Acts II: Electric Boogaloo

I had to plow through the entire book of Acts today for my Acts & The Apostles class. Don't think I've ever read this book in one go, and some sections seemed brand-new to me -- maybe I've read them but just never took note. Some interesting observations:

• Name your kid Akeldama! It means "field of blood"! Be the first on your block with this soon-to-be trendy moniker!
• Peter is a lot less long-winded than Paul. Speeches take up 20% of the book.
  
• For those of you who think there's a wrathful OT God and a peacenik NT God, check out Ananias and Sapphira and Herod. Eaten by worms! Yum!
  
• There is no Acts 5:37. Well, there was, but it is a less-reliable late addition and isn't usually included in Bibles except as a footnote. (Also missing? Acts 24:7)
  
• The apostles were thrown in prison and flogged, like, every other day it seems. Acts contains more prison breakouts than the entire run of HBO's Oz.
• Due to 40 would-be assassins, Paul received a 470-soldier escort to Rome.

This book is a huge meal to chew, swallow and digest in detail, as I'm sure we will in the class. However, taken as a whole, what strikes me most about Acts is its contagious excitement. Far from the disciples disbanding and returning to their lives, they spread everywhere and the good news of Jesus just explodes all over the Middle East. People are being saved, miracles are worked, arguments refuted, jails opened, assassins thwarted and "ordinary, unschooled" followers witnessed so boldly, so profoundly that the world is forever changed. That is the testimony of the kingdom of God.