READ THE BIBLE

    READING THE BOOK OF ACTS: CHAPTER 16 Wednesday, October 26, 2022   INTRODUCING ACTS, CHAPTER 16 Acts 15 ends with Paul and Silas spreading the news that Gentile Christians don’t have to be circumcised. Acts 16 begins with Paul circumcising a Jewish man, Timothy, to prevent difficulties in preaching to older Jews as the boy grows into church leadership.  Since Timothy’s mother is Jewish, he is Jewish, but his father is Greek, so he was not circumcised.   Paul’s second missionary trip finds the church growing east, into Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth. On his way back to Syrian Antioch, Paul will stop by Ephesus and soften the Jews for the extended ministry of Priscilla, Aquila, and Apollos. During his first trip, Paul planted churches and ordained elders; in his second, he commissions more missionaries.  ( https://totallyhistory.com/acts-chapter-16/ ) 1) Verses 1-10, Timothy Joins Paul & Silas and Paul's Vision, MS ELNORA Paul came to Derbe and then to Ly

   READING THE BOOK OF ACTS: CHAPTER 15 Wednesday, October 19, 2022   INTRODUCING ACTS, CHAPTER 15 God had always planned to offer salvation to the whole world. He had always planned to first set aside a particular line of Abraham’s descendants to demonstrate to the world the importance of worshiping the Holy God and to provide the Messiah-God the Son come to earth in humanity-as a sacrifice for the sins of the Jews and the Gentiles. When this expansion into the non-Jewish world begins, however, Jewish Christians who have lived a particularly devout life have a difficult time accepting that the purpose and necessity of their separation from other nations is over.     Acts chapter 15 resembles Acts 11:1-18, where Peter testified before the leadership of the church in Jerusalem. His subject was how the Holy Spirit had fallen on uncircumcised and unbaptized Gentiles. Here Paul and Barnabas also testify that Gentiles are coming to faith in Jesus without being circumcised. The issue the lea

  READING THE BOOK OF ACTS: CHAPTER 14 Wednesday, October 12, 2022   INTRODUCING ACTS, CHAPTER 14 Paul’s first missionary journey, recorded in Acts 13-14, gives a glimpse of issues that the church will face throughout its entire existence. When presented with Jesus’ story, some will accept Him while others will not, and the opposition is sometimes violent. Others will integrate into church life easily, but for centuries the church has struggled with how to integrate those from vastly different cultures. This raises the crucial question of which aspects of faith and worship are biblical, making them universal, and which are cultural, and therefore optional? In Acts 15, the church leadership will start a discussion on that subject which continues even today.   ( https://totallyhistory.com/acts-chapter-14/ ) 1) Verses 1-7, In Iconium, MRS. ELNORA 14  At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks