Author: Jim Cantelon

Read Acts 10 & 11

Key Verse: Acts 10:34b, 35 “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.” The first major social controversy in the early church concerned the equal distribution of assistance to both Greek and Hebrew-speaking widows (ch.6). The first major leadership controversy dealt with the acceptance of Saul of Tarsus as a fellow preacher. The first major theological controversy was, perhaps, the first crisis of magnitude. The issue, simply stated, related to the preaching of a Jewish gospel, by Jewish preachers,...

December 23, 2020

Alms, Prayer & Fasting 6: 1-18 Showing Off v. 1 In the Jewish culture of the time there were three religious core values: alms giving, prayer, fasting. All three could be done in secret but they also could be done publicly with great show of piety. One could give to the beggar, and beseech heaven with theatrical flourish, and fast with slumped shoulders, unwashed face, soiled clothing and bad breath. In every case attention was paid to pious pilgrim by the people, with little or no notice in heaven. Jesus casts such displays as counter-productive. They may impress the public, he says, but...

Read Acts 8 & 9

Key Verse: Acts 9:27 “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles…” I remember, as a schoolboy in Saskatchewan, learning to sing, “Home on the Range”: “Home, home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day.” Have you heard any “discouraging words” lately? Sometimes those words come non-verbally from the circumstances you face. Sometimes they’re the well-meaning but unnecessary comments from a friend. Other times they are self-accusing...

December 21, 2020

Everywhere people are gearing up for a truncated, if not solitary, Christmas Day. The Covid news keeps deteriorating. As of the past few days we’re suddenly aware of a Covid “variant” that has emerged in the UK. Yikes! Scores of countries are closing borders to any British attempts at entry. All this while Brexit is in final death throes. It’s not inappropriate to refer to 2020 as an “apocalyptic” year, with more to come. We can try to mitigate but we can’t avoid the impact of sorrow on sorrows, not just in terms of Covid, but also convulsions of war, famine, and political upheavals. Nevertheless...

Read Acts 6 & 7

Key Verse: Acts 6:2b, 4 “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables…but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word!” It never seems to fail. Get a bunch of people organized into some sort of group and, before you know it, you’ve got dispute and division. The early church was just a few months (perhaps even weeks) old when the Greek-speaking Jewish believers (Hellenists) became upset because they thought they were being discriminated against. They complained that the Hebrew-speaking widows were getting all...

Read Acts 5

Key Verse: Acts 5:20 “Go, stand in the temple courts’, he said, ‘and tell the people the full message of this life!'” (NIV) If you haven’t said it yourself, you’re probably heard it said, “I’d just love to see one miracle! One would be enough. Then I’d be convinced; then I’d be sure…” Well, suppose we not only saw one miracle, but several, scores even — and what’s more, we were the miracle workers! What a wonder just to see them, do them, and to see the work they were accomplishing in the lives of afflicted human...

Read Acts 3 & 4

Key Verse: Acts 4:20 “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (NIV) The trouble started the afternoon Peter and John went up to the temple to pray. Until now they had enjoyed “the favour of all the people” (2:47). But then a crippled beggar called out to them for money. They were broke — but they did give him something. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth”, they commanded him to get those crippled legs in motion and walk. And he did…to the amazement of the whole city! Now the polarization began. The people, of course,...

December 16, 2020

Matthew 5 Love & Hatred vv.43-48 The love of enemies is the ethical bottomline of the Sermon on The Mount. It seems impossible – as does being “perfect” in v. 48. Mind you, to love your enemy is possible, in that love is essentially volitional. On the other hand, to like your enemy is virtually impossible because “like” is solely emotional. To love is to do. To like is to feel. Love is unconditional. Like has conditions. Jesus calls on us to “pray for” our enemies. This is hard to do. Indeed an ancient preacher named Chrystotom called prayer for...

Read Acts 1 & 2

Key Verse: Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” One of the key factors in the success of the early church was the uncontested fact of the resurrection. I say “uncontested” in terms of the believers themselves and the incontrovertible evidence of Jesus’ appearances over a period of forty days after the resurrection. Don’t forget that the disciples had deserted Jesus when He needed them most, and had gone into hiding to avoid being crucified themselves as “collaborators”....

Read John 20 & 21

Key Verse: John 20:28 “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!'” Arthur John Gossip writes, “That night that Christ came, Thomas had not been present. We do not know why. But is there not here a warning for us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together? How much many miss, who make only an occasional, spasmodic, irregular appearance at the worship of God in his house! ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’, so Christ promises (Mt. 18:20). And sometimes surely had they been there,...