Acts 17:1-15
Reflect
On August 21, 1835, the New York Sun published a series of articles about the discovery of life on the moon. In June of 1897, reports out of New York claimed that Mark Twain was dying in poverty in London. On October 30, 1938, A Columbia Broadcasting radio play of H.G. Well’s, War of the Worlds reported an alien invasion. In January of 2015 the Empire News agency claims that a homeless man who died earlier that month in San Diego was in fact Elvis Presley. Of all the information above, none is true. Edgar Allan Poe (we think) coined the phrase “believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear.”. Does that mean we take Poe’s advice and outright refuse to believe anything that is said? That may be going too far.
In our passage today we read of the Bereans, who didn’t dismiss Paul and Silas completely. They did investigate the writings of the Old Testament to see if their teaching aligned with prophecies about the Messiah. Bereans are held up even today as a positive example of how to respond to biblical teaching. May we continue to follow the example the Bereans set for how to thoughtfully hold up the various sources of biblical teaching which we take in, to the authority of Scripture.
Pastor Mike
Pray
- Pray for our Senior Lead Team Pastor, Lyle Buyer, his ministry and family.
- Pray for our Church Board members: Gerhard Hiob, Hal Reirson, JD Kliewer, Lia Daniels, Mike Ross, Randy Voss, Seth Jansen, Trevor Toews, Uwem Okome.
- Pray for our Custodians, Adit Gamble, Stan Goodnough and Anne King; Facilities Manager, Joe Richards.
- Pray for our office staff: Vicky Bailey, Naomi Voss; Bookkeeper Lynette Carlson.