________________________

This chapter needs to be tied together from beginning to end to illustrate the major theme regarding Gentiles.

Acts 9:31-43

V31-32 “A time of peace, Living in Fear” ?? see 5:11
____________________________________________________________________________________

How does the Bible define fear? LOOK IN YOUR CONCORDANCE!!
____________________________________________________________________________________

Read Acts 9:32-43
Aeneas and Dorcas
What is the significance to this raising of the dead?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Have we taken the raising of the dead for granted at this point?
____________________________________________________________________________________
V37 Did the believers have another plan?
____________________________________________________________________________________
V43 Peter stayed with a tanner, what is this significance?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Acts 9:1-31

Acts 9:1-31 (first part of Chapter nine only)
Saul’s conversion to the one and only Paul…
Read Acts 9:1-19
V1-6 Saul’s traveling to Damascus to persecute more Christians. After he falls to the road, what reoccurring thing does God ask him to do?
____________________________________________________________________________________
V7-14 Ananias’s vision. Go and fulfill Paul’s vision….this was obviously tough for Ananias the prophet.
____________________________________________________________________________________
V15-16
Who was Paul chosen to speak with?
____________________________________________________________________________________
What does verse 16 mean, explain in your own words…
____________________________________________________________________________________
V17-19 Is there some significance to Paul having the scales on his eyes, (not being able to see what was really there)?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Read Acts 9:20-31
V20 “At once Paul began to preach that Christ was the Son of God.” Do you find this odd?
____________________________________________________________________________________
V22 “Paul grew more and more Powerful”…Powerful how???
____________________________________________________________________________________
V26-28 Barnabas!! With other mentions of Barnabas in early chapters, what can we conclude further about this man??
____________________________________________________________________________________
V29-30 He debated?? Will this be Paul’s style from now on?
____________________________________________________________________________________
V31-32 “A time of peace, Living in Fear” ?? see 5:11
____________________________________________________________________________________


Next week ---The remaining chapter, including Dorcas 

Acts 8:26-40

Read Acts 8:26-40

Acts 8:26
An Angel said go, Philip went!
Acts 8:27-30
If you were to describe this event in your own words, what specific points, details, and actions would you list? Who is this person in the chariot? Where was he going and why? Yes, it is odd.
____________________________________________________________________________________
V30-31
What question did Philip ask about Isaiah? How did the eunuch respond (what was his statement?)
____________________________________________________________________________________

V39-40
Philip is taken else where.
What was the whole purpose of this little event?
Assuming that everything in the Bible has some final purpose, what is the purpose of this passage?
How have we learned from it?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Would you help a person asking questions, no matter how odd?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Acts 8:1-25

Acts 8:1-40

Read Acts 8:1-8 The result of persecution…..

Acts 8:1-3
“On that very day”…
Why did all of church scatter?
____________________________________________________________________________________
I Tim 1:13-15 (Paul’s action)
Was this a good scatter or a bad scatter? Acts 11:19-…
____________________________________________________________________________________
Why did the apostles stay behind?
____________________________________________________________________________________
How could they without being harassed? Acts 5:13
____________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 8:4-8 Another First in Acts

V 4
What were the people who scattered motivation for preaching the word?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Philip was the first missionary named in scripture, he was later the first one who was called an evangelical, see Acts 21:8.
What is significance of his trip to Samaria? Who were the Samaritans? <<>>
____________________________________________________________________________________

Read Acts 8:9-25

Acts 8:9-13
Who followed who??
____________________________________________________________________________________
Based on Simon’s actions in THESE verses, how can we describe him?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 8:14-17
Peter and John show up, why?
____________________________________________________________________________________
V16 They had JUST been baptized into the name…wasn’t this enough? Why did Peter and John have to lay hands on them?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Do we need apostles or church leaders to lay hands on us today?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Did the people realize there was a Holy Spirit? See Acts 18:24-28
____________________________________________________________________________________
Note to self---read from Macarthur’s v16-17.

Acts 8:18-26
Is Simon still the same as he was in the beginning?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Does V24 indicate that he may have had some turn in his thinking about what can be bought for money, or is he just scared of the ramifications of what he has done?
____________________________________________________________________________________
How can we apply this to our daily lives, what can we take with us???
____________________________________________________________________________________

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Acts 7:1-60

Acts 7:1-60

Read Acts 7:1-50

Acts 7:1-50, Stephen’s speech
Are these charges true?
____________________________________________________________________________________
This entire speech by Stephen focuses on OT history, and specifically how it groups with Moses.
What was the reason for the speech to go in this direction?
____________________________________________________________________________________
See Acts 6:11.

Read Acts 7:51-60

What’s an uncircumcised heart and ear (v51)?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Resist the Holy Spirit? How can the Holy Spirit be resisted?
____________________________________________________________________________________
!! Killing the prophets that predicted the coming of Christ (v52)-(Mt 5:12). And the killing of Christ…?
Why is man (religious man) so dead set upon the coming of Christ, or the acceptance that the Christ fulfilled the prophecy???
____________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 7:54-60
When Stephen looked up into heaven, and the men came after him (v57) why did cover their ears?
___________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 7:58- First sign of Paul in the Bible
Stoning Stephen Lev 24:16- Blasphemy

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Acts 6:1-15

Acts 6:1-15

Read Acts 6:1-7
Assistants to the apostles.

What was being neglected and for what reason (v2)?
____________________________________________________________________________________
“Serving Tables” was not specific for serving dinner. It was a term also used involving money matters (see Matt 21:12, Mark 11:15, John 2:15).
They chose 7 men….
Who are these men? What qualities did they have? What duties do you think they were involved in?
____________________________________________________________________________________
As a result of this, (therefore) what happened?
____________________________________________________________________________________
See verse 7, “….and a large number of priests became…..”
Another one of Luke’s summary verses indicating the growth of the church--2:14, 2:47, 4:4, 5:14, 9:31, 12:24, 13:49, 16:5, 19:20.

Read Acts 6:8-16
Stephen does miraculous signs. First non-apostle that does this, is this important?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Acts 6:9-10
Other Jews debating with Stephen, but they could not “stand up” against him, why?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Acts 6:11-14
They “set him up”, and accuse him of blaspheme, and in general lie a lot.
____________________________________________________________________________________
The last verse.. what is the writer trying to convey to us?...meaning…..
____________________________________________________________________________________

HEBRAIC AND GRECIAN JEWS (Acts 6)

Acts 6:1
HEBRAIC AND GRECIAN JEWS
Luke turned away from the conflict between the Sanhedrin and the church leaders to introduce two groups within the Jerusalem church. They were the "Grecian" Jews (Greek, Hellenistai, or "Hellenists’) and "Hebraic" Jews. At first glance, we may be surprised that there were different groups of Jews in the community of believers. But it appears there were. What is more, they were crucial to the story of Acts. It’s important we identify these Hebraic and Hellenistic Jews, for it will help us understand the situation of the Jerusalem church, and how the gospel message was preached.

Most commentators divide the Grecian and Hebraic Jews along linguistic and geographic lines. The Hellenistic Jews would be ones who spoke mainly Greek, and had once lived outside of Palestine. But they had permanently (or at least temporarily) settled in Jerusalem—retired, as it were, to the homeland. Nevertheless, they would still have had affinities with lands of the Jewish dispersion around the Mediterranean from which they came. The Hebraic Jews would be those who spoke mainly Aramaic, and may have been born in Jerusalem or Judea. A modern parallel would be the distinction between Jews who were born in Palestine (sabras) and those who emigrated to Israel from Europe and the Arab world.

The Hellenistic Jews in the church would probably have attended Greek-speaking synagogues before they became Christians. The Hebraic Christians would have once attended synagogues in which Aramaic was used. Of course, defining these two groups solely by their language and place of birth lacks some precision.

Paul called himself a "Hebrew of Hebrews" (Philippians 3:5) and classed himself among the Hebraioi (2 Corinthians 11:22). But he was fluent in Greek and came from Tarsus in Asia Minor, not Jerusalem. In that sense, Paul was a Hellenist. Complicating the matter is the fact that while Paul had been born a Diaspora Jew, it’s probable that he had lived since his youth in Jerusalem, where he was immersed in the foundations of Judaism.

Clearly, we must go further when trying to understand the difference between Hebraic and Hellenistic Jews. Some commentators feel that the Hellenistic Jews were more devoted to the ancestral religion and culture than the Palestinian Jews. Why would they have returned to Judea, whose culture and economy were less attractive than those of other regions and cities of the Roman Empire? As a modern example, we can think of European Zionist Jews around the turn of the century who had a fierce desire to return to their Palestinian homeland, or the Orthodox Jews who flocked to Jerusalem.

Further, we can probably assume that Diaspora Jews who had settled in Jerusalem may have been looked upon with dislike and suspicion by the natives. The immigrants would have had different languages (Greek and native tongues), values and culture. We can see this attitude of suspicion and resentment today by native-born people against immigrants as millions migrate from one nation to another.

According to the Talmud, Pharisaism made little secret of its contempt for Hellenists and, unlike those from Syria or Babylonia (regions that are often considered extensions of the Holy Land in Talmudic discussions), they were frequently categorized by the native-born and assumedly more scrupulous populace of Jerusalem as second-class Israelites (Richard N. Longenecker, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, "Acts," page 329)

As the church in Jerusalem grew larger (1:1), more and more Hebraic and Grecian Jews came into the church. We might find it surprising that some of the prejudices between the two groups had carried over into the church, since Luke had painted such an ideal picture of the community (4:32). But that had been at the very beginning of the church. As the church grew in numbers and diversity, the situation was beginning to change, and that is what the first part of chapter 6 will tell us about. As the case of Ananias and Sapphira showed, all was not well with everyone in the church.

One of the difficulties is that the Hellenistic Jews were being discriminated against in the Jerusalem church. Perhaps the slight was not intentional, but it was nonetheless real. Luke implies that the Hellenists may have been a somewhat neglected minority, and for a time, not well served.

Plagiarized from http://www.wcg.org/

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Acts 5:1-42

Acts 5:1-42

Read Acts 5:1-11 Ananias and Sapphira

What did this couple do to cause them to be killed?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Was what they did really that bad?---Why?---Who did they think they were fooling?
____________________________________________________________________________________
What have been considered the seven deadly sins?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Circle the ones that Ananias and Sapphira accomplished J
See also Matt 6:1-6 & 16-18.

Read Acts 5:12-16

“The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders…..” (V12, see also 2:43)
“…in Solomon’s Colonnade…(see also 3:11)
“…more were added to their number…”

“AS A RESULT…”
Verse 16- “…and all of them were healed.”

The phrasing in this set of verses continues to be repeated though out the first few chapters of Acts, does anything about this repetition speak to you? Do you think the author is trying to get a specific point across? The reference to Peter in verse 15; does this sound familiar to another time?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Read Acts 5:17-26
The Sadducees arrested (all) the apostles and threw them in the public jail (common prison).
ALL 12 of the apostles?_________________________________________________________________
An angel (he) released them and told them to “stand in the TEMPLE COURTS….” …tell the people the FULL message..”(V20)
What’s the “Full Message”?______________________________________________________________

Verse 26-the Sanhedrin and the Sadducees feared the people?_________________________________

Read Acts 5:27-42

Verse 27-28;
The Sanhedrin are angry they are still teaching the ways of Christ, and that they are blaming them for the death of Christ. “…determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
Are they (Sanhedrin and Sadducees) guilty of the death of Christ?
____________________________________________________________________________________
See Matt 27: 24-26

Verse 29-32;
Peter and the other apostles’ repeat that they listen to God, not man, and include the importance of repentance and who the Savior is.

Acts 5:1-42

Verse 33-39; MOST IMPORTANT…YOU MUST GET THIS…
The SS (Sanhedrin/Sadducee) are about to flip out and kill all the apostles (V33), but wait, a voice of reason from the council…
A Pharisee named Gamaliel, the most noted rabbi of his time (Macarthur Commentary) was Paul’s teacher (see Acts 22:3) speaks to the council.
What is the jest of everything he says?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Did his logic hold true to them at the time?
Does that logic hold true today?

Verse 40-42;
The apostles were flogged.
Told the same thing they have been told before, “don’t speak in the name of Jesus”
Rejoiced in being worthy enough to suffer for him.
And continued to speak in the name of Jesus.

Why is it important to be good enough to suffer?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Does a low stress job pay as much as a high stress job?

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Acts 4:1-37

Acts 4:1-37

Review of chapter 3--
All of Peter’s Sermons so far has been around the need to repent. All of his sermons point to a specific reason to repent, what is that reason?
____________________________________________________________________________________
What is repentance??????
____________________________________________________________________________________
“A complete change of mind resulting in a complete change of life.
John the Baptist Matt 3:2
Jesus Matt 4:17
Jesus Luke 24:47
Peter Acts 2:38
Peter Acts 3:19
Peter Acts 8:22
Peter Acts 11:18
Paul Acts 17:30
Paul Acts 20:21
Paul Acts 26:20

A local theologian in his study of Acts starts his commentary on Acts 4 as
“PartTwo- Persecution and the Exposition of the Church”

Read Acts 4:1-22

The Sanhedrin and the Sadducee-----Who’s who, and why are they doing this to the first church?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Peter and John are now in big trouble…..
Following the lead of their Savior, Peter and John have been working miracles in the street, “proclaiming in Jesus resurrection of the dead” (v2).
What was the outcome of Peter and John being thrown in prison?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Why did the Sadducees have a problem with what Peter was proclaiming?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 4:5-7
The High Priest, Caiaphas and his family are at it again. What main question did they ask of Peter that they asked before?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 4:8-12
This is the biggest mouthful that made Peter ever said that made sense….List all of the points
That Peter makes in these few verses…and how they are similar to what Christ did in the Gospels.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 4:12-17
Why does the Sanhedrin want Peter and John to stop teaching?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Acts 4:18-22
Who really matters that makes it ok for Peter and John to continue to teach in this fashion?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 4:23-31
Before we read, what would you be praying for as a result of the beginning of chapter 4 if you were with the believers of the early church?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Acts 4:23-31
What are some of the points that were covered in the prayer to God?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Were these the same ones that you would have prayed for?
____________________________________________________________________________________
What was the outcome of their prayer?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 4:32-37
Why do you think that this similar passage is here? (see 2:42-47)
____________________________________________________________________________________


The Sanhedrin was the Jews National ruling body and Supreme Court, there were 71 members along with the high priest.
The Sadducees believed that the Pentateuch did not teach resurrection.The Pharisees did believe in resurrection and the afterlife

Acts 3:1-26

Acts 3:1-26

Read all of Acts Chapter 3
Chapter 3 can hardly be studied without chapter 4. The major tie in is that Peter and John get in trouble for all the works of the Holy Spirit in all of Acts so far. As much fun as it would be to jump directly to Chapter 4 and see the ramifications of what happened, lets walk through the start in Chapter 3 first.

Acts 3:1-10
· A miracle. What is the biggest significance surrounding this miracle?
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 3:11-16
· Who is Peter talking to?
_________________________________________________________________________________
· What are all the descriptions of Jesus? What is Peter accusing these men of?
_________________________________________________________________________________
· How was this man healed? (v16)
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 3:17-23
· What is the point of Peter’s message here? Is this the main message of today?
· There are many different messages listed here….
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 3:24-26
What is the point of Peter’s message here?_________________________________________________
How is this part of the message different than the previous verses?______________________________
How is it the same?____________________________________________________________________

CHRIST CAME TO THE JEWS FIRST…….
THEY (THE JEWS) CRUCIFIED HIM, EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE CHOSEN BY HIM…..
WE ARE CHOSEN BY HIM…..

Acts 2:1-47

Acts 2:1-47

Read all of Acts Chapter 2

Acts 2:1
· Pentecost; what is it? (Lev 23:15-22)
_________________________________________________________________________________
· What has the timeline looked like since the start of this book?
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 2:2-13
· Who are the pro-nouns “they” & “them” referring to? ____________________________________
· Is there any importance to the term “Violent wind”? ____________________________________
(See also Ezek 37:9, John 3:8)
· Speaking in Tongues, what was the purpose here? ____________________________________
· Acts 2:4- Filled with the Spirit-
o Is this a one time only event (Acts 4:31, 6:5, 7:55)
_________________________________________________________________________________
· Acts 2:5- What were Jews doing here? ____________________________________
· Acts 2:7-12- What was the big difference between all or these areas?
_________________________________________________________________________________
· Acts 2:7-12- Is it a coincidence all of these guys were here? What do you think?????
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 2:14-36 Peter’s Sermon
· Acts 2:17-21, Read Joel 2:28-32. “And afterward…” ”your sons and daughters…” Do these phrases suggest a time period relative to what was happening and the Holy Spirit?
_________________________________________________________________________________
· Acts 2:23-25/27- “Agony of Death”, Was Christ DEAD for three days?
_________________________________________________________________________________
· Acts 2:33- What promise did God now keep? ____________________________________
(See also John 7:39, Gal 3:14)
· Acts 2:37-39- What was the message to the congregation?
_________________________________________________________________________________
· What is their reaction? What would your reaction be? (v38)
_________________________________________________________________________________

Much importance should be tied into the fact that this may be the first alter call after the resurrection and the call for Baptism. Baptism was a call for obedience and not used as the act for salvation.

· What kind of “Alter Call” did Peter get that day??? (Acts 2:41)
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 2:42-47- “After service…”
· Acts 2:42- “Apostle teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer”, is this what we do at church?
_________________________________________________________________________________
· Acts 2:43- Were the miraculous signs done only by the Apostles?
_________________________________________________________________________________
· Acts 2:44-47- What does all of this sound like?
_________________________________________________________________________________

More on the end of Acts 2, v 40-47

(v40-41) Peter warned and pleaded with the sinners…”Save your selves from this….”
3,000 were saved and baptized.

(v42) Devoted them selves to the Apostle teaching…..
· ________________________________________
· ________________________________________
· ________________________________________

Baptism not required
1 Cor 1:17

(v44-46)
Was this like a commune?….what was it like?.....Do we see this in the church today?.....
What have you seen recently that was similar to all these “going-ons”?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 1:1-26

Acts 1:1-26

“The Acts of the Apostles” The Acts of the HS through the Apostles”

Read Mt 28:18-19 & 20
· What is the Great Commission?
__________________________________________________________________________________
· What are you doing about it?
__________________________________________________________________________________
· What does the Great Commission have to do with the book of Acts?
__________________________________________________________________________________
· What does the Great Commission mean to you?
__________________________________________________________________________________
· What part of Great Commission are you?
__________________________________________________________________________________

Read all of Acts Chapter 1
Acts 1:2-4
· Do these verses define what an Apostle is? ____________________________________

Read Lk 24:48-53
Acts 1:4-9
· What do the passage in Luke and the correlating passage in Acts have in common? And why…..?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 1:6-7
· What are they talking about when they are referring to the Kingdom?
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 1:12
· What is a Sabbaths day walk? ____________________________________
· Why should this question be asked in this context? ____________________________________

Acts 1:15-17
· 120 believers? (Remember this number!!) ____________________________________
· What does Peter mean when he says that the scripture has to be fulfilled?
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acts 1:18-20
· Who were they talking about taking his place? ___________________________________
· Who’s leading this discussion? ___________________________________
· Who should be leading this discussion? ___________________________________

Acts 1:21-26, Mt 19:28, I Cor 15:5-11
· Why is it necessary to have 12 Apostles? ___________________________________
· Why did THEY choose who they did? ___________________________________
· Were they correct in choosing so soon? ___________________________________
· Was it odd that they cast lots and prayed? ___________________________________

What do you think-
· What do you want from church? ___________________________________
· What do you want from this bible study? ___________________________________

Saturday, August 30, 2008

What's a Pentecost???

I'm basically a lazy person. So when I go to posting on subjects my first impulse is to copy and paste as much information from reliable sources as I can find.

This wasn't easy regarding "What's a Pentecost".

I think the biggest reason is that it bridged time and events that tied the Jews into the modern Christian church. So some information I found was specific to the Old Testament Feast of Weeks/Harvest (see Exod 34:22,/23:16) and the Day of First Fruits (Num 28:26) which fell on the 50th day after the feast of the Passover. While other information was specific to the events in the book of Acts (coming of the Holy Spirit) which transformed the Jewish Festival into a Christian anniversary.

Anyway.... here are some definitions from my friends at Dictionary.com

Pen·te·cost (pěn'tĭ-kôst', -kŏst')


Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Pentecost i.e., "fiftieth", found only in the New Testament (Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:8). The festival so named is first spoken of in Ex. 23:16 as "the feast of harvest," and again in Ex. 34:22 as "the day of the firstfruits" (Num. 28:26). From the sixteenth of the month of Nisan (the second day of the Passover), seven complete weeks, i.e., forty-nine days, were to be reckoned, and this feast was held on the fiftieth day. The manner in which it was to be kept is described in Lev. 23:15-19; Num. 28:27-29. Besides the sacrifices prescribed for the occasion, every one was to bring to the Lord his "tribute of a free-will offering" (Deut. 16:9-11). The purpose of this feast was to commemorate the completion of the grain harvest. Its distinguishing feature was the offering of "two leavened loaves" made from the new corn of the completed harvest, which, with two lambs, were waved before the Lord as a thank offering. The day of Pentecost is noted in the Christian Church as the day on which the Spirit descended upon the apostles, and on which, under Peter's preaching, so many thousands were converted in Jerusalem (Acts 2).

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Pentecost
In the New Testament, the day that the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Jesus. Pentecost is the Greek name for Shavuot, the spring harvest festival of the Israelites, which was going on when the Holy Spirit came. The disciples were together in Jerusalem after Jesus' Resurrection and return to heaven, fearful because he had left them. On that morning, however, “there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Because of the festival, crowds of visitors were in Jerusalem, speaking many languages, but the disciples of Jesus moved among them and spoke to them all, and “every man heard them speak in his own language” about “the wonderful works of God.” Peter then made a powerful speech to the crowds in the city, and many were baptized as new followers of Jesus.


Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Goal

A few weeks ago I had contemplated not returning to the Men's Monday Night Bible study after we had finished the book of Hebrews. I was drawn to something new that required more faith than I had. About a week later, Joe said that he would step out of the leadership role until the end of the year.

And then I heard the words from my mouth-
"I'll lead this study".

I am not a teacher, but I believe that when someone is called they need to answer. I won't be behind the wheel (laptop) here, God is. And he will help me through with every bit of reference material he throws my way.

The Goal is to maintain the Bible study on a weekly basis (even through football season).

The Goal is to help others understand the importance of the book of Acts.

The Goal is to help grow the church in a similar fashion that it was when Luke wrote the Book of Acts.

This blog was the Holy Spirit's idea too. This will enable all of the guys to see what will be discussed prior to the study. It will also be maintained so that any tidbit of information regarding the Book of Acts will be retrievable at anytime. Eventually I may open it up for postings by some of the men who attend on Monday night, but for now.

See you Monday....IN HIS NAME ALWAYS AND FOREVER....rich