Friends, I'm excited about this episode. It's a gripping one. You never win when you try to go against God! The Philistines learned this the hard way when they stole the Ark of the Covenant. This is also when Samuel becomes Israel's judge.

We are reading 1 Samuel 4 through 7.

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The past few weeks I've been able to return to church--praise God! I've been watching from home for two years because of my health. The last sermon's main verse was from the book of James. It really caught my attention and I knew in that instant that I wanted the next episode to be the book of James. There is a lot of good advice here, including suggestions for healing, which I have been considering. As always, thank you for your patience!

We are reading the entire book of James.

Tonight we continue on in the books of Acts. The apostles are spreading the good news and healing the sick, but they are met with opposition. They decide to appoint seven men to assist with some other duties. Stephen is one of those men. We do not get the typical happy ending with this story. I can't imagine going through what he did. Here we are also introduced to Saul who later becomes Paul. To continue the story, go to the episode called Saul of Tarsus.

We are reading Acts 4:32 through 7.

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I'm not sure why but I felt really encouraged to read the beginning of Acts about the disciples being sent out into the world to heal and preach about Jesus. Maybe it's because I've gotten so into The Chosen, which helped bring all of them to life. It's interesting that they didn't just stick with eleven apostles. Numbers mean something to God and twelve is seen quite a bit throughout the Bible.

I speak some Spanish and years ago, when my husband and I were traveling in Colombia, we took an Uber to the airport. Our Uber driver turned out to be a Christian who was no longer attending church, but he expressed that he felt bad about having drifted away from God. We had just heard an amazing sermon on following God and being obedient, even if you don't necessarily have the WILL to do it. We may not always have the will, but what we do have is a CHOICE. We can choose to do the right thing, and then the will will follow. I explained this concept to him and the Spanish was fluently flowing out of me. I know it was God giving me that ability. It was such an unreal feeling. The driver got very emotional while we were speaking, and we prayed with him once we arrived to the airport. I praise God for that divine appointment and the gift He gave me in the moment to help that man.

We are reading Acts 1 through 4, stopping at verse 31.

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