The Gospel Breaks New Ground – Enemies
In Luke’s tale of two visions, God calls two people to change their life plans in order for the gospel of Jesus to spread further.
In Luke’s tale of two visions, God calls two people to change their life plans in order for the gospel of Jesus to spread further.
In Luke’s tale of two visions, God calls two people to change their life plans in order for the gospel of Jesus to spread further.
Here are some songs I’ve selected that explore the themes in the passage…
Most of us live with two nagging questions that keep coming back.
‘How do we know what we should be doing?’
‘I don’t think I fit in here, am I good enough?’
Acts 8 gives us a glimpse of the answers to both of these questions.
This week’s story from Acts 8 shows us the lengths that God goes to to show his love to outsiders and the willingness of people to deliver that message.
Here are some songs that explore the themes in the passage…
The action has all been in Jerusalem up to now but with the persecution, the gospel travels to the places where people had thought things could never change.
Samaria was an ongoing problem to the Jews – history and culture meant that they could never imagine that things could ever be any different.
Yet change happens because of the bravery of people and the power of the Spirit.
How might this lead us to see our own situations and our city differently?
We have reached chapter 8 in the whirlwind story of Acts and, accelerated by the death of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, the message of Jesus as the risen Lord of all has started to break new ground.
Often life can be like that can’t it? Unexpected and painful situations can often be our greatest means of growth.…
The religious folks resisted what was happening, and charge Stephen with going against the temple and the law. Stephen re-tells their own history to them, showing that God has always operated outside of the temple, Jerusalem and Israel. God was with his people, and at work, in all the difficult places.
God is in the business of doing new things. We are on a journey with him. In difficult times, times of change, times of uncertainty, we follow Jesus.
Sometimes in order to pick up new things, we have to lay other things down.
Here are the songs I’ve picked to reflect some of the themes of this week’s scripture from Acts chapter 6 and some of the ways this scripture speaks in to our current context. I hope you find them helpful.
News of the resurrection of Jesus was deeply disturbing to the authorities, who were desperately trying to keep order. The apostles directly threatened the status quo – they stood in the temple offering a radically different understanding of all that God was doing.
They were arrested and put in jail, but the angel broke down the door – and gave them specific orders to go back and to keep on speaking.
In contexts where it’s easy for faith to be kept private, we are called to this same bravery…
In a week where we have seen protests about blatant acts of injustice, and against a backdrop where coronavirus has affected BAME people more than others, it’s easy to feel disempowered to know how to change anything.
But Acts 4:32-5:11 shows the result of being filled with the Spirit and how the resurrection of Jesus created the foundations of a new society. That society challenged the existing culture, but also revealed the best and the worst of the community…
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