Bible Challenge 01/22 - 01/28

Greetings All!

This week we finish up our journey through the Gospels and move into the history of the early church with the book of Acts.

Acts or Acts of the Apostles, is the second of Luke's major writing, showing how the disciples spread the goods news of the Gospel after Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension back to heaven. The key verse for this book is Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." This verses sets the tone for all of the action in the book. The first major segment is chapters 1-7 where the actions centers around the Jews in Jerusalem and Peter is the main figure. The timeline here is about 2 years from Pentecost through the stoning of Stephen. The second major segment is chapters 8-12 and shows the spread of the Gospel out from Jerusalem into the regions of Judea and Samaria. Here the central figure is Philip and his main audience the Samaritans. The timeline here is 13 years from Stephen's stoning to Paul's missionary journeys. Finally the last segment of the book in chapters 13-28 details the spread of the Gospel past the known areas of Jesus and the disciples out to the uttermost parts of the earth as Paul travels all around the Roman world preaching to the Gentiles. This covers about 14 years from his first missionary journey through to his release from the Romans.

I know you are excited to get going, so here is the schedule for this week:

22, Sunday: John 17-20

23, Monday: John 21 - Acts 3

24, Tuesday: Acts 4-7

25, Wednesday: Acts 8-11

26, Thursday: Acts 12-15

27, Friday: Acts 16-19

28, Saturday: Acts 20-23

May God add His richest blessings to the reading, the hearing and the living out of His holy word. Amen.