From the desk of Pastor Edd

  Peter is back in Jerusalem and finds himself in an unexpected situation because of the desire of Herod to please the Jewish leadership.     Acts 12:1 Herod the king arrested some of the followers in an attempt to disrupt the movement. 2 John's brother James was killed with a sword. 3 Once he found out this treatment of the followers pleased the Jewish leadership, he found Peter and arrested him as well. Since it was during the holiday of Unleavened Bread, 4 he put Peter into prison, guarded by four squads of soldiers. Herod planned to publicly deal with Peter after the Passover ended. 5 The followers gathered for prayer and ask God with great intensity to deliver Peter.   One of the questions we might want to ask at this point, knowing that Peter will soon be released from prison in a very miraculous way, is what kind of prayer caused God to release Peter? We have all had experiences where we can see that God answers prayer and at the same time, we have...

Often in life we are led by the circumstances around us. It is almost as if we are forced to follow a particular path. Some of us see that as the hand of God directing our path. I am aware that this perspective has its difficulties when bad things happen, but I am still comfortable with God being deeply involved in the circumstances of my life. This next story in Acts puts Peter in a touchy situation because news of his involvement with Cornelius in Caesarea arrived back in Jerusalem before he did. Was this a good thing or not?     Acts 11:1 The news got back to the apostles and other followers of Jesus that the good news of the Word of God had been shared and received by the Gentiles. 2 Peter had some things to answer for when he returned to Jerusalem. 3 He was accused of going to people who were not circumcised and even eating with them. Both of these actions were against the policies of the Jewish leaders at the time. 4 So, Peter had to explain the whole story to them, and ...