Having been sent out by the Holy Spirit, the missionaries Barnabas and Saul, with John as their helper, enjoyed smooth sailing and success in the early phase of their journey. However, in Paphos the missionaries encountered resistance in the person of Elymas. One must not mistake ease and large audiences as evidences of God’s favor, just as hardship and...

I’ll never forget Easter weekend in 2009. I was making a sandwich on Sunday after church, exhausted after weeks of working seemingly nonstop in my job with a Christian ministry. I slept poorly. I worked long hours. I barely took any time off. But it was worth it; after all, it was all “for the mission,” y’know? But this...

Unless you live a very peculiar kind of life, Exaltation is a word we don’t use much at all in everyday conversation. But if you are a Christian, you do benefit from it every day. Exaltation means to lift someone up, or to elevate them in status. In other words, it is the opposite of humiliation, which means to...

Reflect on the fact that James, a disciple of Jesus and brother of John, was executed at the hand of King Herod, while Peter, another disciple, would miraculously be set free. Did God display greater love to Peter than to James? Many believers find it easier to acknowledge God’s sovereignty when His will aligns with their preferred outcome. This...

The word “humiliation” is not one that we often associate with Jesus. It’s one that we can’t help but read in a negative light. But as we will see, when it’s connected to Jesus, it has some really good news.  Humiliation as we typically understand it, means to put someone to shame. But in an older sense, the word...

Neither angels nor an empty tomb were enough for Mary. She still assumed that Jesus’ body had been stolen (vv. 2,13). Dead or alive, she wanted to be near her Savior but did not know where His body lay. Though she was slow to believe in the resurrection, her allegiance to Jesus was nevertheless steadfast. She was committed to...