Bible Commentary

Have you noticed that most of Jesus’ conversations were with people on the fringes of society, people regarded as having little value or even as cursed by God?

How often have you suddenly come upon a mission opportunity that you did not expect?

Today begins a five-lesson series about people who experienced new life in Christ. Each of these people is outside the common thinking of first century Jewish theology, offering us an opportunity to reexamine our faith in light of their experience.

Paul had been taken into Roman custody for being at the center of a riot in the Jerusalem temple complex (Acts 21:26-22:29). For his own safety, he was taken to Caesarea (23:11-37), where he remained in the custody of the Roman governor Felix for two years (24:27).

In Acts 2 we see the critical connection of the mystical and practical in God’s church.

Simon Peter preached the first sermon recorded in Acts, remarkable because we remember him denying he knew Christ after the arrest in Gethsemane (Luke 22:54-60).

Jesus and his disciples had shared the Passover meal (Luke 22:23-48). During the meal, Jesus predicted his betrayal by one of his disciples (vv. 21-23).

Within weeks of my profession of faith I was exposed to Pentecostal teachings in some friends' churches, where many people broke out in spiritual languages, danced in the aisles and laid hands on me to impart the Spirit.

Do you believe in miracles?

An article in Parade Magazine affirms the belief in miracles by members of the Beam family after their daughter survived a fall that her doctors declared would take her life. “Today, more than four years after the December 2011 incident, Annabel still takes no medication and has no symptoms."

My beginning exposure to faith was in the mainline Protestant church world with its dignified ways, formal worship, doctrinal statements and age-graded Sunday School.