You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit (Colossians 1:7-8, NIV). Evangelism. Just the mention of the word causes some of us to break out into a cold sweat. It conjures up the […]
It’s a Small World After All?
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about ⌊this hope⌋ in the […]
And now…Colossians
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother: 2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. (Colossians 1:1-2, HCSB) As you may have guessed, this is the greeting of the letter from Paul to the church in Colossae. […]
Living the D*sh
For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 28:30-31, NIV) This is how the book of Acts ends (can you believe we went through the […]
Heart Problems
And after they had argued back and forth among themselves, they left with this final word from Paul: “The Holy Spirit was right when he said to your ancestors through Isaiah the prophet, ‘Go and say to this people: When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, […]
Take Courage
We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. There we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. […]
Castor, Pollux, and Vomit
After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. (Acts 28:11, NIV) Paul’s back on his way to Rome, where God said he would take him. It was a long, arduous, dangerous […]
I Believe in Miracles
Once our hero, Paul, and the other castaways washed up on the shore of Malta, we read what happened next: As Paul gathered a bundle of brushwood and put it on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself to his hand. When the local people saw the creature hanging […]
Warm and Friendly
The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners so that no one could swim off and escape. But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan because he wanted to save Paul, so he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to follow, some on […]
Have Something to Eat!
Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” […]
Cut the Ropes!
On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. Fearing that […]
Grace: Told you so…
As we left Paul and his shipmates, they were in the midst of a terrible winter storm in the Adriatic. Before the ship wrecks, Paul has one last word of encouragement for them: Since many were going without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “You men should have followed my advice not to […]
