DAY 314 Read Acts 12 and 13.
Today's reading: A puppet monarch, in order to gain popularity, executes one apostle and plans a repeat. A miracle thwarts his scheme. With chapter 13 we begin a new section concentrating on Paul's missionary adventures.
Memory gem: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).
Thought for today:
In New Testament times, Elymas the sorcerer withstood Paul and Barnabas at Paphos on the island of Cyprus. The same heathen principles, the same claims, the same actions, the same powers, the same supposed dealing with the dead, the same communion with demons are in the world today.
We are not speaking of mere legendary tales about ghosts and goblins, black cats, or old women riding on broomsticks through the air. We are speaking of unseen powers which control the minds and bodies of people today and have done so since ancient times.
There is nothing actually new in the great occult explosion of today except that it is modernized, streamlined, and brought up to date in a hundred forms so as to be palatable to all classes of our society.
There is a danger that many may be drawn into the terrible delusion which is about to sweep the world. It is time for us to study God's Word as we have never studied it before. The Scriptures command us to "resist the devil," and the promise is that he will flee from us.
Surely Christians who have apostolic warning of such things (see Galatians 5:19-21) will have nothing to do with the delusive practices of ancient or modern times.
----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
Acts 12:4. "Easter"--literally: Passover. This is the only place in the Bible where the translators used this Anglo-Saxon name of a pagan festival instead of the correct name for the Hebrew Passover.
Today's reading: A puppet monarch, in order to gain popularity, executes one apostle and plans a repeat. A miracle thwarts his scheme. With chapter 13 we begin a new section concentrating on Paul's missionary adventures.
Memory gem: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).
Thought for today:
In New Testament times, Elymas the sorcerer withstood Paul and Barnabas at Paphos on the island of Cyprus. The same heathen principles, the same claims, the same actions, the same powers, the same supposed dealing with the dead, the same communion with demons are in the world today.
We are not speaking of mere legendary tales about ghosts and goblins, black cats, or old women riding on broomsticks through the air. We are speaking of unseen powers which control the minds and bodies of people today and have done so since ancient times.
There is nothing actually new in the great occult explosion of today except that it is modernized, streamlined, and brought up to date in a hundred forms so as to be palatable to all classes of our society.
There is a danger that many may be drawn into the terrible delusion which is about to sweep the world. It is time for us to study God's Word as we have never studied it before. The Scriptures command us to "resist the devil," and the promise is that he will flee from us.
Surely Christians who have apostolic warning of such things (see Galatians 5:19-21) will have nothing to do with the delusive practices of ancient or modern times.
----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
Acts 12:4. "Easter"--literally: Passover. This is the only place in the Bible where the translators used this Anglo-Saxon name of a pagan festival instead of the correct name for the Hebrew Passover.
RSS Feed
