David was often hard-pressed and in difficulty ... as we find him in Psalm 109. And it is often in the difficult times that we find it hardest to stop and pray. It seems easier just to fret, or to take matters into our own hands, or to just bury our faces in the pillow and wait for tomorrow. And yet, in times like those, David could say "I am in prayer." Listen in as we consider just how profound a statement that is ... and are urged to say (and do!) it with David.

Saul's conversion is the perfect illustration of those words he would later write in Romans 9.16 - "It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." Listen in as we consider his story together.

Turn to Acts 8 with us and observe the amazing providence of God, bringing two men, from two different lands, together on "a desert road" so that one might live forever as a follower of Jesus!

Listen in as we consider how God began to fulfill the vision of Acts 1.8 ... expanding the gospel, beyond even Jerusalem and Judea ... but into Samaria as well!

After the stoning of Stephen, the furnace of suffering seems to have been heated all the more intensely for the believers in Jerusalem. Listen in as we consider what that entailed, how they responded, and how God's providence was at work in it all.

The early deacon Stephen is a striking character in the life of the church in Jerusalem - a strikingly Christ-like character. Listen in as we consider his life, his ministry, and his death together.

"The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the LORD." How true this is - not only for Old testament kings and armies, but in every circumstance of life. Listen in as we consider how.

On the heels of our recent sermon on Acts 6, where we comsidered the importance of the role of servants in Christ's church ... we look a another passage that highlights the same theme.

Logistics and the meeting of temporal things are important in a local church ... especially so that those tasked with spiritual leadership can keep the main things the main things. So it is vital that deacons (and others) take charge of the churches temporal affairs, so that pastors and elders might give themselves more fully "to prayer and to the ministry of the word." Listen in as we think these things through.

The passage before us gives a wonderful snapshot of some of the more attractive elements of the Jerusalem church's daily life ... and also takes us to a particularly difficult moment, in which the beauty of her testimony shone all the brighter. Listen in as we consider these things together.