Thoughts and Reflections
Today we read about Peter and John going to the Temple to pray. They run into a lame beggar. Peter tells him, “I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk.” (Acts 3:6). The man leaps up and is healed as he runs through the temple. When the Lord sends the Holy Spirit, the apostles go out and use the gift God has given them. Each of us has various gifts that are meant to be used.
Physical healing is important but spiritual healing is more important.
About This Project
For the year 2022, I decided that my New Year’s Resolution was to read the whole Bible following the Bible in the Year plan presented by Fr. Mike Schmitz. It is a big and bold undertaking. You can follow along by subscribing. Feel free to look at previous day’s post and comment. It’s something we can all learn from together!
Daily Readings
Acts 3
1 Once, when Peter and John were going up to the Temple for the prayers at the ninth hour,
2 it happened that there was a man being carried along. He was a cripple from birth; and they used to put him down every day near the Temple entrance called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg from the people going in.
3 When this man saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple he begged from them.
4 Peter, and John too, looked straight at him and said, ‘Look at us.’
5 He turned to them expectantly, hoping to get something from them,
6 but Peter said, ‘I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!’
7 Then he took him by the right hand and helped him to stand up. Instantly his feet and ankles became firm,
8 he jumped up, stood, and began to walk, and he went with them into the Temple, walking and jumping and praising God.
9 Everyone could see him walking and praising God,
10 and they recognised him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. They were all astonished and perplexed at what had happened to him.
11 Everyone came running towards them in great excitement, to the Portico of Solomon, as it is called, where the man was still clinging to Peter and John.
12 When Peter saw the people he addressed them, ‘Men of Israel, why are you so surprised at this? Why are you staring at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or holiness?
13 It is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, who has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and then disowned in the presence of Pilate after he had given his verdict to release him.
14 It was you who accused the Holy and Upright One, you who demanded that a murderer should be released to you
15 while you killed the prince of life. God, however, raised him from the dead, and to that fact we are witnesses;
16 and it is the name of Jesus which, through faith in him, has brought back the strength of this man whom you see here and who is well known to you. It is faith in him that has restored this man to health, as you can all see.
17 ‘Now I know, brothers, that neither you nor your leaders had any idea what you were really doing;
18 but this was the way God carried out what he had foretold, when he said through all his prophets that his Christ would suffer.
19 Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,
20 and so that the Lord may send the time of comfort. Then he will send you the Christ he has predestined, that is Jesus,
21 whom heaven must keep till the universal restoration comes which God proclaimed, speaking through his holy prophets.
22 Moses, for example, said, “From among your brothers the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me; you will listen to whatever he tells you.
23 Anyone who refuses to listen to that prophet shall be cut off from the people.”
24 In fact, all the prophets that have ever spoken, from Samuel onwards, have predicted these days.
25 ‘You are the heirs of the prophets, the heirs of the covenant God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, “All the nations of the earth will be blessed in your descendants”.
26 It was for you in the first place that God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you as every one of you turns from his wicked ways.’
Romans 4
1 Then what do we say about Abraham, the ancestor from whom we are descended physically?
2 If Abraham had been justified because of what he had done, then he would have had something to boast about. But not before God:
3 does not scripture say: Abraham put his faith in God and this was reckoned to him as uprightness?
4 Now, when someone works, the wages for this are not considered as a favour but as due;
5 however, when someone, without working, puts faith in the one who justifies the godless, it is this faith that is reckoned as uprightness.
6 David, too, says the same: he calls someone blessed if God attributes uprightness to that person, apart from any action undertaken:
7 How blessed are those whose offence is forgiven, whose sin is blotted out.
8 How blessed are those to whom the Lord imputes no guilt.
9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, or is it said of the uncircumcised as well? Well, we said of Abraham that his faith was reckoned to him as uprightness.
10 Now how did this come about? When he was already circumcised, or before he had been circumcised? Not when he had been circumcised, but while he was still uncircumcised;
11 and circumcision was given to him later, as a sign and a guarantee that the faith which he had while still uncircumcised was reckoned to him as uprightness. In this way, Abraham was to be the ancestor of all believers who are uncircumcised, so that they might be reckoned as upright;
12 as well as the ancestor of those of the circumcision who not only have their circumcision but who also follow our ancestor Abrahamalong the path of faith that he trod before he was circumcised.
13 For the promise to Abraham and his descendants that he should inherit the world was not through the Law, but through the uprightness of faith.
14 For if it is those who live by the Law who will gain the inheritance, faith is worthless and the promise is without force;
15 for the Law produces nothing but God’s retribution, and it is only where there is no Law that it is possible to live without breaking the Law.
16 That is why the promise is to faith, so that it comes as a free gift and is secure for all the descendants, not only those who rely on the Law but all those others who rely on the faith of Abraham, the ancestor of us all
17 (as scripture says: I have made you the father of many nations). Abraham is our father in the eyes of God, in whom he put his faith, and who brings the dead to life and calls into existence what does not yet exist.
18 Though there seemed no hope, he hoped and believed that he was to become father of many nations in fulfilment of the promise: Just so will your descendants be.
19 Even the thought that his body was as good as dead — he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah’s womb was dead too did not shake his faith.
20 Counting on the promise of God, he did not doubt or disbelieve, but drew strength from faith and gave glory to God,
21 fully convinced that whatever God promised he has the power to perform.
22 This is the faith that was reckoned to him as uprightness.
23 And the word ‘reckoned’ in scripture applies not only to him;
24 it is there for our sake too — our faith, too, will be ‘reckoned’
25 because we believe in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus who was handed over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification.
Romans 5
1 So then, now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
2 it is through him, by faith, that we have been admitted into God’s favour in which we are living, and look forward exultantly to God’s glory.
3 Not only that; let us exult, too, in our hardships, understanding that hardship develops perseverance,
4 and perseverance develops a tested character, something that gives us hope,
5 and a hope which will not let us down, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.
6 When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless.
7 You could hardly find anyone ready to die even for someone upright; though it is just possible that, for a really good person, someone might undertake to die.
8 So it is proof of God’s own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
9 How much more can we be sure, therefore, that, now that we have been justified by his death, we shall be saved through him from the retribution of God.
10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more can we be sure that, being now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11 What is more, we are filled with exultant trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.
12 Well then; it was through one man that sin came into the world, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.
13 Sin already existed in the world before there was any law, even though sin is not reckoned when there is no law.
14 Nonetheless death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sin was not the breaking of a commandment, as Adam’s was. He prefigured the One who was to come . . .
15 There is no comparison between the free gift and the offence. If death came to many through the offence of one man, how much greater an effect the grace of God has had, coming to so many and so plentifully as a free gift through the one man Jesus Christ!
16 Again, there is no comparison between the gift and the offence of one man. One single offence brought condemnation, but now, after many offences, have come the free gift and so acquittal!
17 It was by one man’s offence that death came to reign over all, but how much greater the reign in life of those who receive the fullness of grace and the gift of saving justice, through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 One man’s offence brought condemnation on all humanity; and one man’s good act has brought justification and life to all humanity.
19 Just as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience are many to be made upright.
20 When law came on the scene, it was to multiply the offences. But however much sin increased, grace was always greater;
21 so that as sin’s reign brought death, so grace was to rule through saving justice that leads to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Proverbs 27:1-3
1 Do not congratulate yourself about tomorrow, since you do not know what today will bring forth.
2 Let someone else sing your praises, but not your own mouth, a stranger, but not your own lips.
3 Heavy is the stone, weighty is the sand; heavier than both — a grudge borne by a fool.
