The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 340: The Power of the Holy Spirit (2025)
06 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 340. You know what that means. There's 25 days left. What the heck? Are you kidding me? That's bananas. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 19, Paul in Ephesus.
We're also reading the second letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapters 1 and 2, just the beginning of that letter, as well as Proverbs, chapter 28, verses 22 through 24. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
To download your own Bible in-ear reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in-ear. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe. We're receiving daily episodes and daily updates. You know what I'm going to say. It is day 340. We're reading Acts chapter 19, 2 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, the introduction, as well as Proverbs chapter 28, verses 22 through 24.
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 19, Paul in Ephesus. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples and he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, into what then were you baptized? They said, into John's baptism.
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Chapter 2: What does Fr. Mike say about the power of the Holy Spirit?
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us.
On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world and still more toward you with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God.
For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand. I hope you will understand fully, as you have understood in part, that you can be proud of us as we can be of you on the day of the Lord Jesus. The postponement of Paul's visit. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a double pleasure.
I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say yes and no at once? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why we utter the amen through him, to the glory of God." Chapter 2. For I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit.
For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all.
For I wrote you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. Forgiveness for the Offender But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to you all. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough.
So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive.
What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, to keep Satan from gaining the advantage over us, for we are not ignorant of his designs. Paul's anxiety in Troas. When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord, but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.
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Chapter 3: How do sacramentals play a role in faith according to Fr. Mike?
They counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. Think about this. How many times do we in our lives have something in our lives that don't belong there? They don't belong in the hands of a Christian, whether that be certain movies, certain music, so whatever the thing is, and it has a certain value to it. And here are these Christians in Ephesus. And what do they do?
They have something in their presence, in their possession that should not be in their possession. They didn't go on eBay and say, I've got these magic books, but I'm not into magic anymore because I belong to Jesus. I'm a Christian. So I'm just going to sell these magic books. No, because you're not going to pass on evil to someone else.
Just because you don't want evil in your life, it's not like you're going to make money off of selling these evil things to someone else. So what do they do? They simply destroyed them. 50,000 pieces of silver.
This is a huge act of trust in the Lord, this huge sacrifice and trust in the Lord of saying, I'm going to divest myself of things that have value for the sake of Jesus Christ who has ultimate value. And I think that's just, it's incredible. Now it goes on. Here's the artisans, right? Demetrius, Silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis. And they're all losing their business. Because why?
Because people aren't worshiping Artemis anymore. They're worshiping Jesus Christ. This is a model. This is a model for what we should be as Christians. As Christians, we should be so fully handed over to the Lord that the culture around us has to change. Now, people involved in magic arts, if they wanted to, they could have just kept those magic arts.
They could have just kept their shrines of Artemis. They could have just done whatever they wanted to do. And you know what would happen? Nothing. Nothing would be changed. And yet here we have these Christians, these new Christians.
who are so fully sold out for Jesus that they actually destroy the, I don't want to say the livelihood of these people who are selling idols, but they destroy the livelihood of those people who are selling idols. And again, feel sorry for those people, but what a gift, what incredible witness. They didn't put them out of business by making a new law.
They didn't put them out of business by having, you know, a riot or having a protest. They simply said, we are not participating in this destructive movement. and this ultimately diabolical practice that other people do in this city. You can count us out of it. Because why? Because we're Christians.
And again, I just think about how incredible it is when Christians stand together and they simply say, oh, we're not participating in whatever this evil thing is. The world around them has to change. No, it changes through sacrifice, 50,000 pieces of silver worth, but it changes nonetheless. So that's Acts of the Apostles chapter 19. We also have the second letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
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