GodSpeak for the Week of March 24
BeTheLINK
We continue our Lenten Sunday series, by considering how we as members of Bethel are being called to BeTheLINK…that is, the way for people to connect back to Christ in the midst of our broken world.
Day 1…Read Acts 1:1-11
- Consider this – Luke writes the book of Acts to a person named, Theophilus. In Greek, this person’s name literally means “friend of God.”
- Answer this – how are these verses (and, everything Luke will write in the rest of Acts) acting as a LINK to this “friend of God”?
Day 2…Read Acts 1:1-11 (again)
- Consider this – the first words Luke writes note that in his “former book” (i.e., the Gospel of Luke) he had offered a bunch about Jesus’ life; details which he recaps in the first 9 verses, here.
- Answer this – how do the books of Luke and Acts act as a LINK for us to this day, and why is that such a gift that we have these two books of the Bible?
Day 3…Read Acts 3:1-10
- Consider this – here, we have the famous story of Peter’s healing (or, IS it Peter’s healing?) of the crippled beggar.
- This comes soon after the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and it employs the help of the man who’d sworn he would never deny Jesus!
- Answer this – what kind of LINK does Luke bless us with in terms of understanding: where Peter had been, where he had gotten to and the Lord’s grace worked through him?
Day 4…Read Acts 17:16-34
- Consider this – here, Paul has gone to Athens, Greece, where he has been invited to speak about Jesus in front of the Areopagus (a think-tank of Greece’s smartest citizens).
- Before he goes, Paul has walked around Athens – and, he’s noticed that (among all their various temples and statues to all of their gods) they even have an altar set up inscribed with the words “To An Unknown God” (v. 23)
- Answer this – how does Paul act as a LINK for these brilliant men who believe in false, ineffective gods?
Day 5…Read Romans 15:14-17
- Consider this – after Pentecost and as the disciples began to go in different directions to share the Gospel of Jesus, people like Peter went to be a LINK for Jesus to Jewish folks. Paul, though, was sent to be a LINK to a very different group of people.
- Answer this – who was Paul sent to LINK to Jesus and what was his desired outcome for them?
Day 6…Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
- Consider this – here, we come across Paul’s famous passage on the “one body” having “many parts.”
- Answer this – how does Paul LINK different people with different gifts into “one body”? What is it (better, WHO is it) who unites?
- For what purpose have all these “parts” been LINKED?