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E118: Acts A - The Earliest Days of the Church

The Bible in 30 Seconds or Less | New Testament: Acts

The book of Acts chronicles the earliest days of the church. It's in Acts that we find the dramatic story of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends upon the people in tongues of fire allowing everyone to understand one another. Acts is about testimony and church growth. Peter and the Apostles preach, teach, and perform miracles day after exhausting day. In Acts, there's tension and danger. Incarcerated apostles. Persecuted believers. A murdered beloved leader Stephen. And finally, Acts is a story of conversion from bad guy to good guy in the character of Saul who becomes known as Paul.

Speakers:Megan Snell

Writers:Megan Snell

Topics:Acts

Source:Jim Keat

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Zephaniah A - From the Blues to Jubilant Jazz

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Zephaniah B - Joy is a Verb

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Steve Carter | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Zephaniah B - With Us & For Us

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Haggai A - Pilgrimage

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Brooklynn Smith | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Zechariah A - History, Prophetic, & Apocalyptic

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Nate Pyle | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

Zechariah B - Because God Acts

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Malachi B - God is Always Listening

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Matthew A - The Gospel of Mountains

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Matthew B - The Melodies of our Hearts

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Mark A - Damn Near Shakespeare

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Mark A - The Good News Goes Public

The Gospel of Mark reads like good news for Habakkuk's runner. The vision is made plain from his coming out of the river to his coming out of the stone tomb. An...

Michael-Ray Mathews | 47 views | 3 years ago updated

Mark B - Good New to the Community Organizer

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Michael-Ray Mathews | 35 views | 3 years ago updated

Mark A - No Time to Lose

"In the gospel of Mark we meet a Jesus who conveys a great deal of urgency. The word ""immediately"" is used 40 times in Mark's gospel. Jesus is always doing th...

James Martin | 34 views | 3 years ago updated

Mark B - Jesus Understands You

"The good news in Mark's gospel is that Jesus understands you. You meet not only the fully divine son of God who performs miracles but also a person with real l...

James Martin | 32 views | 3 years ago updated

Luke A - The Prodigal Son

The message of Jesus proclaimed in the gospel of Luke is best summarized by a parable that only appears in Luke: the prodigal son. We are all one family and tha...

Daniel Brereton | 33 views | 3 years ago updated

Luke A - Radical Love

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Luke B - The Meaning of Grace

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Jacqui Lewis | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

John A - Largely Unique

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John B - Love One Another

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Acts B - The Same Holy Stream

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Acts A - Be The Church

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Doug Pagitt | 89 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Corinthians A - The Most Problematic Church

The Corinthian church is probably the most problematic church that we see in the whole New Testament, more problems than any other. But what lies at the heart? ...

Jim Brownson | 67 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Corinthians B - The Importance of the Body

If there's one thing about First Corinthians that calls us to the center of the gospel it's the importance of the body. The Corinthians envision a kind of spiri...

Jim Brownson | 46 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Corinthians A - Resurrection in Our Brokenness

Paul's first letter to the Corinthians encapsulates grace. Paul begins with the positive truth about God - who he is and his sovereignty - but then speaks hones...

James Prescott | 83 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Corinthians B - Grace: Confronting the Truth

Grace always confronts the truth of who we are - both darkness and light - our worst mistakes, and the reality of how much we are unconditionally loved by God. ...

James Prescott | 59 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Corinthians A - Paul's Most Intimate Letter

Second Corinthians: it is probably Paul's most intimate letter. It's really Fourth Corinthians because Paul refers to a couple letters that he's written to the ...

Tony Jones | 21 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Corinthians B - The Whole Ballgame

"Two Corinthians, right? Two Corinthians three seventeen. That's the whole ballgame.""The whole ballgame is "Two Corinthians three seventeen," that where the sp...

Tony Jones | 29 views | 3 years ago updated

Galatians A - Eyes to See & Ears to Hear

For Paul, when it comes to the covenant, Gentiles get in and stay in by the Spirit alone. The Galatians had abandoned this train of thought. Thinking they didn'...

Darryl Schafer | 27 views | 3 years ago updated

Galatians B - You've Got to be Kind

"God dammit, you've got to be kind." God bless you, Mr. Rosewater. Kurt Vonnegut gave us a gift when he wrote you into the pages of our lives. It took you eight...

Darryl Schafer | 32 views | 3 years ago updated

Ephesians A - Responding in Faith

Paul is dead. The church is growing. Jesus hasn't returned. Rome still reigns. Against this backdrop one of Paul's associates wrote a letter. It doesn't address...

Bethany Stolle | 16 views | 3 years ago updated

Ephesians B - Down Religion

"For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not the result of works so that no one may boast. For w...

Bethany Stolle | 14 views | 3 years ago updated

Philippians A - The Imprisonment of a Leader

Paul is in prison and, having received help from the church in Philippi, he writes a letter to these friends, who probably understood his circumstances the same...

Kate Rae Davis | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Philippians B - Love Remains

Paul models the practice of narrating his own life into the ongoing story of God's salvation of the world. He teaches the Philippians to do the same, and throug...

Kate Rae Davis | 26 views | 3 years ago updated

Philippians A - This is Philippians

Philippians. A letter of encouragement, of rejoicing, of rebuke, of reminder. Reminding us that the God who rules the cosmos isn't a domineering dictator but a ...

Brandan Robertson | 30 views | 3 years ago updated

Philippians B - Have This Attitude

Have this attitude. The attitude of Christ. Although he is God, he does not exploit his position of power and privilege. Rather he empties himself, coming to se...

Brandan Robertson | 21 views | 3 years ago updated

Colossians A - Where the Treasure is Hidden

"So here's a secret treasure map. X marks the spot: you. God is as close as your breath, as at home within you as your very own voice. The word for this "within...

Troy Bronsink | 33 views | 3 years ago updated

Colossians B - Take the Plunge

"Ok, take the plunge. The treasure's not at the surface. It's underneath. If you try to read Colossians with those dull insider/outsider glasses then you'll be ...

Troy Bronsink | 27 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Thessalonians A - Act Like Jesus

Paul wrote this love letter to his new friends in groovy Thessalonika. When he first met them they were pleasure-chasing, in-it-to-win-it N-O-N-E Nones. Then th...

Molly Baskette | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Thessalonians B - We'll Never Be Alone Again

When we're living for ourselves, gobbling up pleasure and running like hell from pain, despair is always nipping at our heels. But the good news is: we don't ha...

Molly Baskette | 34 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Thessalonians A - Faithful & Steadfast

In this letter, Paul writes, I'm grateful for you, Church. You have been faithful and steadfast even in the face of terribleness. And yet not all is terrible. B...

Melissa Meyers | 64 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Thessalonians B - We Belong

Everyone needs a little encouragement now and then. We all want to be reminded that we're not alone. Sometimes when we're surrounded by critics and antagonists,...

Melissa Meyers | 32 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Timothy A - Dear Timothy

Paul as an apostle writes young Timothy who is leading a church and is way in over his head. He gives him instruction on where he failed early in his ministry a...

Lane Severson | 34 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Timothy B - The Side of Love

You aren't going to be perfect. But the love of Jesus is perfect. Always error on the side of love. Love everyone in the Church like Christ loves them. He loves...

Lane Severson | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Timothy A - This Letter is for Us

One could say that 2 Timothy is the final word from Paul in Scripture. Sensing his end drawing near, Paul writes to Timothy, his spiritual son, with some final ...

J Robert Eagan | 31 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Timothy B - More than Simple Orthodoxy

The Messiah Jesus, David's descendant, was raised from the dead - this is Paul's gospel. But, the gospel is more than simple orthodoxy, isn't it? The gospel is ...

J Robert Eagan | 59 views | 3 years ago updated

Titus A - A Wound of Scripture

The epistle to Titus is the Donald Trump of Holy Scripture, full of brash insults, dehumanization, and ethnic slurs. It is authoritarian, demanding obedience an...

David Henson | 35 views | 3 years ago updated

Philemon A - The Emancipation for All

"Paul writes this teeny tiny letter to Onesimous, who is characterized by slave language. But! Then Paul writes the following in verse 14 of the letter: "But I ...

Robin Henderson-Espinoza | 12 views | 3 years ago updated

Hebrews A - Long Ago

"Long ago." These are the words to the dramatic opening of the letter to the Hebrews, words that invoke the drama of creation, the drama of worlds, the drama of...

Mihee Kim-Kort | 34 views | 3 years ago updated

Hebrews B - You Are Not Alone

You are discouraged and weary, says the writer of Hebrews. You are carrying the burden of whole worlds, new worlds, new ways of being. You are traveling on a ro...

Mihee Kim-Kort | 25 views | 3 years ago updated

Romans A - All from Adam

The book of Romans in thirty seconds or less: It has been the call of God for humanity to live integrated, open, and free from the earliest Israelite culture th...

Doug Pagitt | 38 views | 3 years ago updated

New Testament: General Epistles

James A - A Letter, A Warning, A Plea

What's the book of James? It's a letter to those who feel scattered, two-faced, pushed-down, or taken in by empty promises... It's a warning to succumb to these...

Josh Lunde-Whitler | 91 views | 3 years ago updated

James B - Agents of a New Age

Sorry Reformers, but the distinction between faith and works is a false one. Faith is an active participation in the Reign of God, a tree firmly planted in the ...

Josh Lunde-Whitler | 63 views | 2 years ago updated

1 Peter A - A Little Problematic

There's a lot of reasons to look at First Peter sideways - what's this about slaves obeying harsh masters because Jesus, or women not braiding hair because auth...

Andy Meisenheimer | 62 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Peter A - Four Basic Takeaways

There's four basic takeaways in this letter: First, we are reminded that we have already been provided with everything needed to partake in the divine nature, t...

Callid Keefe-Perry | 62 views | 2 years ago updated

1 Peter B - If Only He Knew Paul Better

It may be possible to squint hard and see the good in First Peter, but I like to imagine is the stuff Peter said to Paul in the infamous tiff they had in Antioc...

Andy Meisenheimer | 58 views | 2 years ago updated

2 Peter B - What is Right

We are called to partake in the divine nature, to be caught up in that holy power and experience of freedom. And to exercise that freedom in the vision of what ...

Callid Keefe-Perry | 25 views | 3 years ago updated

1 John A - A Series of Stark Contrasts

1 John is a letter to the Christians the elderly apostle calls his "little children". As he thinks about his own death, he worries about their faith, and presen...

Jon Marlow | 26 views | 3 years ago updated

1 John B - In the Flesh

The Bible says that we're body, mind and spirit - but sometimes it feels like we're being told our bodies don't matter, or are something to be ashamed of. In co...

Jon Marlow | 29 views | 3 years ago updated

2 John A - A Practical Puzzle of Applied Theology

In just thirteen verses, Second John provides a practical puzzle of applied theology. The Elder writes to a house church rejoicing that they are living in the t...

Brian Robert Campbell | 16 views | 3 years ago updated

2 John B - This is Good News

In Second John, as in our lives, finding the Good News isn't as hard to do as it is to figure out what to do with it. The Elder rejoices that the people know th...

Brian Robert Campbell | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

3 John A - Whoever Does Good

In the letter of Third John a church leader who calls himself "The Elder" writes to his friend Gaius. He praises Gaius for the way he has shown hospitality to t...

Matt Richie | 45 views | 3 years ago updated

3 John B - Profound Acts of Love

Third John reminds us that profound acts of love can be hidden within simple gestures of hospitality, a kind of hospitality that is desperately needed in a cult...

Matt Richie | 113 views | 2 years ago updated

Jude A - Hey Jude

Hey Jude, You are a short, ferocious, simile-filled letter about some people who are infiltrating the church. We don't know exactly what these people are up to ...

Mandy Meisenheimer | 3 years ago updated

Jude B - This is Wrong

The church exists to extend the love of Jesus to the weak, the poor, the young, the old, the down-and-out, and the powerless. But it doesn't always work out tha...

Mandy Meisenheimer | 26 views | 3 years ago updated

New Testament: Revelation

Revelation A - Stubborn Hope

The Revelation from Jesus Christ to everyone caught in the thicket of empire, persecution, and death; everyone who hopes for equality, plenty, and life: the tim...

Keisha E. McKenzie | 70 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation B - Good News for the In-Betweeners

This is for the in-betweeners, living between everyday oppression and world peace, the now-is and the is-to-come, in that dry space where nothing is certain. Re...

Keisha E. McKenzie | 116 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation A - May It Be So

"In John's wild vision he sees Jesus dressed like Caesar, speaking to seven illegal churches. And the heavens are torn open and God is in his sacred court. Jesu...

Kent Dobson | 52 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation B - Come Quickly

"The book of Revelation is not a crystal ball to the future. It is a mythopoetic vision of what is already happening. We face an apocalypse of our own making, w...

Kent Dobson | 70 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation A - Come, Lord Jesus

Revelation is about the New Testament's central conflict: the lordship of Christ versus the lordship of Caesar. In nine visions John describes a God whose power...

Diana Butler Bass | 68 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation B - There is Hope

Revelation seems to depict a violent God who rejoices in wrath. It is frightening and not life-giving. But there is hope; hope from the bottom. John was a victi...

Diana Butler Bass | 33 views | 3 years ago updated