Acts | Calum Henderson

Tag Archive - Acts

This is Life – Mission Blog

August 13, 2010 in Life with 0 Comments

So the This is Life mission is stil only a few days away, and there is a blog attached to the website.

There are a few people (including me) who are contributing to this blog, so you should go check it out (here).

Also, here is a snippet from the blog post that I just wrote.

“Could you imagine 2 everyday men being brought before the federal parliament under criminal charges and preaching the gospel. Of course you can’t, this would never happen in Australia. But in the Bible, we hear a story of just this.”

Read the rest of the post here

Repent! Why? Really?

June 4, 2010 in Bible with 1 Comment

I’m currently finishing off a talk on repentance for youth group. And I’ve been reading Acts 17. It’s a great passage, and it shows us that God commands us to repent.

The people in Athens at the time are really “religious”, that is they have idols, even one to an unknown God, but they are worshipping their worldly idols, not God. And Paul says:

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Acts 17:30

I can here people in Athens asking the question: “Yeah, well why do I need to repent?”

For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.

Acts 17:31a

“Ok, so that’s why I need to, but really, how is this true?”

He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

Acts 17:31b

O snap.

I can see pretty clear links between what was happening in Athens to what is happening now. In our world today we have so many idols that we worship: sex, money, power, Facebook, sport, fame, food. Things that we devote our lives to. But God commands us to repent. We need to turn away from this world and towards him.

So three things.

Repent! Turn to God.
Why? Because Jesus is coming back to judge the world.
Really? Yeah, he rose from the dead as proof of this.

Tweets About The End Of Acts

March 15, 2010 in Bible with 1 Comment

I often Tweet Bible verses that I have read and liked or Tweet about things that I learn from the Bible.

Recently in my quiet times I finished reading the book of Acts.

As I read back through what I have Tweeted it is encouraging to see Paul’s continued courage throughout his life. When God asked something of him he would always do it, and Paul spoke about Jesus relentlessly. He is a great example for us to follow in our own ministry!

Below are some Tweets about what I read.

“(One day) the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”" Acts 19:15 http://bit.ly/bL4oyD
A man died as Paul went on and on. He fell asleep and fell out a window. In God’s mercy he was brought back to life! Acts 20
Paul didn’t hesitate to preach anything that would be helpful. He was bold, let’s follow his example. Acts 20
When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” Acts 21:14 http://bit.ly/9thHp7
“When they heard this, they praised God.” Acts 21:20http://bit.ly/93PehX
Paul was a witness for what he had seen and heard from Jesus. Jesus Christ is Lord! (Acts 22)
Paul said “I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.” Acts 23:6b
I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. Acts 24:15 All before God.
Paul was in prison/custody for a long time. Through it he continued to love God through everything! (Acts 25)
“That the Christ would suffer and,as the first to rise from the dead,would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles.” Acts 26:22
“So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.” Acts 27:25http://bit.ly/ahanIB
“Boldly and without hindrance he [Paul] preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 28:31 http://bit.ly/cFedhR

Stoned for the Gospel?

February 20, 2010 in Bible with 3 Comments

Acts is an awesome book of the Bible!

I have recently been reading through Acts in quiet times, and I have been continuously amazed by the courage and commitment of Paul and the people that preached the gospel with him!

In Acts 14, Paul gets rocks thrown at him until he is thought to be dead, and then he goes back into the city.

He then leaves the next day with his mate Barnabas.

This is amazing courage! Paul gets negative reactions all throughout the time that he is preaching the gospel, but surely this is one of the worst! He was nearly killed!

Thinking through my own life, how often do I have courage to preach the gospel? Surely if Paul got stoned for the gospel, I can risk friendships to preach the gospel.

I’m sure that if I were to preach the gospel, I would not have stones thrown at me, maybe a few harsh words, but that would be the worst.

Paul says later in Acts 14

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”

Acts 14:22b

As Christians, we need to understand that we will face hardships in preaching the gospel, but chances are that here in Australia we will never face the hardships that some other Christians are facing (See Voice of the Martyrs for people who are suffering to preach the gospel).

So let’s be bold in preaching the gospel!

6 Talks on CRAZY Bible Stories

December 10, 2009 in Bible, Kids/Youth with 7 Comments

For an upcoming beach mission, I am currently preparing 6 kids talks. They’re going to be on CRAZY Bible stories, I think it’s going to be pretty fun. I’ll be writing some reflections on this blog as I write the talks, so here is a brief outline of the talks.

CRAZY!

Talk 1 – Writing on the Wall (Daniel 5)

Introducing the series and speaking about how God speaks to us today through the Bible, after first telling the story.

Talk 2 – Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)

Saying that even though God has told us how to live through his word, we rebel against him and we deserve punishment for this.

Talk 3 – Jesus Calms the Storm (Mark 4:35-41)

Jesus is God, and he has power over creation. He is incredibly powerful. We shouldn’t doubt him.

Talk 4 – Daniel and the Lions Den (Daniel 6)

God saves Daniel in this story from the lions. God saves us from the punishment we deserve through Jesus’ death on the cross.

Talk 5 – Jesus’ Resurrection (Matthew 28:1-8)

Jesus is alive today and he is the boss of the world!

Talk 6 – Saul to Paul (Acts 9:1-22)

Saul becomes and Christian and follows Jesus. Learning about how to live a new life for Christ.

The Bible has some crazy stuff in it. But there is nothing crazier then what God has done for us. This talk series will use the crazy stuff as a base to introducing the even crazier stuff!

Biblical Storytelling

August 12, 2009 in Bible with 3 Comments

Last weekend, I experienced a Bible reading like I never had before.

I heard a reading of Acts 1-2 done by somebody from The Backyard Bard.

The Backyard Bard are a group of people that tell Biblical stories very well. This is a quote from their website:

Biblical Storytelling is not about dramatising the Bible… The Bible itself is already full of drama and emotion. It is not about bringing the Bible to life… The Bible is God’s living and active Word. Biblical Storytelling is about connecting with these dramatic and living stories, committing them to memory and sharing them with the passion that they deserve.

The Bible is amazing. It is God’s Word and it is living and active (Heb 4:12). We can read it in extremely engaging ways.

I was challenged to try and read the Bible like this at church one night, we’ll see how it goes.

If you want you can see videos of what they do here.

You can also download workshop material that they presented here (It was a really great workshop as well).

Replay – Ancon09 #2

July 6, 2009 in Bible with 0 Comments

Australia people A Christian has the Holy Spirit dwelling inside them.

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

1 Corinthians 3:16

It’s not like the Spirit is there for a short amount of time either, God’s Spirit is inside us for good.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

Ephesians 1:13

As Christians, we have the Spirit of God living inside us!

God’s Spirit has done some amazing things in the past. Throughout Acts we see incredible numbers of people coming into faith. In East Africa from 1933-1960, thousands of Africans came into belief. And in Melbourne, in 1902, 8642 people came into a relationship with Christ in 4 weeks.

If we have the Spirit of God inside us, then what cant we do within God’s will?

I believe that God is almighty, and if he dwells within us, then I believe that he can do amazing things through our weak bodies.

I have been convicted to pray for God to do great things, and I look forward to him using my weak body to serve him!