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November 17 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
9 Plays2 days ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
Today we will continue to read about Paul's journey to and arrival in Jerusalem with Acts Chapter 2:1-24 and 26-40.
Today we will read about and discuss Paul receiving communication from the Holy Spirit telling him that hard times are coming for him in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit sent messages via prophecy all along Paul's journey. Today we will read about Agabus, a prophet, who showed and told Paul exactly what would happen to Paul when he used Paul's belt to tie his own hands and feet. He also told Paul that the Jewish leaders would send Paul to people who are not Jewish. In response to this information the believers around Paul were scared for him and discouraged him from continuing on his journey, to which Paul replied that he would not avoid his calling.
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about the parallels that this event has with Jesus' own knowledge of what was going to happen to him. We will talk about the fact that God knows the plans He has for us and He is with us no matter what those plans may be. God does not tell us what is going to happen because He is setting us up for failure. He tells us so that we will be ready for the task that we are going to face. He tells us to encourage us, to strengthen us, the same way that He strengthened and prepared Jesus and as we saw today, Paul. Let us also be encouraged to do God's will, whatever it is He is giving us to do, and not be discouraged from drinking the cup that the Father is giving us to drink.
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Transcript
Introduction and Availability of Daily Bible Readings
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back. Welcome to another daily reading out of the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley. Today's reading is for November 17th.
00:00:13
Speaker
My name is Robin. I am within the Family Way Coaching and it is my pleasure to be your reader. Thank you so much for joining me this year, whether you are following along on your podcast or whether you are watching the video somewhere.
00:00:27
Speaker
I'm just so glad that you are listening to the Bible with me this year. In case you are new or you are not yet aware, this event is available wherever you would like to listen or watch.
00:00:39
Speaker
I have it available on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify in both music and video format. It's on iHeartRadio, Pandora,
00:00:51
Speaker
YouTube, YouTube Music, and you can also find it on all the different podcasting sites such as Podbean, Overcast, Castoff, and whatever directory you would like to use, I'm sure you can find it there.
00:01:04
Speaker
Thank you so much. Well, guess what time it is? It's our favorite time other than reading the Bible. We're going to cross off our day today.
Motivational Tools and Personal Story of Faith
00:01:13
Speaker
I have my sticker and I am putting it on my bookmarking commitment calendar.
00:01:20
Speaker
That's quite a name, isn't it? A bookmarking commitment calendar. We started out with it just being a commitment calendar, but I like to call it a bookmarking commitment calendar since that you're not actually reading the book.
00:01:30
Speaker
Well, some of you are. And if you would like to download that free motivational tool, you can find that on my website. It is located at in the family way coaching dot com.
00:01:45
Speaker
And on the top left hand side, you will see the heading for read the Bible in one year. If you click on that, you will find the calendar there. I upload a new calendar, and it doesn't matter what year you are listening to this event.
00:01:58
Speaker
I am recording this in 2025, but I am making a commitment to every month upload a new calendar so that whatever month you are following along, if you are interested in using that motivational calendar, or let's say you just need to print off a calendar for your refrigerator each month.
00:02:15
Speaker
Well, there you go. There it is. You don't need to subscribe to anything. You don't need to enter your email address. You just go to the site and download it, and it's right there available for you.
00:02:27
Speaker
Today we are going to be picking up in Acts chapter 21. And we're going to be talking about and seeing that the Holy Spirit will sometimes tell us what it is that's going to happen before it happens.
00:02:42
Speaker
And my biggest example that I have for that this year is when had a feeling, God told me, that I was going to lose my necklace here.
00:02:53
Speaker
Now, some of you have been watching for a while, and so you may already be familiar with this story, but we do have a lot of newer listeners and subscribers. So the story is amazing and it bears repeating. So this necklace, which is a necklace that my husband had made for me, is very special to me and I wear it all the time.
00:03:12
Speaker
And um One day God told me I was going to lose that necklace, but he also gave me reassurance that that necklace would be found. And lo and behold, I was at work working and my necklace just dropped off of my neck.
00:03:29
Speaker
And of course I was concerned because this was a very special necklace to me. And I talked about it in my ah daily video here. And God just told me, then we had a reading where we read about the story about how the ax head that had been lost loaded when I think it was Elisha, not Elijah, but Elisha, where they were rebuilding and they had ah a worker who was using an axe and then the axe head flew off and it landed in the water and apparently it was deep enough water where he couldn't just reach over and grab it it had sunk because it's made of metal metal sinks
00:04:12
Speaker
And he went over to Elisha and he said, my axe head, it flew off and it sank and I've lost it and it's not mine. So he was concerned because he had lost somebody else's property.
00:04:27
Speaker
Elisha went over and he asked him, where did it fall? And the man showed him there. Elijah put his staff in the water and the axe head floated to the top.
00:04:40
Speaker
And the man was able to retrieve that axe head. This happened in this reading right after I had lost my my necklace.
Paul's Journey and Messages from the Holy Spirit
00:04:50
Speaker
Then I was speaking to the rabbi at the Messianic Jewish congregation that I attend.
00:04:55
Speaker
And I told him that I had lost my necklace, but that I knew God was going to return it. And immediately he said to me, he said, yes, like the axe head, it will float. and i was astonished because that was exactly what had i had just read there were a lot of messages being given to me reassurance through the holy spirit that that necklace would indeed be found Then at some point, a couple of days, about a week later, know God had been telling me to talk to a particular couple of people and I had just been putting it off.
00:05:27
Speaker
I was like, no, I don't wanna talk to them about it. I don't wanna talk to them about it. And then I finally did. And I said, hey, I just wanted you to keep your eye open that if this turns up and returns, that it has fallen into somebody's package and they've returned it, that it's it's mine.
00:05:44
Speaker
And immediately the woman I was speaking to said, well, what does it look like? Because I found a necklace. And said, you did? And she said, yes, I found a necklace. And she said, what does it look like?
00:05:56
Speaker
And I told her what it looked like. It looks like this, it's a heart. And she says, yes, i I picked it up, I found it. And I put it in this cupboard for safekeeping. We went to the cupboard and there was my necklace.
00:06:09
Speaker
Now, had I listened to the Holy Spirit sooner and gone to this woman sooner, it would have been retrieved sooner. But I did not. But I did eventually listen and obey.
00:06:21
Speaker
And lo and behold, God had sent her the necklace. And by the way, she is a believer. So God was using her. And she's apparently a finder of lost things because she told me how she had found somebody's wallet.
00:06:36
Speaker
So God sends things to her to find for safekeeping, it seems like. So I was absolutely astonished. And i I told her, I said, you have no idea God used you to do that.
00:06:48
Speaker
And so the reason I am sharing that is because we're going to be seeing today that Paul is receiving message from the Holy Spirit. We mentioned it yesterday because Paul mentioned it yesterday.
00:07:01
Speaker
He said he was on his way to Jerusalem and he doesn't know what's going to happen there, but he just knows that through the Spirit, he's being told that there will be difficulties. Let's see, how did Paul ah write it? He says, wherever I go, God's Holy Spirit tells me to watch out because hard times are coming, even time in jail.
00:07:23
Speaker
So the Holy Spirit is giving him essentially prophecy. He's prophesying too to him. And we're going to be reading more about that today. And we're going to be discussing why.
00:07:36
Speaker
So this is what is going on in Acts chapter 21. And let's go ahead and pick up. In today's reading, we are continuing on with Paul's journey. He is attempting to reach Jerusalem by the time of Shavuot.
00:07:51
Speaker
We don't know if he actually reaches Jerusalem in time for Shavuot. That is not recorded. But we do know that he is in a hurry. So he is working hard to travel fast to get to Jerusalem within this approximately, let's see, about 40 day period of time that he has.
00:08:09
Speaker
So he he's left. Paul went to his ship after he left the Ephesian leaders who had met him in Miletus. So he's leaving from Miletus. And it says Paul and his friends sailed to a place where they found another ship.
00:08:24
Speaker
We would call that a connecting. point, ah like a connecting flight, but he's not flying, he's and traveling by ship. So we would call that a connecting ship. And that ship was sailing to a city that was near Jerusalem.
00:08:39
Speaker
So they sailed on that ship and the ship stopped for a few days at Tyre because it had to offload the cargo there. While they were there, Paul met some of Jesus's followers at that city and they stayed with them for one week.
00:08:56
Speaker
Now these people asked Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but Paul went anyway. And all the people walked out of the city with Paul. Even the children went and they all prayed on the beach and they said goodbye to each other.
00:09:12
Speaker
And then Paul and his friends got on their ship and they sailed on. So you remember the message that Paul was talking about yesterday to the Ephesians, and he had told them that he knew that trouble was coming.
00:09:26
Speaker
So most likely he had also told the same message and said his final goodbyes to these people as well. And so everywhere he goes, he's receiving discouragement from going.
00:09:39
Speaker
So as Paul continued on their journey, Paul and his traveling companions, they landed at Caesarea. And there they stayed with a man named Philip. Philip was a man who taught the good news.
00:09:52
Speaker
And he had four daughters who were not married yet. And they all could tell people God's words. They all prophesied. And then one day while Paul was still there, another prophet who could also prophesy and tell God's words came into town.
Warnings and Arrest of Paul
00:10:10
Speaker
Now this was of course not coincidence because with God, there is no coincidence. This man was named Agabus and he took Paul's belt. Agabus tied up his own hands and his own feet using Paul's belt.
00:10:27
Speaker
And he said to Paul, The Holy Spirit says that Paul will be tied up like this. Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will send Paul to people who are not Jewish.
00:10:41
Speaker
Then everyone who was there begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. But Paul asked them, why cry? Why break my heart?
00:10:53
Speaker
I am ready to be in chains for Jesus. I'm even ready to die for Jesus. And Paul would not change his mind. So his friends gave up. Well, we pray that what God wants will be done, they said.
00:11:08
Speaker
They prayed that God's will would be done. Now some of Jesus' followers from Caesarea went with Paul to Jerusalem, and they took him to a house where he and his friends could stay.
00:11:20
Speaker
The man who lived there was from Cyprus, and he was one of the first people from Cyprus to follow Jesus. Jesus' as followers in Jerusalem were glad to see Paul.
00:11:34
Speaker
And the next day, Paul and his friends went to go see James. And all the leaders of Jesus' followers were there. Paul told them about his trip.
00:11:45
Speaker
And he told them what God had done for people who were not Jewish. And he told all about the work that God had helped him to do. The leaders there praised God. And then they told Paul something.
00:12:00
Speaker
They said that thousands of Jews have believed in Jesus, but they do still follow the law. And they have heard that you stop that you are teaching Jews to stop following the law.
00:12:12
Speaker
And the Jews who follow the law will hear here that you are in town. So we have an idea, said the leaders. There are four men here who have made a special promise to God.
00:12:25
Speaker
They are referring to a Nazarite vow. If you've been around for a while, then you will understand and know what this Nazarite vow is. It's not specifically mentioned as Nazarite vow, but the description tells us in our big Bible that it is a Nazarite vow because it mentions that they need to cut their hair and that the payment for the vow needs to be made.
00:12:49
Speaker
It is a vow and they must do some special things at the worship house. Those things that I just mentioned. So go with them and pay for what they need. They were asking Paul to pay the price for them to begin their Nazarite vow.
00:13:05
Speaker
And then there would be a concluding price also at the end of their Nazarite vow. So go with them and pay for what they need. And then people will see that you do obey the law too.
00:13:16
Speaker
And they will know that what they heard about you is not true. So they are encouraging Paul to follow a Nazarite vow, to make a vow. And it could be of any duration of time that you want it to be.
00:13:28
Speaker
And then ah they would show that by Paul observing this practice, they were trying to prove to them that he was actually still observing things that a lot of the Jewish people still observed.
00:13:40
Speaker
And there are things that Paul still observed, such as taking a Nazarite vow. So Paul went to the worship house and he did this. But there were some Jews from Asia who saw him there at the temple.
00:13:54
Speaker
And then they got the whole crowd upset. They pulled Paul into the group and they started shouting at everybody saying, help us. This man teaches everybody to go against the law.
00:14:06
Speaker
And he even brought people who are not Jewish into this worship house.
00:14:13
Speaker
Now, there was actually a law that said that people who were not Jewish could not enter into a certain area of the temple. And so they were accusing Paul of having disobeyed this law.
00:14:25
Speaker
And they had seen Paul before with a man from Ephesus, and they thought that Paul had brought him into the worship house, but he had not done this. They were wrong. they were They thought that he had done it, but he had did not.
00:14:39
Speaker
So now the whole city was upset and people came running from everywhere. They pulled Paul out of the worship house. They closed the gates and they began to beat him. They were trying to kill him.
00:14:53
Speaker
The captain of the Roman army heard about what was going on and he heard that the whole city was in a panic. So he took some guards with him and he ran to the crowd. The crowd saw the captain and his guards and so they stopped beating Paul.
00:15:09
Speaker
The captain walked up and he took possession of Paul. He told the guards to put chains on him. And then he asked who Paul was and he asked what Paul had done.
00:15:22
Speaker
Now some people were shouting this and some people were shouting that. And the captain could not find out what exactly the truth was. There was just too much noise.
00:15:33
Speaker
So he told the guards to take Paul away and the guards came to take him into one of the army buildings. They got Paul to the steps of that building, but the crowd was being so mean that the guards had to finally carry Paul.
00:15:50
Speaker
And the crowd kept shouting, get rid of Now the guards were just about to take Paul into that building when Paul spoke to the captain.
00:16:02
Speaker
May I tell you something? Paul asked him. Oh, you speak Greek? asked the captain. Well, aren't you the man from Egypt and didn't you start a panic and didn't you lead a lot of men out into the desert?
00:16:18
Speaker
No, said Paul. I am Jewish. Please let me talk to the people. So the captain said that Paul could speak to the people. Paul stood on the steps and he held his hand up and the people got quiet.
00:16:35
Speaker
Then Paul talked to them in Aramaic, their own language.
00:16:42
Speaker
And that is the end of our reading today. Oh, that's quite a cliffhanger, isn't it? We're going to have to continue on tomorrow to find out what what happened when Paul got up to speak to them in Aramaic.
00:16:58
Speaker
So what we read today is that the Holy Spirit was continually giving prophecy to Paul.
Faith, Trials, and Divine Preparation
00:17:07
Speaker
Now, this was actually, this reminded me a lot of Jesus.
00:17:10
Speaker
Jesus knew the time was coming. Jesus had read the scripture. He knew everything that needed to happen. And beyond just the scripture, we know that he prayed with God a lot. So he and the Father were always one.
00:17:24
Speaker
So the Holy Spirit spoke to Jesus. So Jesus was always telling people he knew what was going to happen. And in fact, he told us exactly what would happen before it happened.
00:17:37
Speaker
Now, just like the people are discouraging Paul because they are scared for him on his behalf. Do you remember that Peter also told Jesus, don't go. you you This won't happen to you. You won't die.
00:17:49
Speaker
and Jesus said, get away from me. Will I not drink out of the cup that the father has given me? Now we know that Paul is imitating Jesus and we know that he is being told by the Holy Spirit that this is coming.
00:18:04
Speaker
So when these things are told to us by the Holy Spirit that they are coming, are we not to drink of the cup that he is giving us? regardless of what it is.
00:18:14
Speaker
It could be something small, like my necklace being lost, which didn't seem like a small thing to me at the time. But in terms of, you know, one's life and a trivial necklace, they are quite a big difference from one another.
00:18:30
Speaker
But the faith and the message were the same. Paul says, make me sad. Don't make me cry. i'm ready to do this. The Holy Spirit strengthens us.
00:18:43
Speaker
So the purpose to giving us the these messages is is not to discourage us and with with a foreboding and warning saying, oh, these things are going to happen.
00:18:55
Speaker
Turn back, turn back. It's not like that. The Holy Spirit equips us. God equips us. So the Holy Spirit was strengthening Paul.
00:19:06
Speaker
And he was giving Paul this knowledge so that he would be ready to face whatever it was he was about to face. And the Holy Spirit even told him through Agabus exactly how this would occur.
00:19:19
Speaker
So Paul was ready. He was prepared. he was He was spiritually prepared. He was mentally ready. And he was physically ready. He knew that whatever it was that God had planned for him to do, he would obey.
00:19:35
Speaker
He was ready to do it. And so finally, the people prayed that God's will would be done. And that's where we need to start. When the Holy Spirit tells us that something is going to happen,
00:19:48
Speaker
We need to pray for God's will to be done, as well as the strength to do whatever it is he's calling us to do. Now, does God in the Holy Spirit, do God in the Holy Spirit set us up for failure?
00:20:02
Speaker
No. Jesus has overcome everything. We are on the winning side, though we may die even in whatever it is that is going to happen.
00:20:16
Speaker
We are winning. Jesus had to die for our sins. And it looked like loss, didn't it? At first, how could death be a win? ah But he had to die in order that we could be saved.
00:20:31
Speaker
Now, we are not saving anybody from their sins. But that does not mean that the tasks that the Holy Spirit and God are giving us art are any less important for what we need to do.
00:20:46
Speaker
We are not saving people, but we are still living out our faith. It is still just it can be still just as hard for us, but we need to have faith to know that God will be with us.
Conclusion and Encouragement for Faithful Living
00:21:00
Speaker
Jesus said, I and the Father are one. And now we and the Father and Jesus are one through the Holy Spirit. So God will be with us no matter what it is that he is taking us through.
00:21:14
Speaker
Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil. Paul did not enter into this situation with fear. He was entering into it with faith and confidence.
00:21:29
Speaker
And so once again, we have an amazing object lesson, like what Paul told us he gave us yesterday, that in everything, he gives us an object lesson. He shows us how to do what we are called to do.
00:21:44
Speaker
And even here, Paul is showing us how to be faithful by imitating Jesus. He was ready. So whatever it is that the Holy Spirit gives you, allow him to take you through it.
00:21:58
Speaker
Don't shy away from it, but go boldly with the strength of the Holy Spirit. You have the whole kingdom of heaven behind you and with you.
00:22:09
Speaker
So no matter what happens, it is it is exactly working the good that God will work into it. So God is going to be using this situation to take Paul to Rome.
00:22:22
Speaker
And that's a little bit of a spoiler alert for us there. Well, I hope that you are encouraged after hearing today's reading. I hope that you are motivated and strengthened to be able to do whatever it is that God has is going to tell you to that is coming your way.
00:22:39
Speaker
Whether, no matter what it may be, I can't even imagine what God will bring each of us through. But whatever it is that the Holy Spirit tells you about before it happens, remember this event in the story of Acts and know that God is telling you not to hurt you because God knows the plans that he has for us.
00:22:58
Speaker
They are plans not to hurt us, but to prosper us, to give us hope and a future. And that we will be able to help strengthen others as well by following and doing what we are supposed to do.
00:23:12
Speaker
Just the same way that Paul is following Jesus and he is strengthening us to be able to do this in the future. Whatever it is that God calls us to do. Well, thank you for joining me today.
00:23:24
Speaker
If you feel that God has lit your light today, kindly click your light button so that other people can be also encouraged to hear God's word today and to be strengthened and motivated when they feel and hear the Holy Spirit giving them messages to what it is that they're going to need to go through.
00:23:43
Speaker
And I, I lost my train of thought there. I hope that you will join me again tomorrow as we pick up in our story with Acts 22 to hear more about what happened with Paul.
00:23:56
Speaker
I hope you have a blessed rest of your day and I hope you come hungry tomorrow because it's going to be a good story. and It's historical. It's real, not just a fairy tale. All of God's word is true.
00:24:09
Speaker
Thank you again. And I will see you next time.