Jesus said, “You can tell what they are by what they do. No one picks grapes or figs from thorn bushes. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:16-17) These proverbs make a similar point. Some people ask just anyone for input when they face a quandary. The quality of advice they receive, however, can vary immensely.

“I saw the Lord” (9:1 NIV). Have you? What does God look like? How much room does he take up? Our minds cannot cope with God. It is true: there is a hole the size of eternity and infinity, right in the middle. Our minds have a sink hole that does not end. But it’s boarded over. Sometimes it floods and half our treasures, and ideas, are sucked down, spinning like debris in a drain. But God, out there. God in front of our eyes?

One pride is worse than any, the religious kind. We are Israelites. We are Judeans. We are Jews. We are Baptists. We are Reformed. We are Methodists. There is always a capital letter. We are The Ones: the right rituals, the right uniforms, the right songs, the right books, the right heroes, the right to judge. But “the Ethiopians are no less important to Me than you are” (9:7).

Urgency and drama have always grabbed the headlines and today’s reading from Acts begs to be shouted out: “Jesus is our Messiah!”

Imagine for a moment stumbling across a game changer about everything in the way you approach life. That’s the shock and awe we find being communicated by Peter as he demands a hearing to explain why the biggest news maker of his audience’s world, Jesus, is no longer dead!

The response to Peter’s message about the death and resurrection of Jesus was dramatic. “What shall we do?” asked his hearers. “Turn back to God,” Peter replied. “Your sins will be forgiven.”

With this story, Luke tells his audience that the long-awaited day has arrived.

Read Reflect “I won’t believe it until I see it.”  When journalists explore people’s encounters with God, experiential evidence that God is real – testimony – is not hard to find. God leaves a history and traces of his presence behind in people’s lives. In the book of Acts, Luke gives us a sequel to […]

Read Reflect For those of us blessed to be living in a time of peace, upon first reading of this psalm there seems little we can relate to. The psalmist lists the nations at war with Israel and entreats God to intervene and claim victory. The words appear harsh, angry and vengeful. But interestingly a […]