Today Our Daily Bread Acts 17 ++

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Acts 17:1-34
Paul Preaches in Thessalonica
1Now Paul and Silas traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2As was Paul's custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he interpreted the Scriptures to the people. 3He was explaining and proving the prophecies about the sufferings of the Messiah and his rising from the dead. He said, "This Jesus I'm telling you about is the Messiah." 4Some who listened were persuaded and became converts, including a large number of godly Greek men and also many important women of the city. F88
5But the Jewish leaders were jealous, so they gathered some worthless fellows from the streets to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd. F89 6Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers F90 instead and took them before the city council. "Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are here disturbing our city," they shouted. 7"And Jason has let them into his home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, Jesus."
8The people of the city, as well as the city officials, were thrown into turmoil by these reports. 9But the officials released Jason and the other believers after they had posted bail.
Paul and Silas in Berea
10That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the synagogue. 11And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth. 12As a result, many Jews believed, as did some of the prominent Greek women and many men.
13But when some Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God in Berea, they went there and stirred up trouble. 14The believers acted at once, sending Paul on to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. 15Those escorting Paul went with him to Athens; then they returned to Berea with a message for Silas and Timothy to hurry and join him.
Paul Preaches in Athens
16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. 17He went to the synagogue to debate with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.
18He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, "This babbler has picked up some strange ideas." Others said, "He's pushing some foreign religion."
19Then they took him to the Council of Philosophers. F91 "Come and tell us more about this new religion," they said. 20"You are saying some rather startling things, and we want to know what it's all about." 21(It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)
22So Paul, standing before the Council, F92 addressed them as follows: "Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious, 23for as I was walking along I saw your many altars. And one of them had this inscription on it—'To an Unknown God.' You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about him.
24"He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples, 25and human hands can't serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need there is. 26From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27"His purpose in all of this was that the nations should seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28For in him we live and move and exist. As one of your own poets says, 'We are his offspring.' 29And since this is true, we shouldn't think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. 30God overlooked people's former ignorance about these things, but now he commands everyone everywhere to turn away from idols and turn to him. F93 31For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead."
32When they heard Paul speak of the resurrection of a person who had been dead, some laughed, but others said, "We want to hear more about this later." 33That ended Paul's discussion with them, 34but some joined him and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Council, F94 a woman named Damaris, and others.
FOOTNOTES:F88: Some manuscripts read many of the wives of the leading men. F89: Or the city council. F90: Greek brothers; also in 17:10, 14. F91: Greek the Areopagus. F92: Or in the middle of Mars Hill; Greek reads in the middle of the Areopagus. F93: Greek everywhere to repent. F94: Greek an Areopagite.


Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.


~ Lena’s Journalin’ Today ~
Ever feel you are persecuted wrongly, and blamed for something you did not directly do? Did you know that to take the brunt of the blame is an attribute of the character of God? It is in God’s character likeness, that I would take a persecution not due me. Didn’t God take on a persecution not due Him?
Wow, think about this one, what if the person deserving the persecution could not handle the persecution and would lose faith or turn from God in it and somehow I was able to keep my faith through it and so I took it for them?
That is the nature of God to take punishment for blame and take it on themselves while sparing the others. Why would one be able to do this while another could not take it or even think to act this way? That has to do with spiritual growth and maturity. Paul writes here that some are more open than others are.
One reason a person is more open is their hunger level. Have they been searching out the scriptures? Are they hungry for the things of God? Or do they just act like it to be a part of the “Christian in crowd”?
Tests/persecution show us whether we really believe or not, whether we are “in or out”. They show us to ourselves, where our own faith is and where it needs further development. I bet that day when it was Jason instead of Paul, Jason had a real good faith adjustment period, real quick. Jason was a disciple of Paul, maybe for a period of time, he “rode” on Paul’s glorious strong faith and the results of Paul’s personal Encounter with God. Today Jason was not only standing before human persecutors, all of the angels of heaven were looking on cheering, waiting to see if Jason’s faith was his own faith in action, if Jason would live out his “yes” and “Amen’s” to Paul’s victories. Would the victories become Jason’s also, not just Paul’s? The tests will tell.
What have the tests told us about ourselves lately?
That we trust God enough to do what he says without a whole list of questions? I was thinking about all of the people’s we read about in scripture who were approached by God concerning changing their lives or changes that would happen to their lives if their lives were completely given over to His will. Some responded in faith and the rewards He was trying to present them became theirs, others could not believe it and went through times of struggle and a path towards turning around.
Have the tests told us of our faith level which needs increase? How is one’s faith increased? Through relationship with God the father. When we relate to someone and get closer and closer we talk a lot, communicate, when we communicate, we have two way dialog. In the two way dialog, God the father speaks words from the Bible to us that become alive to us and light to us, those words create instantaneous faith! Without the relationship, the words on the pages, given to us by God, are black and white print and there’s not a whole lot of faith involved in them. But in the relationship we find those same black and white words become life to us and faith comes in river’s full.
Notice here who or what always comes against God’s words of truth- religion! Even inside of our own mind’s battle there is a religious upbringing, religious ideas that get in the way of God’s words bringing faith. Religion is not relationship and actually comes against it in a big way, why? Well relationship brings faith and if there were a whole world of faith-filled people something would happen that is glorious to God and tragic to God’s enemy. Why do you think the enemy comes down on us so much where accepting God’s word and a personal relationship with God is concerned?
The more we confirm what we hear by relational research, the more faith will come to us, with faith all things are possible to us. Dig in to the relationship of the spirit with God your Father! When a teaching comes your way, go search it out. God find out if it is as is presented, but don’t do it for the sake of contesting the messenger, use the filter of the word and the spirit to help you look for and find God in every word that is from His word. Even if the messenger is questionable or we don’t like them or the words are new to us, we can take those words in to our father and say, Lord speak to me. That’s what relationship does. It’s like a kid coming home from school and telling dad or mom or Gma what they learned. We take what we learn to our father and he helps us. Searching His word helps us!

Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored.
19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.