Acts

Covers Acts 1

Using the two men at Jesus' ascension in Acts 1 to argue that the Bible almost never gives angels wings — only the throne guardians and carved cherubim — and how easily extra-biblical art and literature get mistaken for Scripture itself.

Covers Acts 2

Why Jesus could say it was better for the disciples that He go — contrasting how spiritually dense the disciples were in the gospels with their transformation at Pentecost in Acts 2, and arguing the indwelling Spirit is a greater privilege than His physical presence.

Covers Acts 2

How Peter's Pentecost speech in Acts 2, drawn from Scripture he clearly knew by heart, shows a fisherman who learned the Word long before he needed it — and why Christians should be memorizing and learning Scripture now rather than waiting to be thrust into a role.

Covers Acts 4

How the Jewish leaders in Acts 4 admit a miracle happened yet scheme only to suppress it — showing that for many people no amount of evidence overcomes an unwillingness to surrender control of their lives, and why it can be wiser to stop pushing than to harden someone's heart further.

Covers Joshua 15 · Acts 4

Why Joshua's tedious city lists matter — they are the tangible fulfillment of God's land promise to Abraham, and a reminder the Bible is not about us; paired with the hardened hearts of the leaders in Acts 4 who admit the miracle yet refuse to believe.

Covers Acts 6

Drawing on how the apostles in Acts 6 called the community to raise up and commission its own people to meet a real need — an extended reflection on how churches under-utilize their members, hire out roles God may want filled by those already present, and hold too tightly to ministries past their season.

Covers Acts 7

How Stephen's defense in Acts 7 — that God works far beyond the temple — exposes a narrow focus his accusers could not see past, and a warning that Christians can make the same mistake, treating our own answers on secondary matters as beyond question.

Covers Acts 7

Why Luke records Stephen's lengthy speech in Acts 7 in full rather than summarizing it — perhaps to give his Gentile readers an introduction to the key figures of Jewish history, from Abraham to Moses, and whet their appetite to learn the foundations of their faith.

Covers Acts 8

Reading the Samaritan Pentecost in Acts 8 as Peter exercising the keys of the kingdom from Matthew 16 — unlocking the door for each new group rather than founding the papacy — alongside what Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch teach about actually listening to and stepping out for the Holy Spirit.

Covers Acts 9

How Paul's ability to confound the Jews and prove Jesus was the Messiah within days of his conversion in Acts 9 shows he already had the knowledge all along — his opposition was never an information problem but a hardened heart, illustrating why more argument rarely changes an unwilling mind.

Covers Acts 10

How far out of his comfort zone God pushes Peter in Acts 10 — commanding him to eat what he found viscerally disgusting and to enter a Gentile home, making clear that racial and cultural bias have no place in the kingdom and that salvation came from the Jews but does not stop with them.

Covers Acts 12

Wrestling with why God rescued Peter from prison in Acts 12 but let James be executed, and why deliverance came only at the last minute — and finding that the church kept praying anyway, choosing to trust God's faithfulness even without answers to the hardest questions about prayer.

Covers Acts 12

How the surface-simple rescue of Peter from prison in Acts 12 — slipping past chained guards, sentries, and a city gate unseen — actually demands staggering control over photons and air molecules, and how such miracles force a move from hand-wavy acceptance to awe at God's unfathomable power.

Covers Acts 14

Sitting in honest confusion about fasting — how often the early church in Acts fasted at major decisions, yet Scripture never commands it or explains its purpose, leaving open questions about what it accomplishes and how it should be practiced.

Covers Acts 15

How Acts 15 holds together two things that both come from the Lord — the Jerusalem council fighting for unity on whether Gentiles must be circumcised to be saved, and Paul and Barnabas splitting over John Mark — and why God may genuinely want believers to want opposing things.

Covers Acts 16

Why Paul circumcised Timothy in Acts 16 right after the Jerusalem council ruled circumcision unnecessary for salvation — not a contradiction, but a strategic move so the gospel would gain a proper hearing among the Jews they were trying to reach.

Covers Acts 17

Wrestling with Paul's statement at the Areopagus that God overlooked the times of ignorance — and how, given that the nations were given over to lesser elohim at Babel, the nations may not have been condemned for worshiping their allotted gods yet were still held accountable to conscience.

Covers Acts 18

How the willing suffering of a few faithful believers opens doors for the gospel to flourish — Paul and Silas accepting an illegal beating in Philippi, the scattering that brought Priscilla and Aquila into the story, and how our own afflictions can become others' path to grace.

Covers Judges 9 · Acts 21

Judges 9 has no judge and no outside enemy — only Abimelech's fratricidal grab for power, a window into how quickly Israel degenerated in the promised land — paired with Acts 21 on faithful believers reaching opposite conclusions from the same Spirit about Paul going to Jerusalem.

Covers Acts 24 · Proverbs 20

Felix in Acts 24 — two years of conversing with Paul yet never believing — as evidence that some people cannot be persuaded by more information without a change of heart, plus reflections on why it is fine to read Scripture without extracting something each time and on reading Proverbs daily.

Covers Judges 16 · Acts 27

Arguing that Samson's strength was tied not to his hair itself but to his faith — losing it through a breach of trust and regaining it by turning back to God — paired with Acts 27 on how God's way is always best even when the practical route looks wiser.

Covers Acts 28

Wondering what the soldiers guarding Paul made of him in Acts 28 — surviving a snakebite and healing every sick person on Malta — and whether such undeniable displays of power stirred a crisis of conscience in those looking on.