Acts Daily Devotional Podcast

Day 113 — Paul's Farewell: His Future (Acts 20:22-27) | August 16

Derek Sanford — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul stands on the beach at Miletus with the Ephesian elders he discipled for three years, and he tells them where he's going next. Jerusalem. Compelled by the Spirit. Knowing chains and afflictions are waiting. The Greek word Luke uses pictures a man tied up and being led. Paul isn't strolling toward the next stop. He's being delivered. And he says he considers his life of no value to himself, not because he's reckless, but because he has done the math. What matters is finishing the course and testifying to the gospel of God's grace. He has held nothing back from these elders, no part of God's plan softened to keep the peace. This is what obedience looks like at the far end of a life well spent. A man walking into chains because the One who called him is worth it.

Day 112 — Paul's Farewell: His Ministry (Acts 20:17-21) | August 15

Derek Sanford — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The Ephesian elders had walked thirty miles to meet Paul at Miletus. Both sides knew this was the last conversation. Paul opened with two simple words: “You know.” He was inviting them to remember three years of shared history, and he had nothing to hide. Imagine that line coming out of your own mouth to the people who've watched you up close. Real credibility is built by sameness over time. Then Paul pointed to three marks of his ministry: humility, tears, trials. The world's definition of successful leadership looks nothing like that. But Paul's looks just like Jesus. He had taught publicly and house to house. He'd been residential, sitting around tables, knowing kitchens and kids. His message boiled down to one line: turn from whatever's holding you, trust the One who can save you.

Day 111 — Sailing to Miletus (Acts 20:13-16) | August 14

Derek Sanford — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul let the ship leave without him. He told his friends to meet him twenty miles down the coast, and he started walking. Nobody knows exactly why. Maybe he needed solitude after a night of preaching and a resurrection on his resume. Maybe he wanted one more mile with the Troas believers. Probably both. Some of the most important work you'll do this year might happen in the quiet stretches between all the so-called important work. Then Luke lists the ports: Mitylene, Chios, Samos, Miletus. Each name represents a day of careful navigation. The gospel moved forward on the ordinary port schedule of human commerce. Paul deliberately sailed past Ephesus because he knew returning would have pulled him off course. Mature discipline often looks like the foresight to sail past the harbor before temptation has a chance to dock.

Day 110 — Eutychus Falls (Acts 20:7-12) | August 13

Derek Sanford — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

It was Sunday evening in Troas. The believers had gathered in a third-floor room. The lamps were burning, the air was thick, and Paul had a ship to catch in the morning and a lot to say before he left. So he kept preaching past midnight. A young man named Eutychus, probably a tired working-class teenager, found a window sill for some fresh air and lost the fight against sleep. He fell three stories and was picked up dead. Luke was a physician. He knew the difference. Paul came down the stairs, threw himself on the boy like Elijah and Elisha had done, and announced his life was in him. Then he went back upstairs and finished the meeting. The miracle is striking. So is what Luke chooses to emphasize. Grace doesn't shame people who are exhausted. It restores them.

Day 109 — Through Macedonia and Greece (Acts 20:1-6) | August 12

Derek Sanford — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Luke compresses about eighteen months of life into a few short lines. After the riot, Paul gathered his disciples in Ephesus, embraced them one last time, and left for Macedonia. He spent three months in Greece, wrote at least one major letter, probably the book of Romans, and reconciled with the Corinthians through tears. Then a plot to kill him on the voyage to Syria forced him to change his itinerary and travel overland instead. Boldness doesn't mean you walk into every ambush you hear about. Then Luke names seven traveling companions, one from every region Paul had preached the gospel in. A walking diplomatic delegation carrying the offering for the Jerusalem believers. Generosity is theology with dollar signs attached. And in verse 5, Luke quietly shifts to “we.” The doctor-turned-historian had rejoined the team.

Day 108 — The Town Clerk Restores Order (Acts 19:35-41) | August 11

Derek Sanford — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

A mid-level Roman administrator worried about his career ended the riot. The city clerk was the chief executive officer of Ephesus, the official liaison to Rome. If word got back that his city had hosted an illegal riot, his neck was on the line. He stood up to address the crowd to save himself. He flattered their civic pride, exposed Demetrius's complaint as a personal grievance, and reminded them that Rome would punish unauthorized assemblies. Then he dismissed the assembly. Luke wants us to see who just rescued the gospel mission. A bureaucrat doing his job. The same God who used Cyrus and Gallio used a Roman clerk in Ephesus. Your circumstances don't always need a miracle. Sometimes they need the right person at the right meeting saying the right thing. Two thousand years later, Artemis is a museum exhibit. The church is still here.

Day 107 — Confusion in the Theater (Acts 19:28-34) | August 10

Derek Sanford — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The guild meeting became a mob. Twenty-five thousand people poured into the Ephesian amphitheater, and Luke tells us most of them had no idea why they were there. They'd seen people running, heard a chant catching fire, and followed the noise. Paul's traveling companions Gaius and Aristarchus were dragged along as human mascots for a grievance nobody could articulate. The Jewish community shoved a man named Alexander forward to distance themselves, but the moment the crowd realized he was Jewish, they drowned him out with the chant for two hours straight: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.” Paul wanted to march in and preach. His friends wouldn't let him. Even pagan civic officials sent messengers begging him not to risk it. Sin scatters. The Spirit gathers. Sometimes the Spirit speaks through the people who block the door.

Day 106 — Demetrius Stirs Up Trouble (Acts 19:23-27) | August 9

Derek Sanford — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Every great revival eventually hits a wall. Sometimes it's persecution. Sometimes it's internal division. Sometimes it's the bottom line. Demetrius didn't oppose Paul over theology. He hated him because Paul was bad for business. The temple of Artemis was the city's economic engine. Pilgrims came to worship and left with silver souvenirs, and Demetrius likely ran the silversmiths' guild. When the gospel swept through Ephesus and people stopped buying idols, his revenue tanked. His speech opens with the wallet, then dresses it up in religious devotion. The temple is at stake. Artemis's reputation is at stake. The gospel had become an economic threat in a city where sin had been monetized. Idolatry always looks more noble when you're swimming in it. The opposition becomes the endorsement.

Day 105 — Paul's Plans (Acts 19:21-22) | August 8

Derek Sanford — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Two verses. Forty-five words of Scripture. And tucked inside them is the pivot point that drives the rest of the book of Acts. Paul resolved in the Spirit to travel through Macedonia and Achaia, then to Jerusalem, then to Rome. That word “must” carries weight. Rome was the capital of the known world, the city from which all roads radiated. If the gospel could take root there, it could reach everywhere. What Paul didn't know was how he'd get there. He pictured arriving as a free man, pressing on to Spain. He would arrive in chains, after a Caesarean prison and a Mediterranean shipwreck. God's “yes” to your calling doesn't always come in the packaging you expected. Sometimes the destination is exactly right and the journey looks nothing like you hoped.

Day 104 — The Seven Sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13-20) | August 7

Derek Sanford — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The sons of Sceva had been watching Paul. They'd seen the miracles, heard the name of Jesus produce results their own incantations couldn't match. So they tried to add Jesus to their formula. “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches.” That secondhand wording told the whole story. The demon's response is one of the most memorable lines in Acts: “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul, but who are you?” Then the demon-possessed man beat all seven of them so badly they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. Word spread across the city. Believers who'd been hedging their bets came forward to confess. They burned scrolls of magic worth fifty thousand pieces of silver, roughly 150 years of wages. Repentance that costs nothing changes nothing. The name of Jesus can't be borrowed. It has to be believed.

Day 103 — Three Months in the Synagogue (Acts 19:8-12) | August 6

Derek Sanford — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul did what he'd done in every city. He opened the Scriptures, made his case for Jesus, and invited people to respond. In Ephesus he got three months of synagogue access before resistance hardened. When some began slandering the Way in public, he withdrew the disciples and relocated to the lecture hall of Tyrannus. For two years he taught there during the hottest stretch of the day, after working a full morning making tents. Five hours a day, every day. Luke says all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Paul didn't travel to every town. He trained people who did. The seven churches of Revelation were probably planted by people who first heard Paul teach in that borrowed classroom. Consistency is the fertile soil for the miraculous. The gospel has never needed impressive real estate.

Day 102 — Disciples Receive the Spirit (Acts 19:1-7) | August 5

Derek Sanford — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul arrived in Ephesus and found about twelve men Luke calls disciples. Disciples of whom? His first question cut straight to the heart of it: did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Their answer told the whole story. They hadn't even heard there was a Holy Spirit. These were sincere men. They'd responded to the message of John the Baptist, a doorway message of repentance and preparation. But they were standing right under the threshold, never having walked through. John's ministry had pointed forward to Jesus. They'd been focused on the address sign instead of walking through the door. Paul connected the dots, baptized them in the name of Jesus, and the Spirit fell. Sincerity matters. Obedience matters. But sincerity pointed the wrong direction can leave you stuck outside the room you were meant to enter.

Day 101 — Apollos Taught by Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:24-28) | August 4

Derek Sanford — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Apollos walked into Ephesus with a resume most preachers would envy. Alexandria-trained, eloquent, fervent in spirit, competent in the Scriptures. The man could preach. He could argue from the Old Testament with precision and bold conviction. And he still had stuff to learn. Luke slips in the qualifier almost casually: he knew only the baptism of John. His syllabus stopped short of the cross, the resurrection, the Spirit. Priscilla and Aquila heard the gap and took him aside privately. Two tentmakers correcting the most eloquent voice in the room. Apollos listened. He didn't pull rank or get defensive. He let them fill in what his Alexandrian training had missed, then crossed over to Corinth and became one of the most powerful voices in the early church. Talent without teachability is a ceiling.

Day 100 — Return and Departure Again (Acts 18:18-23) | August 3

Derek Sanford — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Luke covers about 1,500 miles in six verses. No shipwrecks, no courtroom scenes, just a man and his team on the move. Paul stopped at Cenchreae and shaved his head because of a Nazirite vow, his way of giving thanks for God's protection in Corinth. The apostle of grace freely chose to keep a Jewish tradition. He sailed to Ephesus with Priscilla and Aquila, preached briefly in the synagogue, and left them there to keep the work going while he pressed on to Jerusalem and Antioch. Then he set out again on foot, retracing the roads through Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening churches he'd already planted. Evangelism gets the headlines. Discipleship keeps the church alive. Faithfulness to what's behind you is just as spiritual as the pursuit of what's ahead.

Day 99 — Gallio Dismisses Charges (Acts 18:12-17) | August 2

Derek Sanford — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The Jewish leaders in Corinth had watched Paul long enough. They'd seen Crispus cross over, neighbors getting baptized, the synagogue losing ground. So they organized. Luke uses the same word for their united attack that he uses for the early church praying together. Same energy, opposite direction. They dragged Paul to the bema, the marble judgment seat in the heart of Corinth, and demanded a ruling from Gallio, the Roman proconsul. Paul opened his mouth to defend himself. Gallio cut him off before a word came out. He saw through the case in seconds and threw it out. One dismissal from the brother of Seneca created roughly a decade of legal protection for the gospel across the empire. Sometimes God's protection comes through people who couldn't care less about your theology.

Day 98 — Corinth: Vision of Assurance (Acts 18:5-11) | August 1

Derek Sanford — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Everything shifted when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia. They brought companionship, financial support from Philippi and Thessalonica, and good news that the young churches up north were holding firm. Paul put down the leather and picked up the Scriptures full-time. The harvest finally started coming in. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, crossed the line and followed Jesus along with his entire household. Many Corinthians believed and were baptized. But Paul was still afraid. He'd been beaten in Philippi, chased out of Thessalonica, run out of Berea, politely dismissed in Athens. Every city had cost him a piece of himself, and he could feel the familiar pattern building again. That's when God spoke in a night vision: "Don't be afraid. Keep speaking. I am with you, and I have many people in this city." Paul stayed eighteen months, the longest stop of the entire journey. In this episode, courage isn't the absence of fear. It's speaking up anyway.

Day 97 — Corinth: Tentmaking (Acts 18:1-4) | July 31

Derek Sanford — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

If Athens was the university, Corinth was the marketplace. Wealthy, diverse, famously immoral. The Greeks had coined a verb from the city's name meaning to live like a Corinthian. Paul arrived alone, carrying what he later described as weakness and fear and trembling. Athens had produced a brilliant sermon and a handful of converts, and the gap between faithfulness and fruitfulness was wearing on him. God met him there through two people and a shared trade. Aquila and Priscilla were Jewish refugees, recently expelled from Rome under Claudius's edict. They'd lost everything and started over as leather workers. When Paul discovered they shared his craft, he moved in and went to work. A displaced couple and a discouraged apostle, stitching leather side by side. Paul worked during the week and preached in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Ministry doesn't always look like a pulpit. Sometimes it looks like a workbench. In this episode, God's providence shows up looking a lot like a coincidence.

Day 96 — Mars Hill Sermon: Repent (Acts 17:29-34) | July 30

Derek Sanford — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul has been building toward this moment for the whole sermon. Wide lens on creation, closer lens on providence, common ground through the poets. Now he narrows the lens to a point that can't be avoided. If we are God's offspring, we can't shrink him down to gold or silver or stone. Every idol in Athens was theological regression, humans reducing the infinite to something manageable. Then Paul pivots and drops the word that would have shocked his audience: "commands." God commands all people everywhere to repent. The Athenians were used to philosophies presented as options for debate. Paul delivers a summons instead. And then comes the line the Greeks couldn't cross: God has proven it by raising a man from the dead. The response splits three ways, which are still the three responses people give today. Some mocked. Some delayed. Some believed, including a member of the Areopagus council and a woman named Damaris. In this episode, polite procrastination turns out to be its own kind of refusal.

Day 95 — Mars Hill Sermon: Unknown God (Acts 17:22-28) | July 29

Derek Sanford — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul opened with a brilliant move. He didn't quote Moses to philosophers who had never read him. He started with something the Athenians had built themselves, an altar inscribed, "To an Unknown God." Centuries earlier, during a plague, they had tried sacrificing to every deity they could name, and when nothing worked they built altars for the gods they might have missed. Those altars were monuments to a haunting suspicion: what if there's a God we haven't met yet? Paul seized the suspicion and turned it into a sermon. The God you're groping for already knows your name. Then he described the Creator who made the world, sustains every breath, and is closer than their next heartbeat. He even quoted their own poets to build a bridge. In this episode, Paul delivers a masterclass in sharing the gospel with people who don't share your framework, and shows that every culture is reaching for the God who made it.

Day 94 — Athens: Provoked by Idols (Acts 17:16-21) | July 28

Derek Sanford — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Athens was past its political peak but still the intellectual capital of the ancient world. The home of Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, the Garden of Epicurus. Art, athletics, philosophy, and public debate. And idols. By some estimates, over 30,000 public statues of deities lined the streets, and one ancient writer joked it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man. Paul walked through all of it and something seized up inside him. The word Luke uses is more intense than "troubled." It's closer to a recurring inner agitation. Every street, every altar, every statue provoked him again. He saw people pouring their worship into things that could never love them back. So he went to work. Every day he stood in the Agora and talked to whoever showed up. Eventually the philosophers brought him to the Areopagus to hear this "new teaching." In this episode, Paul sees through Athens to the hunger underneath it.

Day 93 — Berea: Noble Searchers (Acts 17:10-15) | July 27

Derek Sanford — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Berea was off the beaten path, tucked into the foothills, quieter and less politically charged than Thessalonica. After a mob and a security bond, it must have felt like a deep breath. Paul walked into the synagogue and found something rare. Luke calls the Berean Jews "more noble in character" because they held two things at once. They received the word with eagerness, leaning in instead of folding their arms. And they examined the Scriptures daily to see if Paul's claims held up. The word Luke uses for "examined" is a legal term, the kind of investigation a judge conducts during a trial. Hungry enough to listen. Careful enough to verify. Many believed. But the good news traveled back to Thessalonica, and opposition traveled fifty miles south to shut it down. The believers escorted Paul all the way to the coast. In this episode, the gospel invites people to think harder, not less.

Day 92 — Thessalonica: Opposition (Acts 17:5-9) | July 26

Derek Sanford — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The trigger was jealousy. It's the same word Luke has used in every city where the gospel gains traction. Jewish leaders watched their influence shrink, hired scoundrels from the marketplace like ancient paid protesters, and whipped up a mob. They stormed the house of a man named Jason, who had been hosting Paul and Silas. When they couldn't find the missionaries, they dragged Jason before the city authorities with a charge that was half-insult, half-accidental confession: "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also." Yes they have. Then came the sharper charge: Paul was preaching another king, Jesus. Thessalonica's free-city status depended on loyalty to Rome, and the accusers knew exactly which nerve to hit. The magistrates required Jason to post a security bond, which effectively locked Paul out of the city permanently. In this episode, a host named Jason writes a check to keep the mission moving.

Day 91 — Thessalonica: Some Believe (Acts 17:1-4) | July 25

Derek Sanford — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul skipped two cities to get to Thessalonica. Amphipolis and Apollonia were sizable, but neither had a synagogue, and Paul needed an audience already grounded in the Scriptures. Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, a thriving port with a significant Jewish population. Paul chose it as a strategic hub, the kind of city where a gospel-planted church could send the message rippling outward for generations. He was deeply led by the Spirit and deeply strategic. Both. For three Sabbaths he did four things in the synagogue: reasoned, explained, proved, and proclaimed. His two central arguments were shocking to Jewish ears: the Messiah had to suffer, and the Messiah had to rise. The crown comes through the cross. Many were persuaded, including a sizable group of God-fearing Greeks and a number of leading women. In this episode, Paul builds a compelling case for Jesus from Scripture his audience already respected.

Day 90 — Released With Honor (Acts 16:35-40) | July 24

Derek Sanford — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Morning came, and the magistrates sent word: let them go quietly. Paul refused. "They beat us publicly without a trial, although we are Roman citizens." Three Roman laws had been violated in a single night, and the magistrates who broke them were suddenly very exposed. So why did Paul play this card now instead of before the beating? Because he wasn't thinking about himself. If he slipped out of Philippi in the dark, every new believer in the city would be marked as guilty by association. Paul demanded a public apology and a personal escort out of the prison. The officials who ordered the beating now had to walk in, acknowledge the wrong, and clear the record in front of the whole city. It was legal leverage spent entirely on behalf of a fragile church. In this episode, Paul trades his Roman rights for the protection of the people he leaves behind.

Day 89 — The Jailer Believes (Acts 16:29-34) | July 23

Derek Sanford — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The jailer called for lights. A trained Roman soldier, hardened by years of duty, was now trembling at the feet of two prisoners he'd beaten and locked in stocks hours earlier. His question was raw and urgent: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Paul's answer was simple: "Believe in the Lord Jesus." Then, in the middle of the night, bleeding and exhausted, Paul and Silas sat down and taught the whole household the gospel. What happened next is one of the most beautiful sequences in Acts. The jailer who had thrown them into the worst cell now knelt beside them with water and washed their wounds. Chrysostom put it best: "He washed and was washed." By sunrise, the whole household had been baptized, a meal had been shared, and a Roman military family was rejoicing over faith in a crucified Jew. In this episode, conversion meets the people right in front of you.

Day 88 — Beaten and Imprisoned (Acts 16:22-28) | July 22

Derek Sanford — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

No trial. No investigation. Just a mob, stripped clothes, and Roman rods breaking open the backs of two missionaries. Paul and Silas were thrown into the inner prison with their feet locked in stocks designed to maximize pain. And at midnight, they started singing. Not whimpering. Not cursing. Singing hymns loud enough that the other prisoners listened through the walls. People in chains were hearing songs about a God who breaks chains. Then an earthquake hit the jail with surgical precision. Every door flew open. Every chain came loose. The jailer woke, saw the open doors, assumed the worst, and drew his sword to take his own life. From the darkness, Paul called out, "Don't harm yourself. We're all here." Every prisoner could have walked. Nobody did. In this episode, worship carries two men through the worst night of their lives and positions them to save the soul of the man who locked them up.

Day 87 — The Slave Girl Delivered (Acts 16:16-21) | July 21

Derek Sanford — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

She followed them for days. A slave girl possessed by what Luke calls a "spirit of Python," the same mythical serpent that guarded the Oracle at Delphi. Her owners profited handsomely from her fortune-telling. She was enslaved three ways: to her masters, to a demonic spirit, and to a system that saw her as a revenue stream. And every day she trailed behind Paul's team shouting, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, proclaiming the way of salvation." Every word was technically true. But the endorsement was coming from the wrong source, and in a pagan city it muddied the gospel. Paul finally turned and cast the spirit out in Jesus' name. The girl was free. But her owners saw only a ruined business, dragged Paul and Silas into the marketplace, and wrapped their greed in patriotism. In this episode, the gospel collides with an economic system that profits from human bondage.

Day 86 — Lydia Believes (Acts 16:11-15) | July 20

Derek Sanford — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The wind was with them. Two days across the Aegean, ten miles inland, and Paul and his team arrived in Philippi, a proud Roman colony where Latin was spoken and Roman law was enforced. There was no synagogue. So on the Sabbath, Paul went outside the city gate to the river and found a group of women gathered to pray. The Macedonian man from his vision turned out to be a circle of women by a stream. God has a sense of humor about our expectations. Among them was Lydia, a wealthy dealer in purple cloth, spiritually hungry and far from home. As Paul taught, the Lord opened her heart. She and her entire household were baptized on the spot, and she insisted the missionaries stay at her house. The first church in Europe was born in the living room of a businesswoman. In this episode, an opened heart becomes an open home.

Day 85 — The Macedonian Call (Acts 16:6-10) | July 19

Derek Sanford — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul had a plan. Swing south to Ephesus, a major metropolitan target, and plant the gospel in the crown jewel of Asia. The Holy Spirit said no. So he turned north toward Bithynia. The Spirit of Jesus said no again. Two closed doors in rapid succession, and Paul was left walking through unfamiliar territory with no clear destination. He ended up in Troas, a coastal town, waiting in the fog. That's where God finally broke the silence. A vision came in the night: a man from Macedonia pleading, "Cross over and help us!" Paul's team processed it together, concluded God was calling them into Europe, and immediately set sail. Closed doors turned out to be guidance. In this episode, Luke himself joins the team and the trajectory of the gospel bends toward the West.

Day 84 — Timothy Joins the Team (Acts 16:1-5) | July 18

Derek Sanford — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul arrived in Lystra, the city where he'd been stoned and left for dead. Waiting for him was a young disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish mother and Greek father, a man who lived between two worlds. The believers in Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him. Paul saw someone worth investing in, and God has a way of bringing the right people into your life at the exact moment you need them. Then Paul did something that looks contradictory: he circumcised Timothy. The same Paul who had just fought against circumcision as a salvation requirement. The difference was principle versus strategy. Timothy's circumcision removed an unnecessary barrier to ministry without compromising the gospel. Paul held the message with an iron grip and held everything else with an open hand. The churches grew stronger. The second missionary journey was underway.

Day 83 — Paul and Barnabas Separate (Acts 15:36-41) | July 17

Derek Sanford — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Everything was moving in the right direction. The Jerusalem Council affirmed grace. The letter was received with joy. Paul and Barnabas settled back into the rhythms of teaching and preaching. Then one conversation tore the partnership apart. Paul wanted to revisit the churches they'd planted. Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark. Paul refused. Mark had walked away when the mission got hard in Pamphylia, and Paul hadn't forgotten. Barnabas saw a young man who deserved another chance, the same way he'd once seen potential in a former persecutor named Saul. Both had a point. The disagreement was sharp and neither budged. They separated. But years later Paul wrote from a Roman prison asking for Mark by name, calling him useful. Barnabas's faith in Mark was vindicated. God doesn't waste our conflicts. He redeems them.

Day 82 — The Letter Received with Joy (Acts 15:30-35) | July 16

Derek Sanford — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

he Antioch church had been waiting for weeks, wondering whether the movement they'd been part of would survive its first real theological crisis. Then the delegation walked in. The letter was read aloud. And the church erupted in joy. The yoke was lifted. The door stayed open. Grace won. Judas and Silas stayed and encouraged the believers, coming alongside a shaken community and helping them find their footing. Every time the church in Acts goes through a crisis, there's a season of encouragement that follows. Crisis without care creates trauma. Crisis followed by encouragement creates resilience. Eventually the issue was settled, the encouragement was given, relationships were strengthened, and the mission resumed. It reads like a blueprint for how churches can survive conflict and come out stronger on the other side.

Day 81 — The Letter Written (Acts 15:22-29) | July 15

Derek Sanford — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The council reached its decision. Now they needed to communicate it. And how they did it tells us as much about healthy leadership as their theology. The letter opened with a rare admission: people from their community had caused this damage, and they took responsibility. They called Paul and Barnabas "dearly loved," a sign that honest disagreement had produced deeper affection. They sent two respected leaders, Judas and Silas, to deliver the letter in person because sensitive decisions deserve a human presence. And the letter included a sentence that still resonates: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us." The early church believed the Spirit had been an active participant in their messy, human deliberations. The council distinguished between essentials and preferences, holding the gospel tightly and everything else with an open hand.

Day 80 — James's Judgment (Acts 15:13-21) | July 14

Derek Sanford — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Of everyone in the room, James had the strongest credibility with the conservative faction. He was the brother of Jesus, leader of the Jerusalem church, known for his devotion to the law. If anyone was going to side with the Judaizers, it was him. He didn't. James affirmed Peter's testimony, then reached into the prophet Amos and pulled out a passage that envisions Gentiles seeking God as Gentiles, with no mention of circumcision as a prerequisite. His verdict: don't heap unnecessary burdens on people who are coming to faith. Then he proposed four practical guidelines to help Jewish and Gentile believers share a table. These were concessions for fellowship, not conditions for salvation. The Jerusalem Council protected the gospel from legalism on one side and from carelessness on the other. Grace is the foundation. Love shapes how we live on it.

Day 79 — Barnabas and Paul Report (Acts 15:12) | July 13

Derek Sanford — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

One verse. That's all Luke gives the testimony of Barnabas and Paul at the Jerusalem Council. But it might be the most underrated sentence in Acts 15. The room had gone silent after Peter's speech. Then Barnabas and Paul stood up and told their story. Think about what that room heard: the blinding of Elymas, the lame man in Lystra who walked for the first time, the stoning that should have killed Paul, churches planted in hostile cities. They described what God had done through them. That word "through" carries weight. They were instruments, not headliners. Peter gave them the theology. Barnabas and Paul gave them the evidence. Doctrine and testimony, working together. Sometimes the most effective argument for the gospel is a changed life told in plain language.

Day 78 — Peter's Testimony (Acts 15:6-11) | July 12

Derek Sanford — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The Jerusalem Council had been arguing. Voices were raised, tempers hot, and for a while the room sounded like an argument nobody was winning. Then Peter stood up. The same man who denied Jesus three times, who ate with Gentiles then pulled back in fear, who spent years learning what God had been teaching him since a sheet full of unclean animals dropped from the sky. He reminded the room that God had already settled this question ten years earlier at Cornelius's house. The Spirit fell on uncircumcised Romans while Peter was still preaching. God made no distinction. Then Peter flipped the equation: Jews are saved the same way Gentiles are, by grace. This is Peter's last appearance in Acts. The fisherman who stumbled through the Gospels stands up at the most important theological moment of the first century and delivers a defense of grace that silences the room.

Day 77 — The Controversy Begins (Acts 15:1-5) | July 11

Derek Sanford — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul and Barnabas had barely settled back into life in Antioch when men arrived from Judea with a message that put the whole church on its heels: Gentile believers can't be saved without circumcision and the law of Moses. This was the most dangerous theological crisis the early church had faced. If the Judaizers won this argument, the gospel would become a subset of Judaism, and every Gentile who had believed would be reclassified as falling short. Paul fought back hard. The Antioch church sent him to Jerusalem to settle it with the apostles and elders. On the way, Paul told the story of Gentile conversions everywhere he stopped, and the response was joy. But in Jerusalem, believers from the party of the Pharisees stood up and insisted: circumcision is necessary. The lines are drawn. Is the gospel enough, or does it need our help?

Day 76 — Return to Antioch (Acts 14:24-28) | July 10

Derek Sanford — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The first intentional missionary journey in the history of the church is over. Paul and Barnabas crossed the Taurus mountains, preached in Perga where they'd passed through without stopping on the way out, and sailed home to Syrian Antioch. They'd traveled over 1,400 miles, been worshiped as gods, stoned and left for dead, and planted churches across hostile Galatian territory. When they arrived home, they gathered the whole church and told the story of what God had done with them. That word "with" is worth holding onto. They weren't solo operators filing a performance review. They were collaborators giving credit to the One who opened every door. The headline of the whole trip: God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. And that door would change everything that followed.

Day 75 — Strengthening Disciples (Acts 14:21-23) | July 9

Derek Sanford — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

After a fruitful season in Derbe, Paul and Barnabas did something unexpected. Instead of heading east toward home through safe, familiar territory, they turned around and walked back through every city that had tried to destroy them. Lystra, where Paul was stoned. Iconium, where a mob had formed. Pisidian Antioch, where they'd been expelled. They went back because new believers can't survive on a conversion experience alone. They strengthened the disciples, warned them that hardship was part of the road ahead, and appointed elders in every church. Then they committed those infant congregations to God the way you'd entrust a treasure to a vault. They couldn't stay forever. So they placed them in the hands of the One who could.

Day 74 — Stoned and Left for Dead (Acts 14:19-20) | July 8

Derek Sanford — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Two verses. That's all Luke gives this scene. Jews traveled over eighty miles from Pisidian Antioch to track Paul down. They turned a crowd that had been ready to worship the missionaries into a mob ready to kill them. They stoned Paul and dragged his body outside the city. The man who once held coats at Stephen's stoning was now crumpled on the ground himself. Then the disciples gathered around him. Brand new believers, days old in their faith, standing over the body of their beaten teacher. Paul got up. He walked back into the city that had just tried to kill him. The next morning he left for Derbe on foot. Struck down, yes. Destroyed? The man was walking to the next city by sunrise.

Day 73 — Paul and Barnabas Refuse Worship (Acts 14:14-18) | July 7

Derek Sanford — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Bulls with flower garlands at the city gates. The priest of Zeus preparing a sacrifice. A crowd convinced two Jewish missionaries are gods in disguise. The moment Paul and Barnabas grasped what was happening, they tore their clothes and sprinted into the crowd. They wanted no part of borrowed glory. Paul then delivered one of the shortest and most targeted sermons in Acts, aimed entirely at a pagan audience with zero biblical background. He skipped Moses and Abraham and started with what they could see: rain, harvests, food, joy. Every ordinary blessing had been God tapping on the shoulder of a world that had turned its back. The rain and the seasons had been whispering. Now the gospel was speaking plainly. Even still, they barely stopped the crowd from sacrificing to them. Some soil takes longer to turn over.

Day 72 — Lystra: Healing and Worship (Acts 14:8-13) | July 6

Derek Sanford — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

In Lystra, there was no synagogue. No community familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. Just a pagan Roman colony where Zeus and Hermes were the local patron gods. Paul started preaching to whoever would listen, and a man lame from birth was paying close attention. Paul looked straight at him, saw faith forming in real time, and commanded him to stand. The man jumped up and walked. And then the crowd lost its mind. They started shouting in Lycaonian, a language Paul and Barnabas couldn't understand, declaring the missionaries were gods in human form. The priest of Zeus brought bulls draped in garlands to the city gates, ready to sacrifice. The crowd saw the power and jumped to the wrong conclusion. The human heart will always find something to worship. The question is whether it picks the right thing.

Day 71 — Iconium: A Divided City (Acts 14:1-7) | July 5

Derek Sanford — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul and Barnabas walked into Iconium and did what they always did: went straight to the synagogue and started preaching. A great number believed. And then the opposition started building. Jewish leaders launched a slow campaign of slander, poisoning minds against the missionaries. The temperature in the city kept rising. Most people would have left. Paul and Barnabas stayed longer. Luke writes that opposition became the reason they dug in, and God confirmed their message with signs and wonders. The city split down the middle. When a plot to stone them finally surfaced, they moved on to Lystra and Derbe, where they kept right on preaching. Persecution relocated the mission. It didn't end it.

Day 70 — Rejected and Joyful (Acts 13:44-52) | July 4

Derek Sanford — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The next Sabbath, nearly the whole city showed up. And the Jewish leaders couldn't stand it. Jealousy turned to insults, and Paul made a declaration that would reshape the church's trajectory: "We are turning to the Gentiles." He quoted Isaiah's promise that God's light would reach the ends of the earth. The Gentiles rejoiced. The Jewish leaders stirred up persecution and expelled Paul and Barnabas from the district. They shook the dust off their feet and moved on. And the disciples they left behind? Filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. In this episode, rejection and celebration happen in the same scene, and joy proves it doesn't need comfortable circumstances to thrive.

Day 69 — Paul's Sermon: Justification by Faith (Acts 13:38-43) | July 3

Derek Sanford — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Paul reached his conclusion and dropped a bombshell: "Everyone who believes is justified through him from everything that you could not be justified from through the law of Moses." The law could diagnose the disease but never cure it. Through Jesus, every sin is covered. Even the thirty-six transgressions Jewish law said were unforgivable. Justification: just as if I'd never sinned. An honorable discharge from God himself. But Paul didn't end with the offer. He ended with a warning from Habakkuk: God is doing something so unbelievable you might hear all the evidence and still walk away unchanged. In this episode, the people beg Paul to come back. Something has landed.

Day 68 — Paul's Sermon: Jesus' Resurrection (Acts 13:26-37) | July 2

Derek Sanford — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

"But God." Two words that shift the entire narrative. The people of Jerusalem killed Jesus. But God raised him from the dead. Paul stacked eyewitness testimony alongside three Old Testament texts to build an airtight case: David died and decayed. Everyone can walk to his tomb. But the one God raised up did not decay. The resurrection isn't a feel-good epilogue to a story already written. It's the load-bearing wall of the entire gospel. In this episode, Paul drives home the claim that changes everything: if God really raised Jesus, then every promise God ever made is trustworthy. Every single one.

Day 67 — Paul's Sermon: Israel's History (Acts 13:17-25) | July 1

Derek Sanford — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0400

aul opened his first recorded missionary sermon not with Jesus but with Abraham. He walked the synagogue through centuries of Israel's story with one unmistakable emphasis: God is the subject of every verb. God chose. God led. God raised up. God gave. Eleven different actions, and God is behind all of them. Then Paul funneled the entire narrative from David straight to Jesus, skipping everything in between, and used John the Baptist as a bridge his audience already trusted. In this episode, we hear a master communicator find common ground before making his case, letting the weight of Scripture build until the arrival of Jesus felt like the most natural conclusion in the world.

Day 66 — Arrival in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:13-16) | June 30

Derek Sanford — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

John Mark went home. The journey ahead meant crossing the Taurus mountains, a treacherous stretch known for bandits and brutal conditions. Whatever drove Mark's decision, the team was now smaller. Paul and Barnabas pressed on to Pisidian Antioch, walked into a synagogue on the Sabbath, and waited. When the leaders offered the standard invitation for a visiting rabbi to speak, they had no idea what they were handing the microphone to. In this episode, we watch a leadership shift, a team loss, and a wide-open door. Paul stood up to preach, and everything he'd been prepared for, the training, the Damascus road, the years in obscurity, had led to this moment.

Day 65 — Cyprus: Elymas the Sorcerer (Acts 13:4-12) | June 29

Derek Sanford — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Barnabas and Saul crossed to Cyprus and preached their way across the island with nothing dramatic to show for it. Then they reached Paphos and walked into a spiritual showdown. A sorcerer named Elymas tried to block the Roman governor from hearing the gospel. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, called him exactly what he was and pronounced blindness on him. The governor believed. In this episode, we see Saul become Paul, the Gentile mission officially launches, and the gospel reaches into the halls of Roman power for the first time through Paul's ministry. Opposition to God's work doesn't always come roaring. Sometimes it comes advising.

Day 64 — Set Apart for Mission (Acts 13:1-3) | June 28

Derek Sanford — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Five leaders in Antioch: a Cypriot landowner, an African, a North African, a man raised in Herod's palace, and a reformed religious terrorist. They were worshiping and fasting when the Holy Spirit spoke: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul." For twelve chapters, the gospel had been spreading reactively, pushed outward by persecution. Now, for the first time, the church sent missionaries on purpose. And they sent their two best leaders. In this episode, we witness one of the hinges of history. The third movement of Jesus' commission in Acts 1:8 begins. The gospel is heading to the ends of the earth, launched by ordinary people listening to the Spirit and saying yes.

Day 63 — Herod's Death (Acts 12:20-25) | June 27

Derek Sanford — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Herod put on a silver robe, stepped into the morning sun, and let a crowd call him a god. He didn't correct them. An angel struck him down, and he was eaten by worms. The man who had just been hailed as divine died in agony, consumed from within. Luke's reason is devastating in its simplicity: "because he did not give the glory to God." At the beginning of this chapter, James was dead, Peter was imprisoned, and Herod was powerful. At the end, Peter is free, Herod is dead, and the word of God is flourishing. In this episode, we reach the turning point of Acts. The first half closes, and the gospel is about to go global. No king, no prison, no persecution will be able to stop it.

Day 62 — Peter at Mary's House (Acts 12:12-19) | June 26

Derek Sanford — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter showed up at the door of a prayer meeting that had been begging God for his release. And they didn't believe it. A servant girl named Rhoda recognized his voice and was so overjoyed she forgot to open the gate. She ran back to tell everyone, and they told her she was out of her mind. Meanwhile, Peter kept knocking. In this episode, we discover one of the funniest scenes in the New Testament and one of the most honest. The heroes of the early church prayed all night for a miracle, and when the miracle showed up at the door, their first instinct was disbelief. Sometimes the people closest to the ground see what the experts miss. Rhoda believed first.

Day 61 — Peter's Miraculous Escape (Acts 12:6-11) | June 25

Derek Sanford — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The night before his scheduled execution, Peter was sleeping. Chained between two soldiers, facing death in the morning, sleeping so soundly that an angel had to hit him in the side to wake him up. Chains fell off. Guards stayed asleep. An iron gate swung open on its own. Peter walked out into the cool night air, convinced he was dreaming until the angel vanished and he realized it had all really happened. In this episode, we sit with a miracle that required participation. The chains didn't fall until Peter stood up. The gate didn't open until he walked toward it. Divine power and human obedience worked together, and the man who should have died walked free into the Jerusalem night.

Day 60 — James Killed, Peter Imprisoned (Acts 12:1-5) | June 24

Derek Sanford — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Herod Agrippa executed James, the brother of John, with a sword. One sentence. No dramatic buildup. One of Jesus' inner circle, gone. When Herod saw it pleased the Jewish leaders, he arrested Peter too, throwing him into maximum security with sixteen soldiers standing guard. The same God who would soon deliver Peter allowed James to die. There's no explanation given. No theological justification offered. It's hard. It's supposed to be hard. But while Peter sat in chains, the church gathered in a living room and prayed through the night, knowing their last fervent prayers hadn't saved James. In this episode, faith meets its most honest form: praying when the outcome is uncertain and the last answer felt like "no."

Day 59 — Famine Relief (Acts 11:27-30) | June 23

Derek Sanford — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

A prophet named Agabus predicted a severe famine across the Roman world. The Antioch church heard the news and didn't panic, didn't hoard, didn't look out for themselves first. Their immediate instinct was to help the believers in Judea who would be hit hardest. Each person gave according to their ability. No pressure. No arm-twisting. Just grace-fueled generosity from people who understood they were part of something bigger than themselves. In this episode, a young Gentile congregation sends relief to their Jewish brothers and sisters 300 miles away, proving that the gospel doesn't just save souls. It binds strangers into family. Generous people don't wait until the crisis passes to share.

Day 58 — Barnabas and Saul in Antioch (Acts 11:22-26) | June 22

Derek Sanford — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Jerusalem sent Barnabas to investigate what was happening in Antioch. He could have come looking for problems. Instead, when he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was glad. Then he did something remarkable: he traveled a hundred miles to Tarsus to recruit Saul, the man God had set apart for exactly this kind of work. Together they spent a full year teaching and building up the church. And it was there, in that messy, multiethnic, Spirit-fueled community, that believers were first called "Christians." Little Christs. It started as a label from outsiders. It became the name that changed the world. In this episode, encouragement and vision come together to shape the church that would launch the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Day 57 — The Gospel Spreads to Antioch (Acts 11:19-21) | June 21

Derek Sanford — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The persecution that was supposed to destroy the church scattered its embers into dry tinder. Believers who fled Jerusalem after Stephen's death carried the gospel north to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, 300 miles from where they started. At first, they spoke only to Jews. But then some unnamed believers from Cyprus and Cyrene did something unprecedented: they started telling pagans about Jesus. No apostolic title. No formal training. No permission slip. Just ordinary people who decided the gospel was too good to keep within ethnic boundaries. In this episode, the first intentional Gentile evangelism happens in Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire, and the people who sparked it are so anonymous that history doesn't even record their names.

Day 56 — Peter Explains His Actions, Part 2 (Acts 11:11-18) | June 20

Derek Sanford — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter built his case layer by layer: the vision, the messengers, the Spirit's command, six witnesses, Cornelius's angel, and then the moment the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles "just as on us at the beginning." His closing question silenced the room: "How could I possibly hinder God?" The critics became worshipers. "So then, God has given repentance resulting in life even to the Gentiles." That word "even" tells you everything about how unexpected this was. In this episode, we see the Jerusalem church wrestle with what God had done and, for now, choose to follow where the Spirit was leading. The tension wouldn't fully resolve for years. But the door was open, and it would never close again.

Day 55 — Peter Explains His Actions, Part 1 (Acts 11:1-10) | June 19

Derek Sanford — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter returned to Jerusalem expecting a welcome. He got a trial. "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them." The circumcision party wasn't interested in what happened to Cornelius's household. They went straight for the social offense: a Jewish man at a Gentile table. In this episode, we watch Peter respond with pastoral wisdom. He doesn't pull rank or get defensive. He just tells the story, step by step, including his own resistance. He wanted his critics to know he'd carried the same walls they were carrying. And God had refused to leave him there. The overcoming of prejudice is slow, sometimes painful, and almost always requires a God who is more persistent than we are comfortable with.

Day 54 — The Spirit Falls on Gentiles (Acts 10:44-48) | June 18

Derek Sanford — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

God didn't wait for the altar call. The moment Peter spoke the words "forgiveness of sins," the Holy Spirit fell on every Gentile in the room. The six Jewish believers who'd come with Peter were stunned. They watched it happen: tongues, worship, the unmistakable evidence of God's presence landing on uncircumcised people who had never set foot in a synagogue. It was the Gentile Pentecost, the third great outpouring in Acts, and it shattered the last ethnic barrier standing between the gospel and the world. In this episode, Peter asks the only question left: "Can anyone withhold water from people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" The answer was obvious. The door was open all the way.

Day 53 — Peter's Sermon to Gentiles (Acts 10:34-43) | June 17

Grace Church — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

"Now I truly understand that God doesn't show favoritism." Peter opened his mouth in a Roman centurion's living room and admitted, in real time, that he'd just figured something out. After a lifetime of assuming God had favorites, the fog finally lifted. What followed was the first full gospel sermon ever preached to a purely Gentile audience: Jesus is Lord of all, he went about doing good, they killed him on a tree, God raised him on the third day, and everyone who believes receives forgiveness of sins. Everyone. In this episode, we hear Peter preach the gospel that demolishes every wall between who's in and who's out. The ground is level at the foot of the cross, and it always has been.

Day 52 — Peter Meets Cornelius (Acts 10:24-33) | June 16

Grace Church — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

After a thirty-mile journey, Peter arrived at Cornelius's door and faced a choice. He knew that stepping over that threshold meant answering for it back in Jerusalem. He stepped through anyway. Inside, a Roman centurion fell at his feet, and Peter pulled him up: "Stand up. I'm just a man." Then he named the elephant in the room, the centuries-old prohibition against Jews entering Gentile homes, and told them what God had done to bring him through that door. In this episode, two men from two different worlds meet because a God who dismantles barriers brought them together. Cornelius gathered everyone he loved into a room and said the most remarkable thing: "We are all here in the presence of God to hear everything you've been commanded by the Lord."

Day 51 — The Messengers Arrive (Acts 10:17-23) | June 15

Grace Church — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

While Peter stood on the rooftop trying to make sense of the vision, three men knocked at the gate below. Cornelius's messengers had been delayed, stopping to ask directions through the streets of Joppa. Had they arrived a few minutes earlier, Peter would have had no framework for why Gentile strangers were on his porch. Providence doesn't always look like a miracle. Sometimes it looks like getting a little lost on the way. In this episode, we watch God coordinate two men in two cities thirty miles apart, threading every piece together with precision. Peter went downstairs, welcomed the strangers, and took one more step toward a door he'd never planned to open.

Day 50 — Peter's Vision (Acts 10:9-16) | June 14

Grace Church — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter was hungry, praying on a rooftop in Joppa, when a sheet descended from heaven filled with animals no devout Jew would ever touch. A voice commanded: "Kill and eat." Peter refused. Three times the vision repeated. Three times God replied: "What I have made clean, do not call impure." But this was never really about food. In this episode, we discover that God was dismantling something Peter had carried his whole life: the assumption that some people are beyond the reach of grace. The last time Joppa appeared in Scripture, another reluctant prophet named Jonah tried to run from God's call to the outsiders. History was repeating itself. Only this time, the Spirit wasn't letting go.

Day 49 — Cornelius' Vision (Acts 10:1-8) | June 13

Derek Sanford — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Thirty miles up the coast from Joppa, a Roman centurion named Cornelius was praying when an angel appeared with specific instructions: send for a man named Peter. Cornelius was devout, generous, and God-fearing, but he wasn't yet a follower of Jesus. His conversion would open the floodgates of the gospel to the entire Gentile world. In this episode, we see God orchestrating events in two cities simultaneously, preparing both the messenger and the audience for a collision that will reshape the church forever. God is always ahead of his people. Our job isn't to make things happen. It's to show up where God is already moving.

Day 48 — Peter Raises Dorcas (Acts 9:36-43) | June 12

Derek Sanford — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Dorcas never preached a sermon, but her funeral became one. She was known for one thing: making clothes for widows. When she died, a room full of grieving women held up the robes she had stitched for them, displaying evidence of love. Peter knelt, prayed, and spoke two words: "Tabitha, get up." She opened her eyes. In this episode, we encounter a woman whose quiet faithfulness shook a city and a miracle that echoes Jesus' own ministry. And tucked into the final verse is a detail that seems insignificant but changes everything: Peter stayed with Simon, a leather tanner. God was already stretching Peter's categories for what comes next.

Day 47 — Peter Heals Aeneas (Acts 9:32-35) | June 11

Derek Sanford — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

A man named Aeneas had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. 2,920 days of waking up unable to move. Then Peter walked in and said six words: "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you." Not "I heal you." Jesus Christ. The source of the power was never in question. In this episode, we watch one healing turn into a regional awakening as the entire Sharon plain turned to the Lord. God often works through small beginnings to achieve large outcomes. One divine appointment became a tipping point. The person you pray for, the neighbor you serve, you have no idea what God might do through that single encounter.

Day 46 — Escape and Acceptance (Acts 9:23-31) | June 10

Derek Sanford — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The hunter became the hunted. Saul's powerful preaching made him a marked man, and he escaped Damascus in the middle of the night, lowered through a wall in a basket like a smuggled fugitive. When he reached Jerusalem, the believers wouldn't accept him. The wounds were too fresh. Enter Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, who risked his own credibility to vouch for a man nobody else would trust. In this episode, we see that conversion doesn't automatically erase memory, that trust takes time to rebuild, and that sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is loan someone your trust when theirs has run out.

Day 45 — Saul Is Baptized and Preaches (Acts 9:17-22) | June 9

Derek Sanford — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Ananias walked through the door and spoke the most unexpected word Saul had ever heard: "Brother." Three days earlier, Saul was hunting Christians. Now a Christian was calling him family. Scales fell from his eyes, and almost immediately the former persecutor began proving in the synagogues that Jesus is the Messiah. The same intellectual firepower that had driven his persecution was now deployed for the gospel. In this episode, we see the most dramatic transformation in the New Testament unfold in real time. A changed life is one of the most powerful evidences for the gospel. How do you argue with a terrorist who became a preacher?

Day 44 — Ananias' Mission (Acts 9:10-16) | June 8

Derek Sanford — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

God's next assignment for an ordinary disciple named Ananias sounded like a death wish: go find the man who's been arresting and killing Christians, lay hands on him, and welcome him into the family. Ananias pushed back. He had every reason to be afraid. But he brought his fear to God instead of letting it make the decision for him. In this episode, we meet one of the unsung heroes of the New Testament, a man whose courage changed the trajectory of the entire church. Without Ananias, the most prolific missionary in Christian history might have been sidelined by suspicion. Sometimes the most important thing you can do is show up when God's assignment terrifies you.

Day 43 — The Road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9) | June 7

Derek Sanford — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Saul was breathing threats like a dragon exhaling fire, hunting Christians all the way to Damascus. Then heaven interrupted. A light brighter than the midday sun knocked him to the ground, and a voice asked the question that would rewrite the rest of his life: "Why are you persecuting me?" In this episode, we watch the most dangerous enemy of the early church come face to face with the risen Jesus on a dusty road outside Damascus. Everything Saul believed collapsed in a single moment. His blindness became the beginning of his sight. And the story of the gospel's most unlikely convert reminds us that no one is too far gone for God's relentless grace.

Day 42 — Philip and the Ethiopian: Baptism (Acts 8:32-40) | June 6

Derek Sanford — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The Ethiopian was reading Isaiah 53. Who is the prophet talking about? Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with that Scripture, told him the good news about Jesus. The suffering servant. The Lamb led to slaughter. Isaiah was pointing to Christ, and Philip connected the dots. They came to water and the Ethiopian said, Look, there is water. What would keep me from being baptized? As a eunuch, he had faced barriers his whole life. Now? Nothing kept him from belonging. They went down into the water together. When they came up, the Spirit carried Philip away. The Ethiopian looked up, his teacher was gone, but he went on his way rejoicing. Church tradition says he became a missionary to Ethiopia. One divine appointment on a desert road, and an entire continent begins to be reached.

Day 41 — Philip and the Ethiopian: The Encounter (Acts 8:26-31) | June 5

Derek Sanford — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Samaria was exploding with new believers. Then an angel showed up with strange instructions. Leave this thriving city and go to a desert road. No explanation. Philip got up and went. He found a divine appointment. An Ethiopian official, treasurer to the queen, traveling home from Jerusalem. As a eunuch, he couldn't fully participate in temple worship. Yet there he sat, still reading Isaiah, still hungry for God. The Spirit whispered to Philip: go and join that chariot. Philip ran. He arrived at exactly the right moment and heard the man reading Isaiah aloud. Do you understand what you are reading? How can I, unless someone guides me? A divine setup. One person willing to be interrupted. Another ready to receive truth.

Day 40 — Peter and John in Samaria (Acts 8:14-25) | June 4

Derek Sanford — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

News reached Jerusalem that Samaria had received the word of God. The apostles sent Peter and John to investigate. The Samaritans had believed and been baptized, but the Spirit had not yet visibly fallen on them. When Peter and John laid hands on them, something visible happened. Simon the magician saw it and made an offer. He wanted to buy the power to give the Spirit through laying on of hands. Peter's response was fierce. May your silver be destroyed with you. Simon's heart was wrong before God, poisoned by bitterness, bound by wickedness. Simon asked Peter to pray so that nothing bad would happen to him. Afraid of consequences but never convicted of sin. Grace cannot be purchased. It can only be received.

Day 39 — Simon the Magician Believes (Acts 8:9-13) | June 3

Derek Sanford — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Before Philip arrived in Samaria, a magician named Simon held the city captive with sorcery. Everyone paid attention to him, calling him the Great Power of God. When Philip showed up with genuine power, the crowds shifted. To everyone's surprise, Simon himself believed and was baptized. But what exactly did he believe? Luke gives a clue. Simon followed Philip everywhere, amazed as he observed the signs and great miracles. He wasn't amazed at Jesus. He was amazed at the power. Simon saw better magic tricks, an upgrade to his business model. You can be impressed with Christianity without being transformed by Christ. You can want what Jesus offers without wanting Jesus himself.

Day 38 — Philip GOSSIPS the Gospel in Samaria (Acts 8:4-8) | June 2

Derek Sanford — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The scattered believers kept talking. Everywhere they went, they gossiped the gospel. Philip headed to Samaria, crossing a centuries-old boundary of hatred. Jews and Samaritans had despised each other for over a thousand years. Most Jews would add an extra day to their journey just to avoid Samaritan soil. Philip walked right in and proclaimed Jesus as Messiah. The crowds paid attention. They listened, watched signs, saw demons cast out and paralyzed people healed. The gospel broke through a millennium of distrust. The result? Great joy in that city. When the gospel crosses barriers and enemies become family, joy follows. The scattering that began with Stephen's death was already bearing fruit in unlikely soil.

Day 37 — Saul Ravages the Church (Acts 8:1-3) | June 1

Derek Sanford — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Stephen's execution opened the floodgates. Occasional opposition became full-scale assault. Saul ravaged the church, a word meaning a wild animal tearing through a vineyard. House to house, dragging men and women to prison. Believers scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, but the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. Ordinary Christians carried the gospel into new territory, fleeing for their lives and arriving as missionaries. Jesus had commanded them to go to Judea and Samaria in Acts 1:8. They stayed comfortable in Jerusalem for seven chapters. God allowed an Acts 8:1 persecution to accomplish what they wouldn't do voluntarily. Saul thought he was destroying the church. He was scattering the embers.

Day 36 — Stephen's Martyrdom (Acts 7:51-60) | May 31

Derek Sandford — Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Stephen stopped teaching and started confronting. Stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts. The same accusation God leveled at their ancestors in Exodus. The Sanhedrin erupted, gnashing teeth, an angry mob replacing a dignified court. And in that chaos, Stephen looked up. Heaven opened. He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. They dragged him outside and stoned him while a young man named Saul watched and held the coats. Stephen's final prayers echoed his Master. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Then Luke uses the gentlest word possible. Stephen fell asleep. The stones were violent, but for Stephen, death became a peaceful crossing into the arms of the One waiting for him.

Day 35 — Stephen's Defense: The Temple (Acts 7:44-50) | May 30

Derek Sanford — Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Stephen addressed the charge that hurt most: that he'd spoken against the temple. He honored its history, tracing the tabernacle from Moses through Solomon. Then he quoted Isaiah, letting God speak: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me?' Stephen called the temple what it was: made with hands. The phrase Jews used for pagan idols. When a symbol of God's presence gets treated as the source of God's presence, something has gone wrong. The temple was always meant to point somewhere, never to be the destination. God met Abraham before there was a promised land. God was with Joseph before there was a tabernacle. The story was always bigger than the setting.

Day 34 — Stephen's Defense: Moses Part 2 (Acts 7:30-43) | May 29

Derek Sanford — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

After forty years in the wilderness, God appeared to Moses at a burning bush on Mount Sinai. Not in Jerusalem. Not at a temple. At a random thorn bush in the desert, and God declared the ground holy. The man Israel rejected became their deliverer, performing wonders at the Red Sea, receiving living oracles on the mountain. And still, the people pushed Moses aside. While he was on Sinai receiving God's word, they built a golden calf and celebrated what their own hands had made. Stephen quoted Amos: God gave them over. When people persistently reject what God offers, eventually He lets them have what they've chosen. Another deliverer now stood before the Sanhedrin. Would they repeat the pattern?

Day 33 — Stephen's Defense: Moses Part 1 (Acts 7:17-29) | May 28

Derek Sanford — Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Moses was born under a death sentence, raised in Pharaoh's palace, educated in all the wisdom of Egypt. At forty, he saw an Israelite being beaten and intervened, killing the Egyptian. He assumed his people would recognize that God was giving them deliverance through him. They didn't. The next day, he tried to make peace between two fighting Israelites, and one turned on him: 'Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?' Moses fled to Midian and spent the next forty years as a shepherd, wondering if he'd completely misread his calling. He hadn't. God was still writing the story. Rejection by people is never the final word when God is the one who sent you.

Day 32 — Stephen's Defense: Joseph (Acts 7:9-16) | May 27

Derek Sanford — Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Stephen's history lesson moved to Joseph, and the parallels became impossible to ignore. The patriarchs, jealous of their brother, sold him into slavery. They thought they were getting rid of him. God was positioning him to save them. 'God was with him.' Four words that reframe everything. The pit didn't end Joseph's story. Neither did the prison. God gave him favor before Pharaoh and elevated him to power in Egypt. When famine struck, the brothers who betrayed him had nowhere else to turn. On the second visit, Joseph revealed himself. Stephen was building an argument: Israel's deliverers always come in two movements. First rejected, then revealed. Joseph. Moses. And now, Jesus.

Day 31 — Stephen's Defense: Abraham (Acts 7:1-8) | May 26

Derek Sanford — Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The high priest asked Stephen one question: 'Are these things true?' Most would have defended themselves or apologized. Stephen told a story. He started with Abraham, the father everyone in that room revered. And the first detail he highlighted was devastating: God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, pagan territory, nowhere near Jerusalem or the promised land. Before the temple existed, before sacred geography mattered, God was already moving. Abraham spent his entire life as a wanderer in the land he'd been promised, never owning a foot of ground, holding only to God's word. Stephen's point cut deep: God has never been confined to a location. Faith follows Him wherever He goes.

Day 30 — Stephen Accused (Acts 6:8-15) | May 25

Derek Sanford — Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Stephen was chosen to serve tables. He ended up debating scholars in the synagogue and getting dragged before the Sanhedrin. Full of grace and power, he performed signs and wonders that drew opposition from the Synagogue of the Freedmen. When they couldn't win the argument, they changed the rules. False witnesses were bribed to accuse him of blasphemy against Moses, God, and the temple. The charges echoed the ones leveled at Jesus. Public opinion began to shift. And in the middle of the chaos, everyone in the courtroom looked at Stephen and saw something they couldn't explain: his face glowed like an angel. Faithfulness attracts opposition, and peace under pressure tells a story words can't.

Day 29 — Seven Servants Chosen (Acts 6:1-7) | May 24

Derek Sanford — Sun, 24 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

The church was exploding with growth, but cracks were starting to show. Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked in the daily food distribution, and a complaint rose that threatened to divide the movement from within. The apostles faced a critical choice: abandon their calling to fix the problem themselves, or empower others to step up. They chose wisely. Seven Spirit-filled servants were selected, all with Greek names, uniquely positioned to serve the overlooked community. The result? The word of God spread even faster, disciples multiplied, and even priests started coming to faith. When everyone plays their part, the mission accelerates.

Day 28 — Gamaliel's Wisdom (Acts 5:33-42) | May 23

Derek Sanford — Sat, 23 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

The Sanhedrin is enraged and ready to kill the apostles. Then Gamaliel, a respected Pharisee who would later teach Paul, stands and offers wisdom. He cites two failed movements, Theudas and Judas the Galilean, that dissolved when their leaders died because they were merely human efforts. His point: if this Jesus movement is human, it will fail on its own. But if it's from God, you can't stop it and may find yourselves fighting against God. The council is persuaded but can't let the apostles go unpunished, so they have them flogged, thirty-nine brutal lashes. Then they order them not to speak in Jesus' name and release them. The apostles walk out rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name. They go right back to teaching and proclaiming Jesus daily. Nothing could stop them. God's unstoppable mission continues through ordinary, faithful people.

Day 27 — Obey God, Not People (Acts 5:27-32) | May 22

Derek Sanford — Fri, 22 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

The apostles stand before the Sanhedrin again. The high priest reminds them they were ordered not to teach in Jesus' name, yet they've filled Jerusalem with their teaching. What really bothers him slips out: "You're determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." Peter's response is direct: "We must obey God rather than people." This principle is crucial, we respect authority until it conflicts with God's commands, then we obey God instead. Peter doesn't soften the gospel. He declares they murdered Jesus by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him as ruler and Savior to offer repentance and forgiveness, even to them. That's scandalous grace. The apostles choose calm civil disobedience, simply declaring good news. They're witnesses along with the Holy Spirit, and the evidence is undeniable. Truth is worth dying for when you've seen Jesus alive.

Day 26 — Imprisoned and Freed (Acts 5:17-26) | May 21

Derek Sanford — Thu, 21 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

The Sadducees, filled with jealousy over the apostles' influence, arrest all of them and throw them in public jail. But during the night, an angel opens the doors, leads them out, and instructs them to go stand in the temple courts and tell people the full message of this new life. At daybreak, they're back at the temple teaching as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, the Sanhedrin assembles for the trial and sends for the prisoners, only to discover the jail locked and guarded but completely empty. When someone reports the apostles are teaching at the temple, the captain brings them back without force, fearing the crowd might stone them for arresting such popular figures. God's mission can't be contained by human locks. When God opens a door, chains become irrelevant.

Day 25 — Signs and Wonders (Acts 5:12-16) | May 20

Derek Sanford — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

After the sobering deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, the apostles continue performing signs and wonders at Solomon's Colonnade. The church meets together in unity while outsiders keep their distance, highly regarding them but respecting the seriousness of what God is doing. Yet believers continue joining in large numbers as people witness authentic faith with real power. They carry the sick into the streets hoping even Peter's shadow might heal them, not because shadows have magic but because they're desperate for any contact with God's power. Crowds from surrounding towns bring the sick and demon-possessed, and everyone is healed. The Holy Spirit validates the gospel message with undeniable demonstrations. God still moves in miraculous ways today, and the early church shows us what happens when the Spirit has room to work.

Day 24 — Sapphira Falls (Acts 5:7-11) | May 19

Derek Sanford — Tue, 19 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Three hours later, Sapphira arrives unaware her husband is dead. Peter gives her a chance to come clean, asking if they sold the land for the stated amount. She confirms the lie, doubling down on the deception. Peter confronts her: how could you agree to test the Spirit? The men who buried your husband are at the door. She falls dead instantly. Great fear seizes the whole church and everyone who hears. This wasn't random divine anger, it was surgical protection of the church's integrity at its most vulnerable moment. God showed that the community he's building operates on truth, not performance. The severity of the judgment matched the critical nature of the moment. Sapphira had agency, a chance to confess, but chose the cover-up. The church learned: God sees what we hide, and his mission is too important for games.

Day 23 — Ananias Falls (Acts 5:1-6) | May 18

Derek Sanford — Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The story takes a dark turn. Ananias and Sapphira sell property but keep part of the proceeds while pretending they gave everything, like Barnabas. Peter confronts Ananias: the property was his to keep or sell as he wished, the sin wasn't holding back money but lying about it. They wanted the glory without the sacrifice, manipulating perception to look more devoted than they were. Peter calls this what it is: lying to the Holy Spirit, which is lying to God himself. When Ananias hears these words, he drops dead. This sobering judgment protects the integrity of the newborn church. Like Achan hiding stolen goods in Joshua, deception at a critical moment threatens to corrupt everything. God wasn't being harsh, he was protecting the mission from poison at its root.

Day 22 — All Things in Common (Acts 4:32-37) | May 17

Derek Sanford — Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

After praying for boldness and being filled with the Spirit, the church overflows with radical generosity. They're of one heart and mind, sharing everything, ensuring no one has any need. This isn't socialism or forced redistribution, it's the Spirit-empowered response of people who truly believe Jesus conquered death. When you believe resurrection is real, your stuff becomes just temporary tools for the mission. The apostles testify to the resurrection with great power, and great grace rests on the whole community. Luke introduces Barnabas, whose nickname means "Son of Encouragement," who sells a field and lays the money at the apostles' feet with no strings attached. This generosity isn't obligation, it's overflow. Throughout church history, whenever the gospel spreads with power, radical giving follows.

Day 21 — The Church Prays for Boldness (Acts 4:23-31) | May 16

Derek Sanford — Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Released from the council's threats, Peter and John return to the church and report everything. The church's response is prayer, together, corporate, powerful. They start with God's sovereignty, reminding themselves who's actually in charge, then quote Psalm 2 about kings raging against the Lord and his Messiah. The opposition isn't new or surprising; even the crucifixion fulfilled God's predetermined plan. But notice what they don't pray for: they don't ask God to remove the threats or make life comfortable. Instead, they pray for more boldness to keep speaking God's word, and for signs and wonders to continue validating the message. God answers immediately, the place shakes, they're filled with the Holy Spirit, and they speak boldly. Courage is contagious. When brave people take a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.

Day 20 — Boldness Recognized (Acts 4:13-22) | May 15

Derek Sanford — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The Sanhedrin is astonished by Peter and John's boldness. These are ordinary men, fishermen with no formal training, no credentials, no pedigree. Yet they speak with unexplainable confidence. The council recognizes they'd been with Jesus. Radical faith that takes kingdom risks demonstrates to others that Jesus has rubbed off on us. The officials are stuck: the healed man stands right there as undeniable proof, and public opinion runs too strong to punish them. So they threaten the apostles to stop teaching in Jesus' name. Peter and John respond with one of Acts' most important statements: whether it's right to listen to you rather than God, you decide, we can't stop speaking about what we've seen and heard. Boldness meets obedience when faithfulness matters more than approval.

Day 19 — Before the Council (Acts 4:5-12) | May 14

Derek Sanford — Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter and John stand trial before the Sanhedrin, the same council that condemned Jesus. When asked by what power they healed the lame man, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, turns a defensive moment into gospel proclamation. He declares that the healing happened through Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the stone the builders rejected that God made the cornerstone. Then Peter delivers one of Scripture's most exclusive claims: salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. The healed man stands right there as undeniable evidence. This is bold, articulate, unapologetic witness under pressure, exactly what Jesus promised the Spirit would produce when his followers faced authorities.

Day 18 — Arrested for Preaching (Acts 4:1-4) | May 13

Derek Sanford — Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

As Peter preaches about resurrection, the Sadducees, who don't believe in resurrection, show up annoyed. They arrest Peter and John, throwing them in jail overnight because it's too late for a trial. What bothers the religious leaders isn't the healing but the teaching that Jesus rose from the dead, threatening their theological system and power structure. Yet even opposition can't stop God's mission: about five thousand men come to faith, meaning the church has exploded from three thousand at Pentecost to around eight thousand in just weeks. The apostles land in prison, but the word spreads like wildfire. This pattern becomes the rhythm of Acts, proclaim Jesus, face resistance, watch God multiply the harvest anyway. Opposition reveals what we really believe about God's sovereignty.

Day 17 — Peter's Second Sermon (Acts 3:17-26) | May 12

Derek Sanford — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

After confronting the crowd with their role in Jesus' death, Peter pivots to grace: they acted in ignorance, and God used their worst moment to fulfill his plan. The prophets foretold the Messiah's suffering, and now repentance opens the door to refreshment from God's presence. Peter connects Jesus to Moses' prophecy of a prophet like him, one whom Israel must listen to or face being cut off from God's people. This sermon weaves judgment and invitation together: the promises to Abraham are being fulfilled right now, and Jesus came first to the Jews to bless them by turning them from wickedness. Peter presents repentance not as shame management but as the pathway to times of refreshing and participation in God's unstoppable rescue plan for all nations.

Day 16 — Peter Explains the Healing (Acts 3:11-16) | May 11

Derek Sanford — Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The healed man clings to Peter and John while a crowd gathers at Solomon's Colonnade. Peter immediately deflects their amazement, refusing to let people's awe stick to him instead of passing through to God. He connects this miracle to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the same God they claim to worship, and confronts them with uncomfortable truth: they handed over the Holy and Righteous One and chose a murderer instead. This healing proves Jesus is alive, raised by God as the source of life. Peter emphasizes that faith in Jesus' name made this man strong, demonstrating that the resurrection wasn't just historical fact but present power. The miracle becomes a sermon pointing people beyond the spectacle to the risen Christ.

Day 15 — Healing at the Gate (Acts 3:1-10) | May 10

Derek Sanford — Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter and John head to afternoon prayer at the temple, keeping their old rhythms even after Pentecost. At the Beautiful Gate, they encounter a man lame from birth, someone Jesus himself had walked past multiple times. When the beggar asks for money, Peter does something unexpected: he looks him in the eye and offers dignity before the miracle. What Peter gives is something far greater than silver or gold, the name of Jesus and the power that raised him from death. The man's feet become strong, and he leaps into the temple praising God, fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy that when God comes to save, the lame will leap like deer. This healing reveals that the kingdom has arrived and the Spirit fills everyday moments with divine appointments.

Day 14 — The First Community (Acts 2:42-47) | May 9

Derek Sanford — Sat, 09 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Three thousand brand-new Christians woke up the morning after Pentecost with no playbook, no church building, and no idea what came next. What they did have was each other. In today's episode, we look at the four rhythms that shaped the earliest church -- teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer -- and why Luke says God kept adding to their number daily. The early church didn't grow because they had a good strategy. They grew because they were genuinely devoted. And devotion like that is still the most contagious thing in the world.

Day 13 — Three Thousand Respond (Acts 2:37-41) | May 8

Derek Sanford — Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter finished his sermon and the crowd was cut to the heart. "What do we do?" they asked. And Peter had a clear answer: repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit. In today's episode, we look at what happened when the gospel landed on a crowd that was actually listening -- three thousand people baptized in a single afternoon. Peter preached one sermon. One. And by sundown, the church had multiplied twenty-five times over. God does the heavy lifting. Ordinary people just have to show up and say yes.

Day 12 — Peter's Sermon: David's Prophecy Fulfilled (Acts 2:29-36) | May 7

Derek Sanford — Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter's sermon has been building toward one moment. He's proven Jesus rose. Now he answers the question everyone had to be thinking: if Jesus is alive, where is he and what is he doing? Today we follow Peter's argument through David's prophecy to one of the most important verses in Acts -- the chain of events that explains Pentecost and names Jesus as Lord and Messiah. This is the sermon that changed the world. And it was preached by a fisherman who had failed spectacularly weeks before.

Day 11 — Peter's Sermon: Jesus' Death and Resurrection (Acts 2:22-28) | May 6

Derek Sanford — Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Peter's sermon turns a corner in today's passage. He moves from explanation to accusation: you handed Jesus over, and God raised him from the dead. It's one of the boldest things any person has ever said to any crowd. In this episode, we look at how Peter builds his case for the resurrection and why the faith we carry isn't a philosophy -- it's a verdict. The tomb was empty. And an empty tomb changes the terms on everything else in your life.

Day 10 — Peter's Sermon: Joel's Prophecy Fulfilled (Acts 2:14-21) | May 5

Derek Sanford — Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Weeks earlier, Peter denied Jesus to a servant girl and ran. Now he's standing in front of thousands, raising his voice, preaching the first Christian sermon in history. Today we dig into how Peter connects what's happening at Pentecost to an 800-year-old prophecy from Joel -- and what it means that we're still living in those "last days" right now. The Spirit doesn't visit anymore. He moves in. And that changes everything about how you and I are supposed to live.

Day 9 — Speaking in Tongues (Acts 2:5-13) | May 4

Derek Sanford — Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The Spirit's first act was to speak -- and he chose to do it in every language of the known world. In today's episode, we look at what happened when the crowds heard a group of Galilean fishermen declaring the mighty acts of God in their native tongues. The miracle at Pentecost

was the beginning of a reversal that started at Babel. God scattered humanity through language. Now, through the Spirit, he was gathering it back. And he was doing it through the people nobody would have chosen.

Day 8 — The Spirit Comes (Acts 2:1-4) | May 3

Derek Sanford — Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Ten days of waiting. One hundred and twenty ordinary people in an upper room. And then the day of Pentecost arrived and heaven broke through. Wind. Fire. Languages nobody had learned. In this episode, we slow down to take in the three signs Luke describes at the Spirit's arrival and why each one matters. This was a new era beginning -- not with impressive people or powerful institutions, but with a room full of nobodies who had simply been obedient enough to wait. The Spirit who filled that room hasn't left. He's still filling people today.

Day 7 — Matthias Chosen (Acts 1:21-26) | May 2

Derek Sanford — Sat, 02 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The disciples needed a replacement for Judas -- someone who had walked with Jesus from his baptism through the resurrection. Two men were nominated. They prayed. They cast lots. And Matthias was chosen. Today's episode asks the question underneath the story: what does it look like to be qualified for God's mission? The answer might be simpler than you think. And the process might look a lot less dramatic than you'd hope. Faithfulness in the unseen seasons always precedes visibility in the significant ones.

Day 6 — Peter Addresses the Gap (Acts 1:15-20) | May 1

Derek Sanford — Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Judas was gone. His seat was empty. And in the middle of a ten-day prayer meeting, Peter stands up and says something needs to be done about it. Today we look at a passage most people skim past -- the ugly aftermath of Judas's betrayal -- and discover something unexpected: even grief has a task inside it. Peter doesn't let the wound fester. He leads through it. God's purposes don't stall when people fail. They find a way forward.

Day 5 — The Upper Room Prayer Meeting (Acts 1:12-14) | April 30

Derek Sanford — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

After the ascension, the disciples walked back to Jerusalem and did something quietly radical: they prayed. Together. Continuously. In today's episode, we look at the unlikely group gathered in that upper room -- eleven disciples, the women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers -- and what their shared prayer reveals about how God moves. Prayer isn't the warmup before the real work begins. For the early church, it was the work.

Day 4 — The Ascension (Acts 1:9-11) | April 29

Derek Sanford — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Jesus rose into the sky until a cloud received him out of their sight. And the disciples just stood there, staring upward, until two angels essentially told them to get moving. In this episode, we sit with the stunning reality of the ascension -- not as an exit, but as an enthronement. Jesus didn't leave. He was crowned. And two angels asked the question we still need to hear: why are you standing here looking at the sky?

Day 3 — The Mission Outlined (Acts 1:6-8) | April 28

Derek Sanford — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The disciples had a burning question for the risen Jesus: "Are you restoring the kingdom to Israel now?" It was an understandable question. And Jesus redirected it entirely. Today we unpack one of the most mission-shaping verses in the entire Bible -- Acts 1:8 -- and why the Spirit's power isn't given for our comfort or our curiosity. It's given for witness. Jerusalem. Judea. Samaria. The ends of the earth. That's not just a geographic outline. It's a calling.

Day 2 — Wait for the Promise (Acts 1:4-5) | April 27

Derek Sanford — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Jesus had just spent forty days appearing alive to his disciples. They were ready to go. And he told them to wait. In a culture wired for action, "wait" feels like the worst possible command. But in today's episode, we dig into why Jesus gave it -- and why activity without the Spirit's power is just noise. The disciples didn't need more information. They needed to be filled. And the same Spirit promised to them is available to you right now.

Day 1 — Jesus' Resurrection Appearances (Acts 1:1-3) | April 26

Derek Sanford — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The book of Acts opens not with a dramatic new beginning but with a deliberate continuation. Luke tells his patron Theophilus that his Gospel covered everything Jesus began to do and teach. That word "began" is everything. The resurrection wasn't the finish line -- it was the starting gun. In this first episode of our 141-day journey through Acts, we explore why this ancient letter written to one man was always meant for all of us, and why the story of Jesus is still being written today -- through ordinary people like you.

Acts Daily Devotional Podcast: A 141-day Bible journey through the book of Acts (Intro)

Derek Sanford — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:32:20 -0400

What if the story of the early church isn’t just history, but a blueprint for following Jesus today? The Acts Daily Devotional Podcast is a 141-day journey through the book of Acts in the Bible, hosted by Pastor Derek. Each short episode combines Scripture and practical teaching to help inspire your daily chair time with God, whether at home or on your drive to work. Starting April 26, discover how the Holy Spirit empowers ordinary people to advance the mission of Jesus from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.