Friday, June 7, 2013

Like Adventure? Read the Book of ACTS from the Bible

The book of Acts in The Holy Bible is full of action showing the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the apostles after Jesus returned to heaven after his resurrection. Chapters 1-12 primarily focus on Peter’s ministry with the exception of chapter 8—Philip and chapter 9—Saul’s conversion. Chapters 13-28 focus on Paul’s complete transformation into a traveling preacher from a zealous persecutor of followers of Jesus. The book of Acts is about the persecution of the early Christian church and the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the world! It records many miracles, including speaking in tongues, prisoners set free, people healed, angel appearances, Paul’s near death experiences and more! There is some humor too—Eutychus fell asleep while Paul talked on and on and fell from a 3-story high window (Acts 20)!  This is the sequel to Luke.

During the 60s as a teenager, I quizzed on the book against other Christian and Missionary Alliance churches and later coached another quiz team of teens: Jolene, Jeff, Brenda, Dawn, Larry, Cy and Danny (if any of you happen to see this, please leave a comment for me!). Since I have taught from it many times. Below is a short cute video I taped of the boys in one of my 5th grade Sunday School classes using puppets to tell the story of Ananias and Saphira found in chapter 5.


I enjoyed reading through the book of Acts again very much because there is so much action and adventure and still find things I hadn’t noticed before. I encourage you to read the book of Acts for yourself. It’s truly amazing how God used ordinary people in extraordinary ways for the furtherance of the good news about His son, Jesus Christ. Here are some of my favorite verses from Acts (KJV version):

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.—Acts 1:8

. . .Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.—Acts 1:11

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.—Acts 2:21

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.—Acts 4:12

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.—Acts 5:29

And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.—Acts 24:16

More related Sunday Sharing posts—highlights from Acts Over at "Right Where We Belong":

Lie, Lie, Now You Die!
A Life Transformed
Meetings Arranged By God
Perseverance, Courage and Commitment
We All Need Encouragement!
Why Didn't Paul Listen, and What If He Had?
A Brave Boy Saved His Uncle Paul


Have you read Acts? What did you think of it?  Happy Reading!

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