Acts 11

Summary: Peter, ever the leader in trouble, returns after visiting the centurion to quarrels over the rightness of his actions. Peter explains his dream, God telling him three times not to reject clean things, and the dissenters turn and rejoice. Similarly, Barnabas finds joy in welcoming Gentile Christians in far-off cities. Finally, the church sends relief aid to cities in a famine.

Response: The church has disagreements that end in joy. Connections are found between churches. The Church serves as the hand of God in helping the downtrodden. I want my church to be like this!

Acts 10

Summary: Peter, a Jew's Jew, and a centurion of Rome (who still obeyed God, but was not officially Jewish) both receive visions to gather together and accept one another as they are, even without ritual cleanliness or Roman citizenship.

Response: On the one hand, this is us, our chance to be in the Kingdom! But on the other, I know it's my obligation to go and seek out the lost and bring them in with loving acceptance.

Acts 9

Summary: Saul, wanting to imprison those in the Way, is stopped and blinded by none other than Jesus Himself. This and the hospitality of those in the Way converts him in. As he intermingles with the (rightfully wary) disciples, Peter converts two towns next to each other with healings.

Response: So if we're going by after-school special morals, we have that you're not always right, people really can change, and that more than one good thing can happen at the same time. And since I've been sick since two nights ago, that'll have to do.

Acts 8

Summary: With Stephen's death comes a zeal for persecution from a man named Saul not yet seen in Jerusalem. The Way dias because of people fleeing to safety. During this diaspora, Philip (an apostle) began teaching in Samaria, then to an Ethiopian man.

Response: If it wasn't already, this is the beginning of our (yes, you and me) inclusion into the Way. Before this, an offshoot of the Temple; after, we have the same promise as God's chosen people (and yes, the same responsibility).

Acts 7

Summary: Stephen's testimony goes all the way back from Abraham to Solomon, ancestors of the Jewish council against which he's defending himself. He says they're ignoring the power and intent of God, which gets them angry, but claiming to see Jesus at God's right hand pushes them past the tipping point, and they stone him to death.

Response: Stephen was a deacon, we heard last chapter, so he wasn't necessarily a preacher. But he sees the connections between history and service that I too often write about in places like these early in the morning and then forget about. Keep my mind on You, Lord!

Acts 6

Summary: As the Way grows stronger, dividing work between apostles' teaching and praying and deacons' serving; the resistance also grows, with one group fabricating lies about Stephen, one of the deacons, to bring him into a religious court.

Response: "All who were sitting in the council looked intently at Stephen and saw his face was like the face of an angel." My notes to me it was not necessarily a look of innocence, as we might portray someone with an angel today, but so glowing with a holy message that he's almost full to bursting. I hope that I can someday serve as he served and have God's word on my lips in the same way.

Acts 5

Summary: After an odd story about a couple who, after lying about giving money to the apostles, drop dead; we have another cycle of the Way growing in number, the apostles arrested, questioned, and released. An angel releases them from the prison, and a member of the interrogators appeals to the rest of them by reason: if this is human, it'll fail, but if it's God, then we can't stop it, so the best course either way is to leave it alone.

Response: Alright, yes, Ananias and Sapphira. God drops two people dead for lying. I mean, I don't know if that was all they'd ever done; it certainly keeps others from doing the same, helps others in the Way true to it, though I'm not a fan of it being through fear. This isn't a huge sticking point between God and me, so I'm moving on.

The angel in the story was pretty cool. That part (like others that are coming) reads like a sitcom script: they're gone! go get them! they're not here either! etc.

Finally, I think it's pretty apparent which direction the Way went, looking super long term. I don't speak about Christianity as a whole very often. There are parts of history where people have bent the faith to their own wills, and many still do. But I still believe most Christians are, can be, are trying to be, the hands and feet of Christ, doing that whole healing and saving the lost thing. Lately, I've missed opportunities to serve the least in my community because I've been so busy. I'm hoping to get ahead in my break and elsewhere to get time back for that.