Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 9-10.

When I wrote about Philip preaching the Gospel to the Ethiopian yesterday I did not mention how the Ethiopian immediately requested to be baptized, and what that tells us about bringing people to Christ.  However, today we have two more incidents involving baptism.  Immediately after Ananias laid his hands on Saul, restoring his sight, Saul was baptized, even before he got something to eat.  Then Saul spent a few days with the Believers with the implication that they spent those days confirming that Saul’s belief was consistent with Jesus’ teaching.  We, also, have the story of Peter going to Cornelius’ house to preach.  There the Holy Spirit came upon those to whom Peter was preaching and Peter baptized them.  After which Peter spent a few days confirming that they had a solid grounding in Jesus’ teachings.  All three of these stories (the Ethopian from yesterday, Saul’s conversion, and Cornelius’ household) have one thing in common, the new believers were baptized immediately upon their confession of faith.  It was only after their baptism that the Church made an attempt to give them in-depth training about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  These accounts also tell us that the Holy Spirit had filled these people when they received the Gospel message.  We need greater spontaneity in the Church today, when the Spirit moves we need to follow.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.