Acts 2:3-31

For Reading and Meditation:     Acts 2:29-41

Let us pursue the question we asked yesterday: What exactly do we mean by resurrection? Some try to explain the resurrection as resuscitation - the return to life from apparent death. Those holding this view subscribe to what is called "The Swoon Theory." There are two forms of this theory. One maintains that Jesus did...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Corinthians 15:1-11

What other world religion has at its heart such a glorious fact as our Lord's resurrection? Christianity is the only faith whose Founder died upon a cross, was buried for three days, and then returned from the dead. There are voices in today's church trying to persuade us that the resurrection of Christ never...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 19:28-37

The chief difference between other religions and the Christian faith as it relates to the matter of personal salvation is: every other religion teaches a form of self-salvation; Christianity teaches that God came in the Person of His Son to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. One Christian writer, Emil...

Rich were the blessings of this day if all of us were filled with the Holy Ghost. The consequences of this sacred filling of the soul it would be impossible to overestimate. Life, comfort, light, purity, power, peace; and many other precious blessings are inseparable from the Spirit's benign presence. As sacred oil, he anoints the head of the believer, sets him apart to the priesthood of saints, and gives him grace to execute his office aright. As the only truly purifying water he cleanses...

No purpose of God can be thwarted. Man may have his wickedness, but God has His way. Man may have a lot to say, but God will have the last word. Solomon reminds us that "there is no wisdom or counsel against the Lord" (Proverbs 21:30). And Jeremiah adds his testimony that "every purpose of the Lord shall be performed" (Jeremiah 51:29).

Joseph's brothers decided to get rid of him by selling him...

Acts 2:1-13

This is the story of the beginning of the Christian Church. It was fifty days after the death of Christ. It did not occur at a convention - it was not an earth-born organization that was effected that day - it was heaven - born. When Jesus ascended, He sent His disciples to prayer, continuous prayer. The prayer was for a definite object. A promise had been given to them - but they were to get it by...

Your lamb shall be without blemish. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. § The blood of sprinkling. § Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. § Being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. § According to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in...

It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! § [Jesus], being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death. § Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands, saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?” § Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others;...

Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?Jesus … saw two brothers … casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me.” § Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should...

Manasseh … did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out … He raised up altars for Baal … And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. § Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God,...