Picturepocket's Blog

Tag: Bible

  • Acts 12: Fear, Faith & Flattery

    In case we forget about King Herod, he has James the brother of John killed with a sword. This gets him a positive reaction from the established religious leaders, so he arrests Peter too. Herod holds him in jail during the holiday of the Unleavened Bread while the believers desperately pray.  Despite four squads of…

  • Acts 10: Peter & Cornelius 

    In this section, we look at how the Gentiles were added to the community of Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit.

  • Acts 8: Saul, Simon and The Spirit  

    With the stoning of Stephen, the gloves were off when it came to the burgeoning new church. The religious establishment were intent on crushing the beautiful new community of Jesus. Saul, a young Pharisee, entered private homes and dragged men and women off to prison. The believers scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Many of the…

  • Acts 7: Martyr 

    At the temple, Stephen retells the spiritual history of Israel from the perspective of the Holy Spirit. He starts with the calling of Abraham to go West from Mesopotamia to a yet unknown promised land. Then he tells of the subsequent years of slavery in Egypt and Israel’s salvation through Moses, Aaron and gift of…

  • Acts 5: Fakes & Faith

    In the chapter before, the community of believers lived idyllically with everyone sharing and no one having an unmet need among them. A man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a property and they kept a portion back and brought the rest and laid it at the feet of Peter. Peter calls him out…

  • Acts 4: Fame

    In this chapter, the Sadducees, the wealthy religious elite that don’t believe in resurrection, react to the healing of the man by the temple in the name of Jesus. They were “greatly annoyed” because they killed Jesus and now his obnoxious followers are going around doing and saying all the same things. They have Peter…

  • Acts 3: Better than Gold

    In this chapter Peter and John go to the temple and see a man begging. He has been lame from birth, and lives by asking for alms of those entering to worship. Peter asks him to look at them, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In…

  • Acts 2: The Gift

    Chapter 2 starts on the day of Pentecost, which is 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead. It is also a Holy Day that Jews commemorate Moses receiving the Ten Commandments (Shavuot) on Mount Sinai. The 120 were all together and a wind blew through the house and rested above each one like tongues…

  • John 21: The Last Breakfast

    Simon Peter invites the other disciples to go fishing with him. So he along with, Nathaniel, Thomas, James, John and two others go to the Sea of Tiberius, which is also called the Sea of Galilee depending on what area you are from. They went out on the boat and caught nothing all night. At…

  • John 20: Alive

    Foreword: Between John chapter 19 and 20 is a missing day. Nothing happens on Saturday. It must have been the longest, saddest day for the disciples of Jesus who left their homes and their jobs and their families to follow him. The man who healed the sick and raised the dead, fed the masses, saw…