ripple effect: vacaville

Read Acts 12:1-25.

1. I just want to praise God today. Even though I didn’t get done in a year, 300 entries is no small feat. I know that I have grown in the past year, and I am thankful to God for all the illumination and revelations that He has given me.
2. Wow…just when things were going so well, Herod (a different one) arrested Christians. Wow…just like that, James, the disciple was stabbed to death. What’s most interesting is that it seemed to “please the Jews” to have James (a former fisherman, turned apostle) killed. Why do you think they like it so much?
3. Uh oh…now Peter? This could be bad… Sixteen guys were guarding this one guy. I guess they didn’t want any “funny business” like the last time he was arrested. Good thing the church was praying.
4. Peter was chained to two soldiers. That’s how serious of a threat they considered him to be. Imagine the angel just waking him up, in that predicament. And the cuffs came off…
5. I bet it was awfully trippy to fall asleep with two soldiers chained to you and all of a sudden be free, following an angel out of the prison. I can see why he thought it was a dream.
6. And no one woke up?!?
7. Oh, and the iron gate opens by itself! Wow…and angel left when the coast was clear.
8. Peter pinched himself, realized he wasn’t dreaming, and thanked God for it.
9. OK, so is this another Mary? It appears so. And she has a son named Mark. That’s the one considered to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Imagine Peter just knocking on the door to a prayer meeting that was about him being in prison! Rhoda almost flipped her wig, and the disciples thought she had. Surprise. It was HIM.
10. Peter was smart. They would have been looking for him there, so it was good that he went somewhere else to lie low.
11. “No small commotion.” He he he…yeah, I think that some of those guys has some job performance issues. After a careful evaluation, they got more than a pink slip– Herod had them killed!

12. This all seems kind of random about Herod going to Caesarea. I just would like to say that you don’t hear of too many people named Blastus. Almost sounds like a Master of the Universe character.
13. How about that! Herod was called a god, and he died on the spot because he didn’t give glory to God! Whoah. I wonder if he was eaten by worms instantly, or if they ate him like they eat normal buried people… That was for James, Herod!
14. I love that little caveat…”But the word of God continued to increase and spread.”
15. OK, so Barnabas came back from their “mission” (hmm…is this why we call preaching in foreign places “mission” trips) with Mark. Sweet. The team is growing!