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Feb 05, 2024 06:00am

The Bible Recap: Days 323-329

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(The following are reflections from the writer’s personal journey through The Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble – a Bible reading plan to read the Bible chronologically in one year. To learn more about The Bible Recap, visit thebiblerecap.com. Find more posts from this series at lifeword.org/thebiblerecap.)

Day 323: Read Acts Chapters 9-10

My Takeaways:

Jesus started His ministry with His people, the Jews. And in our readings today, He extends that ministry beyond its original borders to the Gentiles.

And God picked the least likely candidate to be His ambassador to the Gentile nation: a Christian persecutor named Saul.

The guy who approved of Stephen’s stoning.

The guy who was actively on his way to persecute followers in The Way.

The guy who possibly approved the killing of Christ followers.

Yeah, that guy.

And yet, as God’s story has told us since Genesis, God picks the least qualified applicant to declare His message throughout the world.

But it took a blinding to get Saul’s attention. I don’t know about you, but God has used a blinding a few times in my life to get my attention, but I am forever grateful for those moments. God used a man, named Ananias, who was quite possibly persecuted by Saul himself, to anoint Saul in his new ministry. (I smile when Ananias questions God! He was like, “Um, God, that Saul guy persecutes us. Like, he’s not on our team. Are you sure about this guy?”)

I chuckle…because of course Saul isn’t! But, isn’t that just like God? Nothing discounts you from God’s plan. And maybe, just maybe, Paul feels this ministry even more since he approved of the stoning of Stephen. Our greatest mistakes can become our greatest passions in life. Peter might agree.

God isn’t just using persecutors to be part of His plan, but He is teaching our salty preacher Peter that Gentiles can come to the party too! He sends Peter a vision, one that doesn’t make sense…until he is called to come to Cornelius’s house, where there is a houseful of Gentiles who want to hear God’s word. Normally, Peter would never be in such a setting amid Gentiles…but God is showing him that they are welcome to the table as well. So, Peter shares the Good News, and they believe! The Holy Spirit affirms this when they all speak in tongues. Peter baptizes them and stays with them a few days.

My God Shot is once again how powerfully God works in the lives of believers….and unbelievers.

The Holy Spirit is growing Peter and having him preach to Gentiles! And Jesus revealed himself to a man, the biggest cynic of all, in such a way, he would become one of the greatest missionaries of all time and would pen many of the books we will read in the New Testament.

God doesn’t call the qualified…He qualifies the called, friends.

Day 324: Read Acts Chapters 11-12

My Takeaways:

Today, God was letting the Jews know that He is calling over the Gentiles! And on doing so, breaking many of the rules Jews have lived by for generations concerning Gentiles. Peter takes heat for hanging out with Gentiles, but he assures the Jewish circumcision team that this encounter was God-willed and blessed.

Remember Stephen and his murder? After that, people left the city because of this persecution, taking the Good News with them and telling others in their cities. Stephen’s death had a purpose. It served as a catalyst to the Gospel. Antioch was a hotspot for the Gospel! Barnabas shows up to help out and large amounts of people became believers! Barnabas sought out Saul, and they did ministry there for a year.

Today, my heart ached…the first of the disciples has been killed: James, John’s brother. Oh friends, can you imagine how hard this was for John to take? And the message it sent to other believers on the heels of Stephen’s murder? It’s very real. So real it had to have rocked all believers’ lives.

Then, Peter is arrested and would stand trial and possibly the same fate, yet he is rescued by the Angel of the Lord. He is led to safety and knocks on Mary’s gate (mother of James and John), who are actively praying for him and his rescue at that moment! Want to talk about an answered prayer?! The woman who answers the gate realizes it’s him and in her excitement, runs back into the house to tell everyone! I smiled at this—she leaves Peter hanging!

They welcomed him in long enough for him to tell his story, and then left to another town for safety.

Then, we ended on something that should have served as a warning to everyone: Herod’s punishment. After delivering a speech, people compared Herod to a god and he accepted those remarks…so God struck him. He was eaten alive by worms…and then died.

My God Shot is what it has been: the power of the Holy Spirit amid all this persecution. It’s flourishing in the hearts of people! The church is growing and miracles are happening, like Peter’s supernatural breakout from prison! The Pharisees had no idea that in murdering Jesus, they started a revolution for Him and His message. And for the first time in Scripture, believers are called Christians.

Day 325: Read Acts Chapters 13-14

My Takeaways:

Preaching, persecuting, and stoning—oh my!

Paul and Barnabas are preaching up a storm of emotions as they make their way through five cities! In each city, there are people who believe (many Gentiles) and there are people who want to stone them (the Jews). And those who are against them follow them from town to town stirring up dissension. At one point, Paul is stoned so badly, they dragged him out of the city for dead and he’s alive! Was he resurrected? Or, supernaturally revived? We don’t know but the fact he survived was a miracle of God either way!

I did love the part where Paul, on stop number one, called out the governor’s magician for his evil work. Paul, like Peter, does not mince words when he calls him the “son of the devil and enemy of all that is right.” After that, God struck this magician blind and the governor believed!

Paul preaches about the history of the Jews to show them that Jesus had been prophesied about all along—that God was preparing them for His Son, whom they rejected. You can tell Paul’s religious background through his knowledge of Scripture.

I am always interested in the small details…like, why did John Mark leave after stop one?

Either way, these men, after completing their mission don’t go back home, they go back to all the places again—those where they were persecuted much—to strengthen the believers. They don’t cower from opposition, in fact, they trust God to guide them and strengthen them every step of the way. I love this. What an example of boldness for all of us who can shrink away when opposition comes.

That’s my God Shot for today: Where there is much persecution, then Holy Spirit strengthens and emboldens!

Day 326: Read James Chapters 1-5

My Takeaways:

I couldn’t possibly do this book justice in my recap, with all of its teachings, but I do believe it all comes down to this: If you talk the talk, walk the walk. Be authentic in your faith.

Let your tongue bring praises to God, mercy to people, and wisdom from God. Flee from gossip, judging, or pride. We are called to follow God with not only with our words but our actions—thus, the authenticity of a believer. When we follow God, follow Him with our whole hearts and live in faith, not doubt. For the doubter is like a surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

The Tempter will tempt.

Trials will come.

Our faith will get tested.

These are facts in life! But, we are called to submit to God, resist the Devil, and draw near to God. When we take steps to draw near, it has a cool side effect: He draws near to us! And when we are drawing near to God, we start to see all the things that hold us back from a deeper relationship with Him. We see our sin…and when we humble ourselves before Him, He will exalt us in His own beautiful way. Humility has the last word, not pride. Like mercy, it triumphs.

And friends, if I know one thing from trials, it’s this: they produce endurance. Oh yes, they do. If we don’t give up or give way to them, we will grow on our faith and experience God’s joy amid our pain. It doesn’t mean life is good, it’s means God is good amid our heart-wrenching trials.

In one of the biggest trials of my life, I couldn’t wrap my head around this. I was bitter and angry. I had questions. I was upset with Him for allowing this to happen. But I submitted to Him. And when He called me to apologize in this situation, I was taken aback. I felt like I was the one who deserved any apology—not them! (God not only affirmed me to do this but He arranged it where I ran into this person, one on one, LATER ON THAT DAY. Let me tell you, there are no coincidences with God!)

And yet, I trusted God and did it. (Let it be known this was nearly a year later…I lived in turmoil all this time!) God did something so miraculous in this situation, I was blown away. I still am today. I had to lay my pride to the side and humble myself and considered others higher than myself. You had better believe God blessed it!

I experienced Him, friends. With the Lord by my side, I withstood this test. It was an ending I couldn’t have scripted better myself. I am still living it today. Mercy triumphs, but so does humility.

Day 327: Read Acts Chapters 15-16

My Takeaways:

Today, as Gentiles are being welcomed to God’s family, there are disputes. Exactly what, besides having faith, must they do? Some Jews demand circumcision, which obviously has the Gentiles in an uproar. The apostles and elders, along with Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, all share their hearts when it comes to God’s plan to adopt Gentiles into their family by faith.

They decide on a few standards Gentiles must follow in faith: don’t eat things polluted by idols, things that are strangled, abstain from the blood of animals, along with avoiding sexual immorality. This list, written into a letter, encourages the Gentiles! Paul and Barnabas decide to visit all the other believers in the towns they preached in…but there’s a disagreement about whether or not to take John Mark. (Evidently, he deserted them earlier—that is why he left so early!) It was such a strong disagreement, they parted ways and continued preaching. God brought good from this disagreement, as they had more missionaries out preaching the Good News.

Timothy comes along for the ride with Paul, and they set out….they run into trouble when Paul casts out a demon from a slave girl who prophesies the future. Once the master lost his profit in his demon-free slave girl, he created such a ruckus that has Paul and Timothy severely flogged and thrown into prison. You guys, when God’s Word says “severely flogged” that had to have meant that they were beaten within an inch of their lives.

And then we have the best moment of this reading: these men—hurt, bloodied, and imprisoned—are praising God in jail. These men are singing praises to God while in the worst circumstances possible! That amazes me, friends! And then we have a supernatural breakout where there’s an earthquake and all the jail cells open! Not only that, the prisoners stay put! Paul and Timothy use this as an opportunity to witness to the guard. Not only does he believe, his whole family believes and they all get baptized in the middle of the night! After that, they all come back to prison by morning so that the jailer is not put to death! Like, what in the world?!

And that is where my God Shot comes from: God brought GOOD from such a bad moment for our two disciples and the jailer! Also, this shows us the power of praise amid our pain. There’s something special about proclaiming the goodness of God when it hurts the most. I love this story so much!

Day 328: Read Galatians Chapters 1-3

My Takeaways:

Through Christ alone.

My recap today comes down to this point Tara-Leigh said: “Salvation is the gift of God, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.”

In our reading today, Paul—ever the brash—calls out Jews about imposing Jewish laws in Gentiles. Paul said, “I died to the law so that I might live for God.” There’s controversy still with a couple of areas: circumcision and Jews eating with Gentiles. Paul called out Cephas, Peter, and the Galatians, calling them foolish! He reiterated his point again: the righteous will live by faith and faith alone. Just like Abraham believed God and was considered righteous, anyone who believes is saved from the law.

I am sure for law-abiding Jews, this was hard to wrap their minds around! Their whole lives—their culture and religion—were all about the laws! I am sure they were tempted many times to fall back into this way of living and keep adding rules to Gentile lives to ensure they were saved.

Paul said something that can speak to all of us: “If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Perhaps this was reason all of this was happening: to please others. This is a trap. It’s a trap to us today, when we are called to be the light. It was a trap to Gentiles and Jews, in trying to live like others thought believers should live.

Paul brings it all together when he says, “the law was our guardian until Christ, so that we may be justified through faith.” The law showed them they cannot keep it. That they needed help. The law pointed to a Savior.

Trying to please others will keep us dim and shallow. Trying to follow a list of rules for believers, just to look good, is a dead-end road. Neither of those things serve Jesus. Living our lives loving Him, like we are called to do, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, will overflow into our words and actions. We will want to live how He calls us to live. We will want to follow His Word. We will be embolden in our faith. This is what Paul is emphasizing: to live is Christ.

And that was my God Shot, friends! Living like we love Jesus, like He is the love of our lives, will be the biggest testimony of all. Church can’t save. Serving in church can’t save. Tithing can’t save. Only believing Jesus as your Savior can save. As an overflow of our hearts for Jesus, we go to church. We serve. We give. It’s a beautiful thing when we surrender our hearts.

Day 329: Read Galatians Chapters 4-6

My Takeaways:

“For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to anyone of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

Oh, I love me some Paul-isms and this verse is one of my favs! We can be so like the Galatians by falling back into old habits of sin that draw us away from the Lord. Habits and mentalities that distract us from the truth and keep us from running our race of faith.

We are called to walk by the spirit and not the flesh. These are probably the best words to memorize and the hardest words to live out. Paul lists the works of the flesh and warns the Galatians about them. Then, he gives the beautiful works of the Spirit…ladies, one of them has been the theme for our study: joy. I hope you feel you have experienced this more and more throughout the year. Growing closer to God helps us experience that He’s truly where the joy is.

Ladies, we’re near the end of our study—let us do what Paul called the Galatians to do: Let us not grow weary of finishing our study! (Okay, he said “Let us not grow weary of doing good!”) Either way, the whole idea is to keep on following God—He is watching! We may not get rewarded for all our good deeds and acts of faith immediately, but consistency pays off. We will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up!

Friends, whatever it is that you are struggling with, don’t give up! God sees. God knows. Keep believing Him and walking by faith. A reaping is coming. This is what the Bible shows us time and time again.

And that was my God Shot: Stand firm, believe God, and don’t give up. All throughout this journey, God has shown us He can be trusted. That He is faithful. He shows up. Stay the course and stand your ground. He’s worth it.