{"id":10038,"date":"2022-01-24T06:37:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T12:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-acts-28\/"},"modified":"2021-12-28T15:17:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T21:17:43","slug":"devotional-on-acts-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-acts-28\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Acts"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15979\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15979\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239576.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239576-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15979\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239576-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239576-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239576-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239576-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/P6239576.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15979\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mt St Helens, WA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The story continues <\/p>\n<p>Acts 28: Paul lived for two years in his rented house.<\/p>\n<p>The adventure at sea over, the prisoner Paul arrives in Rome.  There, in a rented house with a Roman guard, Paul sets up shop, welcoming those who come to talk about Jesus.  Luke\u2019s account ends here.  Frankly, it\u2019s not a very satisfying ending.  When I conclude reading the gospels I finish each of them feeling quite satisfied.  After all, the resurrection pretty much sums up the story.  Beyond that, the book of Revelation probably wins the prize for having the most satisfying conclusion.  The book of Acts, though, leaves me wondering what happens next.  Here\u2019s Paul, still a prisoner, waiting his turn to state his case in Caesar\u2019s court.  I have to look beyond the Bible to find what happens next.  The most common speculation is that Paul is released after two years, probably because his case is thrown out of court.  He returns to his missionary efforts, and, later on, is arrested again and this time is executed in Rome.  Why our writer, Luke, doesn\u2019t continue his account is unknown.  Perhaps he leaves Rome, never to return, while Paul is held under house arrest.  Perhaps he did continue with part two of his account but it was somehow lost.  Maybe the cliff hanger conclusion to Acts is intended to remind me that the Book of Acts is still being written.  After all, the purpose of the book is to tell how the Holy Spirit works through the Church to carry out the mission given it by the Lord.  The story won\u2019t be complete until the return of Jesus to this world.  To some extent, all Christians are characters in this continuing story.  We don\u2019t think about it very often, but it might be said that we\u2019re living in the book of Acts.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: The Holy Spirit continues to work in this world.  How can I best cooperate and partner with him?<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The story continues Acts 28: Paul lived for two years in his rented house. The adventure at sea over, the prisoner Paul arrives in Rome. There, in a rented house with a Roman guard, Paul sets up shop, welcoming those who come to talk about Jesus. Luke\u2019s account ends here. Frankly, it\u2019s not a very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1485,1428],"tags":[1268,439,558,744],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10038"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10038"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15981,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10038\/revisions\/15981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}