Author: Jim Cantelon

December 30, 2020

Alms, Prayer, & Fasting 6:1-18 How NOT to Give vv. 2-4 Part 2 This secrecy in giving presents a bit of a conundrum, however. Elsewhere Jesus instructs us to “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” How does one do both? Secret and open at the same time? Seems undoable. Many theologians agree that what Jesus is saying is that we should be open in our love for neighbour but indifferent to their praise or even their opinion. When we give, we give “as unto the Lord”. Or, as one of the theological thinkers...

Read Acts 17 & 18

Key Verse: Acts 18:28 “For he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.” Paul’s second missionary journey begins in Acts 15:36 and his third in 18:23. It’s difficult remembering all the towns and cities he visited. But it’s not so tough to remember that his ministry focused mainly on what is now Western Turkey and Greece. Antioch was his “gentile” home base, Jerusalem his Jewish. Nor is it difficult to remember that, although Paul ministered mainly in the gentile world, he usually went first to the synagogues...

Read Acts 16

Key Verse: Acts 16:30 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” There aren’t many places in Acts where Luke includes himself in the narrative, but here’s one occasion when he does. “Once when we were going to the place of prayer,” he recounts, “we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling” (v.16). He goes on to say the this girl, “followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, ‘These men are servants of the most High God, who are telling you...

Read Acts 14 & 15

Key Verse: Acts 14:15 “…We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these vain things to the living God…” Perhaps you’ve noticed that people whom God has gifted with a genuine ministry of “signs and wonders” are generally pretty self-effacing about it. They keep saying things like, “I didn’t do this, God did…” or, “this is God’s doing, I’m just an instrument in His hand…” You might think it’s wonderful to have such gifts. Think again. It’s a...

Read Acts 13

Key Verse: Acts 13:32,33a “And we declare to you glad tidings — the promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus.” Paul made three missionary journeys. In this chapter we see him travelling from Antioch to Derbe and back, by way of Seleucia, Cyprus, Attalia, Perga, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. The Antioch church had a remarkable group of people prophesying and teaching. Men like Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen (a one-time friend of the Tetrarch, Herod), and Saul. During a prayer time, the Holy...

Read Acts 12

Key Verse: Acts 12:15 “You’re out of your mind’, they told her.” (NIV) Imagine that your local church suddenly came under intense persecution. The laws of the land had changed. Whereas once it had been legal to worship God, now suddenly, anyone caught worshipping God was thrown into prison. The obvious target for the authorities was pastors. Yesterday they imprisoned your pastor. So they church board called an all-night prayer meeting. Because it was dangerous to use the church building, they asked if it might be held at your house. You agreed. Tonight your house is full...

Read Acts 10 & 11

Key Verse: Acts 10:34b, 35 “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.” The first major social controversy in the early church concerned the equal distribution of assistance to both Greek and Hebrew-speaking widows (ch.6). The first major leadership controversy dealt with the acceptance of Saul of Tarsus as a fellow preacher. The first major theological controversy was, perhaps, the first crisis of magnitude. The issue, simply stated, related to the preaching of a Jewish gospel, by Jewish preachers,...

December 23, 2020

Alms, Prayer & Fasting 6: 1-18 Showing Off v. 1 In the Jewish culture of the time there were three religious core values: alms giving, prayer, fasting. All three could be done in secret but they also could be done publicly with great show of piety. One could give to the beggar, and beseech heaven with theatrical flourish, and fast with slumped shoulders, unwashed face, soiled clothing and bad breath. In every case attention was paid to pious pilgrim by the people, with little or no notice in heaven. Jesus casts such displays as counter-productive. They may impress the public, he says, but...

Read Acts 8 & 9

Key Verse: Acts 9:27 “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles…” I remember, as a schoolboy in Saskatchewan, learning to sing, “Home on the Range”: “Home, home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day.” Have you heard any “discouraging words” lately? Sometimes those words come non-verbally from the circumstances you face. Sometimes they’re the well-meaning but unnecessary comments from a friend. Other times they are self-accusing...

December 21, 2020

Everywhere people are gearing up for a truncated, if not solitary, Christmas Day. The Covid news keeps deteriorating. As of the past few days we’re suddenly aware of a Covid “variant” that has emerged in the UK. Yikes! Scores of countries are closing borders to any British attempts at entry. All this while Brexit is in final death throes. It’s not inappropriate to refer to 2020 as an “apocalyptic” year, with more to come. We can try to mitigate but we can’t avoid the impact of sorrow on sorrows, not just in terms of Covid, but also convulsions of war, famine, and political upheavals. Nevertheless...

Read Acts 6 & 7

Key Verse: Acts 6:2b, 4 “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables…but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word!” It never seems to fail. Get a bunch of people organized into some sort of group and, before you know it, you’ve got dispute and division. The early church was just a few months (perhaps even weeks) old when the Greek-speaking Jewish believers (Hellenists) became upset because they thought they were being discriminated against. They complained that the Hebrew-speaking widows were getting all...

Read Acts 5

Key Verse: Acts 5:20 “Go, stand in the temple courts’, he said, ‘and tell the people the full message of this life!'” (NIV) If you haven’t said it yourself, you’re probably heard it said, “I’d just love to see one miracle! One would be enough. Then I’d be convinced; then I’d be sure…” Well, suppose we not only saw one miracle, but several, scores even — and what’s more, we were the miracle workers! What a wonder just to see them, do them, and to see the work they were accomplishing in the lives of afflicted human...