Acts 18:1-18 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla… (v. 2) Aquila was a traveler!! Pontus was a region along the north/northeast coast of modern-day Turkey, bordering the Black Sea to the north. To get to Italy Aquila had to travel west through …
Author Archives: Fred
August 4 / Acts 17:16-34
Acts 17:16-34 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. (v. 21) This sentence seems to me very unlike the rest of Luke’s writing. Most often he is direct, specific, exact. Here he is speaking very generally – …all the Athenians… …
August 3 / Acts 17:1-15
Acts 17:1-15 …they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. (v. 17b) I should have pointed out yesterday that Paul and Silas did not go to the synagogue in Philippi, but went down to the river where there was a “place of prayer”. Then upon coming to Thessalonica Paul and Silas …
August 2 / Acts 16:16-40
Acts 16:16-40 I commented yesterday that Luke was also preaching the gospel (Acts 16:10). Today, we see him again in Acts 16:16-17. However, it seems that Luke was not as forthright as Paul and Silas in his preaching, in that he was not seized by the owners or beaten by the magistrates: But when her …
August 1 / Acts 15:36-16:15
Acts 15:36-16:16 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (v. 10) No doubt, upon reading this verse the words “we” and “us” immediately jumped out at you. Yes, this is the first occurrence of the …
August 2021 Readings
Date Reading(s) Verses 01-Aug Acts 15:36-16:15 21 02-Aug Acts 16:16-40 25 03-Aug Acts 17:1-15 15 04-Aug Acts 17:16-34 19 05-Aug Acts 18:1-28 28 06-Aug I Thess.1:1-10 10 07-Aug I Thess. 2:1-20 20 08-Aug I Thess. 3:1-13 13 09-Aug I Thess. 4:1-18 18 10-Aug I Thess. 5:1-28 28 11-Aug II Thess. 1:1-12 12 12-Aug II Thess. …
July 31 / James 5:1-20
James 5:1-20 Come now, you rich, weep and howl… (v. 1a) You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. (v. 5a) Often when I read a New Testament item about the rich I pause and consider the full context, because compared to the rest of the world we in the USA are …
July 30 / James 4:1-17
James 4:1-17 I’m thinking again about the profiteering that James discusses in James 4:13-17. I already discussed entrepreneurship in my second post (below) from last year and I see good in a lot of entrepreneurial activities. But there are some that strike me wrong. Right now I’m thinking of housing developments. We live in the …
July 29 / James 3:1-18
James 3:1-18 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts… (v. 14) and For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist… (v. 16) I wonder what’s going on in James’ world that he would point out jealousy and selfish ambition twice here. Back in Galatians Paul seemed to imply that this was …
July 28 / James 2:1-26
James 2:1-26 James writes that in keeping the Law but failing in one point a person is guilty of the whole Law. He uses an example: If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. (v. 11b) For our 21st-century society that example needs to be flipped: …