Thomas Watson Sr. built IBM into one of the most dominant companies in the world. He was not known for softness. In the early years of the company, a salesman cost Watson a government bid approaching a million dollars — a deal IBM desperately needed. The rep walked into Watson’s
Read MoreIn Acts 15, the early church faced a defining question: on what terms did Gentiles belong to the people of God? Jewish believers who had come to faith in Jesus were insisting that Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. The debate threatened to fracture the
Read MorePeter was a faithful Jewish believer who would not have entered a Gentile home under ordinary circumstances — doing so would have made him ritually unclean. For him, the boundary between Jew and Gentile was not casual. It was a matter of covenant identity. So before God sent
Read MoreIn Acts 15, the Jerusalem church faced a crisis. Jewish believers who had come to faith in Jesus were insisting that Gentile converts — people Jesus had already accepted and the Holy Spirit had already filled — must also be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved. These
Read MoreYour kid came home with a phrase you didn't have an answer for. "That's my truth." "Love means accepting everything." "The church is always on the wrong side of history." "Believe what you want, but don't judge me." These ideas spread fast because they sound liberating. But if you've been trying to raise a family in the
Read MoreRight in the middle of the most generous offer in his sermon, Paul stops and issues a warning. “Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you.” He then quotes the prophet Habakkuk: the scoffing world, trained to dismiss what it would never believe even if Right
Read MoreWhen Paul reaches the center of his sermon, everything turns on two words.
“But God raised him from the dead.” (Acts 13:30)
He doesn’t offer the resurrection as a metaphor or a spiritual feeling. He stacks evidence: names,
Read MoreWhen Paul stood in that synagogue in Pisidian Antioch and walked his audience through the story of Israel — from Abraham through Moses to David — he wasn’t giving a history lesson. He was making an argument. And the hinge of the argument was a single word. He said God had
Read MoreOn a Sabbath morning in Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas walked into a synagogue, took their seats, and listened as the Law and the Prophets were read aloud. When the leaders turned to them and said, “Brothers, if you have a word of encouragement for the people, please speak,” t
Read MoreThere is a detail in Acts 13 that is easy to read past, but it changes everything about what happens next. The Holy Spirit does not speak to Barnabas and Saul during a planning session. Not during a leadership retreat. Not while someone reviews a ministry opportunity spreadsheet.
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