Psalms 1 – 3, Acts 17:1-15 • Key Verse: Acts 17:11 In the church I attended as a young person we had a name for the sound of Bible pages turning. So many people had the same Bible that the collective rustling sound was called “the Scofield shuffle.” Instead of...

Job 41-42, Acts 16:22-40 • Key Verses: Job 42:5-6 Have you ever wished you could take back what you said? Probably the question isn’t if you ever did that but how often you have—or how recently! Some of us have “foot-shaped mouths,” the result from too often putting our foot...

Job 38—40, Acts 16:1—21 • Key Verses: Acts 16:9—10 A sure way to end an argument is to say, “I believe it is God’s will.” Who can argue with that? Even Peter used it when he said in his defense, “Who was I to think that I could oppose God?”...

Job 36-37 Acts 15:22-41 • Key verse: 15:32 Can you finish this line from an old song: “Where seldom is heard…”? The answer is “a discouraging word.” The song, “Home on the Range,” paints, a picture of an idyllic place where even the words said are seldom discouraging. If only...

Job 34—35, Acts 15:1—21 Key Verse: Acts 15:9 Old habits die hard, but it seems at times as if old habits hardly die. Habits are called such for good reason—they are so ingrained that we do them without thinking. Sometimes a habit is not a matter of what we do...

Job 32—33, Acts 14 • Key Verses: Acts 14:21-23 A recent business trend has been that of writing a mission statement—a concise paragraph stating in a memorable way the purpose of a business or organization. Added to it might be some objectives and an explanation of how those objectives will...

Job 30-31, Acts 13:26-52 • Key Verse: Job 31:1 You have heard the old saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Perhaps an appropriate updated version would be, “Beauty is too often ill the eye of the beholder.” We live in a visually stimulating age. Gone the way...

Job 28-29, Acts 13:1-25 •Key Verse: Job 29:28 I heard about a road in Africa that had a very difficult curve in it. What made the curve so challenging was the fact that you really didn’t see how hard it was until you were right on it. A series of...

Job 25-27, Acts 12 • Key Verses: Job 27:2-4 Three of the easiest words to utter are, “I give up.” Often they are said when expectations are not met; you expected something, didn’t get it, tried, but finally gave up. That happens with thingslike service at a restaurant, or information...

Job 22—24, Acts 11 • Key Verse: Acts 11:17 Reaching across the barriers of prejudice will probably be noticed—and questioned. Staying with the familiar is comfortable; changing is not. If the barriers are long-standing ones, then change is that much harder and that much more resisted. Peter stepped across the...