This week's text is Acts 14. Here we'll see the early nuances of the different places that Paul & Barnabas visited as they shared the good news about Jesus. We'll hear boldness and danger. Conversion and conflict. We'll also see another first as they return to Antioch where their trip had begun. This chapter is raw and honest providing us with a view of the up's and down's of sharing faith. May we - by their stories - be encouraged in our own grace-dispensing.
If you'd like dig a little deeper this week follow this LINK to gain some helpful perspectives on these two chapters. Come be part of the process. The seemingly strange title of our series - The Burning Hearts - is taken from the story of two of Jesus’ followers who were on a walk to Emmaus not long after the reported resurrection of Jesus. He (Jesus) appeared to them and walked with them and talked with them. But they did not know it was Jesus initially because God kept them from recognizing Him. They sit to eat and as Jesus prays their eyes are opened to His true identity. The phrase they use is the foundation for the picture the book of Acts will be drawing... “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?...” It is this burning that helps shape the beginning of the New Testament church. The book of Acts explores what it means to have that burning heart and what it looks like in community. The church is both described and defined as She becomes the expression of Jesus that would carry His message until His ultimate return.
