This latest devotion in 2021 is from Trey Haidle, our Youth Pastor.
Trey joined our staff July 2020 but was not new to Emmanuel. His family has attended Emmanuel for many years and was part of our youth group growing up. Prior to coming on staff, Trey attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago IL where he studied Biblical Studies and played basketball.
Trey finished his education at Moody by interning at Emmanuel January 2020 and graduated that May.
Trey has a passion for youth and a desire to see them grounded in their faith and cultivating a vibrant relationship with the Lord. He has an innate ability to connect with students and develop strong relationships as well as loves the opportunity to evangelize through sports.
In his free time, you will find him playing any sport available or spending time in the outdoors with his friends. Exciting news is Trey’s upcoming wedding in November!
Read Trey’s introduction below and come back tomorrow for day one! If you prefer to receive a daily text containing a link to the devotions, click here for instructions.
If you prefer, you can download the entire 21-day devotion booklet here.
Introduction
There are 66 books in the Bible and they all have their unique place in the timeline and purpose of God’s story. Each book builds on the mega narrative, the story of the whole bible, that God has been writing in the timeline of earth’s life. All the while, he is using people like you and I to fulfill his purpose on earth. Some books take more digging to relate to and apply thousands of years later, books like Leviticus or Numbers, for example. These books are still filled with life changing truths that can play a huge role in the formation of our understanding of God’s Word.
Then, there are books like Acts that easily transcend culture and time. When we read the book of Acts, it may be one of the clearest applications for the church today. The book begins at the ascension of Jesus Christ and his great commission. We could actually read the gospel of Luke right into the book of Acts and it would flow like one continuous story. That is because it is written by the same person, Luke, to the same recipient, Theophilus, recalling the same historical account.
I love that the Bible is not just a story of what happened, but what happens. Yes, it is a historical book with real events and people, but it is not merely limited to historical events because it is ultimately about God’s love to you and I. God is continuing to work in the lives of people today and it is not different from what we see in the Book of Acts. We’ll find that Acts is all about the Holy Spirit empowering ordinary people like you and I to build his church.
Within the pages of Acts, we are going to see one continual theme all the way through, beginning in Acts 1:8,
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”
The rest of Acts is building off of this one verse! The followers of Jesus are filled with the Holy Spirit and they go all over the known world proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. The wild thing is, I am a believer today because one of these men or women told another of the good news of Jesus, and then to the next generation, then to the next, and so on. You, too, fit in the ongoing narrative of the story of Acts. The church is still being built up by ordinary people through the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.