Devotionals

Read Acts14:21-28

PAUL

Read Acts 14:1-20

PAUL

In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl wrote these amazing words:

“We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men whowalked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last pieces ofbread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: The last of his freedoms is to choose his own attitude in any given set of circumstances — to choose one’s own way.”

Read Acts 14:1-20

PAUL

A sentence in the diary of James Gilmore, pioneer missionary to Mongolia, has stayed with me since the day I first read it. After years of labouring long and hard for the cause of Christ in that desperate land, he wrote, “In the shape of converts I have seen no result. I have not, as far as I am aware, seen anyone who even wanted to be a Christian.”

Read Acts 14:1-20

PAUL

Paul’s ministry was saturated with the Word of God. Fifteen times in chapters 13 and 14 the phrases “God’s Word,” the “Word of truth,” the “teaching of the Lord,” the “Law and the Prophets,” and the “Good News” are mentioned (13:5, 13:7,13:12, 13:15a, 13:15b, 13:32, 13:44, 13:46, 13:48, 13:49, 14:3, 14:7, 14:15,14:21, 14:25).

Read Acts 14:1-20

PAUL

Remarkably, though laying lifeless in a pool of his own blood, Paul got right backup and walked back into the city from which he had been dragged and left fordead. I mean, is this missionary determined or what? True grit.

Read Acts 13:45-48

PAUL

When Paul was rejected, he didn’t quit. As my good friend and wise mentor, Howie Hendricks, often says, “Where there’s light, there are bugs!” The brighter Paul’s light, the more the bugs. And in that situation, those bugs had stingers filled with poison.

What grit! Paul didn’t back down an inch in his response to open rejection. The result? Not surprisingly, the Gentiles in the crowd rejoiced in the good news he had for them. How exciting! What started as a smouldering ember of religious curiosity burst into flames of faith.

Read Acts 13:14-32

PAUL

Paul’s message emphasized the gospel to the lost and grace to the saved. That is a wonderful paradigm for any minister or ministry to adopt. As I’ve studied the life of Paul, particularly in his later years, I find two prominent themes woven like thread through the tapestry of his ministry.

Read Acts 13:14-52

PAUL

Paul and Barnabas arrived at Pisidian Antioch, weary and aching from their perilous march through the mountains. Still, they wasted no time in making their way to the synagogue early enough to find a good seat to listen to the reading of God's Word. They made their destination by the Sabbath.

Read Acts 12:25; 13:5, 13-15

PAUL

Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark left Cyprus and sailed to the southern coast of Turkey — a land then known as Pamphylia, whose rugged coastline ascended sharply into the towering heights of a mountain range steeper and fiercer than the eastern Tauras near Tarsus, and more terrible than any hills known to the Cypriot Barnabas or the Judean John Mark.

Read Acts 13:6-12

PAUL

This was no time for Paul to be tolerant or passive. We live in a culture that virtually deifies tolerance. One lady recently said to me with a broad grin, "I love everybody; I even love the Devil." I call that "tolerance gone to seed." Make no mistake, we're not to love the Devil, nor are we to love everything everybody does. Christ commands us to love people, even our enemies, but that doesn't mean we shrink from standing up for righteousness.