Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Acts 7:1-16.  As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

Acts 7:1-16 (NIV)
1  Then the high priest asked him, “Are these charges true?”
2  To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.
3  ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
4  “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.

On verses 1-16: Why is Stephen giving a speech to the Sanhedrin, Israel’s ruling council of elders, about the history of Israel? Remember that the Sanhedrin had accused Stephen of making false, blasphemous statements about Moses, about God (6:11), about the temple (6:13) and about the law of Moses (6:13).  They accused Stephen of trying to subvert Judaism and advocate for a new religion, saying that Jesus would change the customs which the Jews had received from Moses (Acts 6:14).

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Acts 6:1-15.  As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

Acts 6:1 (NIV)
1  In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
 
On verse 1:  In the Old Testament God shows His heart to care for orphans and widows (see for example Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; and Psalm 146:9).  This concern for orphans and widows is also found in the New Testament in verses like James 1:27, 1 Timothy 5, and here in Acts 6 where the growing Christian community has a ministry to care for widows in Jerusalem. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Acts 5:17-32.  As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

Acts 5:17-25 (NIV)
17  Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.
18  They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
19  But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.
20  “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

On verses 17-25:  The high priest is jealous of the apostles and the positive attention they were getting from the miracles God had enabled them to perform.  The high priest throws the apostles in jail.  Yet miraculously God sends an angel to deliver the apostles, taking them out of jail without being noticed.  At daybreak the next morning, the high priest finds the apostles in the temple courts telling people “the full message of this life” (v20).

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Acts 4:23-37.  As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

Acts 4:23-36 (NIV)
23  On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24  When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
25  You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26  The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.
 
On verses 24-26:  Notice how much the early church relied on two habits: prayer and studying the Scriptures.  Before the book of Acts, we see no record of the disciples searching and quoting the Scriptures themselves, but now after seeing the resurrected Jesus and after being filled with the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures become so important and alive to them. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Acts 4:1-12.  As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

Acts 4:1-4 (NIV)
1  The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.
2  They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
3  They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.
4  But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

On verses 1-4:  The Sadducees were a group that did not believe in the idea of resurrection and were big critics of anyone who preached it (see for example Matthew 22:23, Mark 12:18 and Acts 23:8).  According to Acts 5:17, the high priest and all his associates were members of the Sadducees.