holy spirit coming upon the apostles

Easter Week Four – Read the Acts of the Apostles

 April 26, 2018

Acts of the Apostles rocks! Full of adventure with fearless heroes with magical powers! During the Easter season, readings from the Old Testament are replaced by readings from Acts of the Apostles as we focus on the early church.

In my youth, inspired by the Acts of the Apostles, I had participated in peaceful protests at nuclear weapons facilities and acts of civil disobedience. I have since lost the zeal of my youth, but every Easter season as I hear Acts proclaimed in church on Sundays, I am reminded of the passion I once had.

Early Church Community!

The early years of Christianity were a roller coaster ride. First there were those post Resurrection appearances of Jesus as Jesus slipped in and out, going through closed doors, walking with apostles on the road to Emmaus and showing up while fishing. Then, Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit in wind and tongues of fire. After Pentecost, the apostles had adventures of their own. They were fearless in proclaiming the faith which resulted in the apostles spending time in jail.

Read through the Acts of the Apostles. Feel free to skip over Peter’s speeches and other speeches to get to the fun stuff. One man fell three stories from a window after falling asleep while Paul was speaking (Acts 20:9). Paul healed him and went on talking until dawn.

There were miraculous healings, multiple baptisms, times in jail and jail breaks (Acts 5:17-26; 12:6-11), the story of Stephen the first martyr (Acts 7) and the story of Paul’s conversion (Acts 9) and ensuing adventures spreading the gospel. There was also persecution of the early Christians as the apostles fearlessly continued to preach the Good News of Jesus’ life and death despite threats to their life.

You need look no further for an adventure story. Share the story with your children. It’s better than X-Men and Justice League and gives them real-life heroes to emulate!

Who are the heroes of your youth?

******************************************

Sign up to follow my blog and and receive a free copy of  Dancing on a High Wire the first book in my Dancing through Life Series.      click here to sign up

(Please note – in order to help ensure you receive email with link to new book, please add my email, patricia@patriciamrobertson.com to your contact list. Some servers are quick to send newsletters to spam or other boxes.)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.