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September 4, 2026

Daily Devotional

Holy Boldness: In the Book of Acts!

The Book of Acts traces the gospel’s advance from Jerusalem to Rome through a recurring motif: boldness. The Greek noun parrēsia (παρρησία) and its cognate verb parrēsiazomai (παρρησιάζομαι) appear throughout the narrative, denoting not mere personality or volume but frank, unreserved speech—freedom to declare the truth without concealment, even under threat.

Luke deploys the noun five times and the verb repeatedly. Peter opens the public witness of the church “with confidence” (parrēsia) concerning David’s tomb and the resurrection (Acts 2:29). After the healing at the Beautiful Gate, the Sanhedrin is astonished at “the boldness of Peter and John,” uneducated men who had been with Jesus (4:13).

Threatened, the church prays, “grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (4:29). God answers: they are filled with the Holy Spirit and speak the word “with boldness” (4:31). The book closes with Paul in Rome “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (28:31).

The verb fills the intervening chapters: Saul preaches boldly in Damascus and Jerusalem (9:27–28); Paul and Barnabas speak out boldly when Jews reject the word (13:46); they remain speaking boldly at Iconium amid opposition (14:3); Apollos and Paul speak boldly in synagogues (18:26; 19:8); Paul testifies boldly before Agrippa (26:26).

This parrēsia is Spirit-given, not innate. Peter’s transformation from denial to public accusation of the rulers who crucified Jesus is tied to being “filled with the Holy Spirit” (4:8). The church does not pray for safety or silence but for courage to keep speaking.

Boldness consists in clarity about Jesus’ identity and exclusive salvation (4:10–12) and in the refusal to obey human commands that contradict God’s (4:19–20; 5:29). It is the civic privilege of Athenian free speech transposed into the kingdom of God: citizens of heaven speaking the whole counsel without reserve.

Thus Acts presents boldness as the Spirit’s gift for witness under pressure. The apostles’ message—Christ crucified and risen, the only name by which one must be saved—demands and produces such speech. The narrative’s bookends (2:29 and 28:31) frame the entire mission: from Pentecost to imperial Rome, the word advances when God’s people, filled and praying, refuse to mute it. Contemporary proclamation inherits the same call: Not bravado, but Spirit-empowered frankness about Jesus in the face of opposition!

And guess what? You can be a Witness by just forwarding this message to all of your Contacts!

Bob Lewis

Vietnam Vet

Author since 11/2022

AMEN!

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If you have questions, please call the 24-Hour BGEA Prayer Line at:

(855) 255-PRAY.

CONTINUE:

Let us Praise Him Daily!

A good way to learn to Praise God is to memorize the first 6 Verses of Psalms 148:

1 Praise the Lord, O heavens! Praise Him from the skies!

²Praise Him, all His angels, all the armies of heaven.

³Praise Him, sun and moon and all you twinkling stars.

⁴Praise Him, skies above. Praise Him, vapors high above the clouds.

⁵Let everything He has made give praise to Him. For He issued His command, and they came into being;

^{6 H}e established them forever and forever. His orders will never be revoked.

PLEASE read the last 6 Chapters of Psalms: 145-150 so that you will learn how to Praise God like David did!

If you don’t want to get your Bible, Here they all are, just click on each Chapter and I will read them to you:

PSALMS 145 PSALMS 146 PSALMS 147 PSALMS148 PSALMS 149 PSALMS 150

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JESUS IS:

THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH,

THE LEADER,

THE ORIGINATOR,

THE LORD & MASTER,

THE SUPREME LEADER,

OUR HOPE,

1ST BORN FROM THE DEAD WITH AN IMMORTAL BODY TO NEVER DIE AGAIN,

THE 1ST FRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION,

HE IS OUR FESTIVAL OF HOPE,

OUR PARDON,

GIVEN 1ST PLACE IN EVERYTHING,

HAS BEEN EXALTED AS SUPREME OVER EVERYTHING,

IS ENOUGH,

THE FULLNESS OF GOD DWELLS IN US THROUGH JESUS,

JESUS HAS BROUGHT US INTO HARMONY WITH GOD,

HE HAS BROKERED A PEACE TREATY BETWEEN GOD & MAN,

YOU WERE BORN ON THE WRONG SIDE, BUT BY ACCEPTING JESUS

YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE NOW,

YOU ARE BEYOND REPROACH,

JESUS WAS THE SOLUTION BEFORE YOU HAD A SIN PROBLEM,

NEVER GET OVER WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR YOU!

NOW:

THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH:

TO TEACH US TO LEAD OTHERS TO CHRIST!

AMEN!

(You might want to copy those down and memorize them!)

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DAILY BIBLE READING:

>1. Chapter for the DAY in Proverbs;

>2. PLUS: 1 NEW Chapter from the Old Testament AND

>3. PLUS: 1 NEW Chapter from the New Testament Daily:

Chapter 4 in Proverbs for today: (SEPTEMBER 4 (MT) (ESV)

4 Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,
    and be attentive, that you may gain^[a] insight,
²for I give you good precepts;
    do not forsake my teaching.
³When I was a son with my father,
    tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
⁴he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
    keep my commandments, and live.
⁵Get wisdom; get insight;
    do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
⁶Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
    love her, and she will guard you.
⁷The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
    and whatever you get, get insight.
⁸Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
    she will honor you if you embrace her.
⁹She will place on your head a graceful garland;
    she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

¹⁰Hear, my son, and accept my words,
    that the years of your life may be many.
¹¹I have taught you the way of wisdom;
    I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
¹²When you walk, your step will not be hampered,
    and if you run, you will not stumble.
¹³Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
    guard her, for she is your life.
¹⁴Do not enter the path of the wicked,
    and do not walk in the way of the evil.
¹⁵Avoid it; do not go on it;
    turn away from it and pass on.
¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
    they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness
    and drink the wine of violence.
¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
    which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
¹⁹The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
    they do not know over what they stumble.

²⁰My son, be attentive to my words;
    incline your ear to my sayings.
²¹Let them not escape from your sight;
    keep them within your heart.
²²For they are life to those who find them,
    and healing to all their^[b] flesh.
²³Keep your heart with all vigilance,
    for from it flow the springs of life.
²⁴Put away from you crooked speech,
    and put devious talk far from you.
²⁵Let your eyes look directly forward,
    and your gaze be straight before you.
²⁶Ponder^[c] the path of your feet;
    then all your ways will be sure.
²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
    turn your foot away from evil.

Footnotes

Proverbs 4:1 Hebrew know

Proverbs 4:22 Hebrew his

Proverbs 4:26 Or Make level

CHAPTER 35 JEREMIAH for today: (SEPTEMBER 4 (LN) (ESV)

35 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: ²“Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then offer them wine to drink.” ³So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites. ⁴I brought them to the house of the Lord into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the officials, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, keeper of the threshold. ⁵Then I set before the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.” ⁶But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. ⁷You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ ⁸We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, ⁹and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, ¹⁰but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us. ¹¹But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Syrians.’ So we are living in Jerusalem.”

¹²Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? declares the Lord. ¹⁴The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. ¹⁵I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me. ¹⁶The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have kept the command that their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me. ¹⁷Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.”

¹⁸But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you, ¹⁹therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.”

Revelation 07

for today: (SEPTEMBER 4 (NN) ESV)

7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. ²Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, ³saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” ⁴And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

⁵12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
⁶12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
⁷12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
⁸12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

A Great Multitude from Every Nation

⁹After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

¹³Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹⁵“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
    and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
    the sun shall not strike them,
    nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
    and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

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Please Remember:

“CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS

AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD!”

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The Steps to Salvation:

> Repent: Repentance means that you are turning away from sin to turn to Christ. It does NOT mean that you will be perfect.

> Believe/Receive: Salvation is through Faith in Jesus and by the Grace of God. Believing means putting your Faith in Jesus and receiving forgiveness of sin.

>Walk in the Newness of Life: Jesus died so that we might live. We walk in the Newness of Life being Born Again by His Blood.

Additionally, if you feel you need someone to Pray for you,

please call the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,

24 Hours/Day, at: 1+855 255 PRAY (This is the same as: 1+855 255 7729).

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GOD THE FATHER IS THE SOVEREIGN KING
AND CREATOR OF THE ENTIRE
UNIVERSE AND BEYOND!

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