Hey, everybody. This is Father John Ricardo with Acts 29. And in the middle of all the craziness

and the uncertainty that's going on right now, it seems from our perspective as a team that it's

worth using these days to reflect in a more deliberate way on the scriptures every day, which

for many of us now is the only spiritual food that we're receiving. And so we're going to do a

special podcast series simply entitled, Be Not Afraid, God's Word in Uncertain Times. And we'll try to

post something every day, usually reflecting on the scriptures, so that we can listen in on what

God is trying to say to us in these days. History and tapestries. Those are the two things

in my mind today as we reflect on the scriptures, look back at this season of Lent, which is one we're

never going to forget, and anticipate the days of Holy Week, which are now rapidly upon us, right?

So first, history.

It's so crucial, perhaps especially right now in times like these, when things just look like

they're out of control and we're wondering, like, does anybody know what's going on, most especially

God? Like, is he there? Is he doing anything? Does he care? It's so crucial to remember that history

is not just some sequence of random events. History is quite literally his story. That is to say,

God's story. What's that mean? That means God is the author of what we call history. He's the author of the

drama that is creation. God is the one who created the universe. He created the earth, and most

especially he created our race with a purpose, a plan, a reason behind it. The ultimate reason is that you and I would one day partake

of God's own divine life for all eternity. And what we're seeing right now in the scriptures

is we're looking back to various events in history, which at the time seemed somewhat random. And Scripture's kind of putting them

together for us. So in your mind, if you can, or even better, actually, in reality, open up the

Bible, go to Romans 5. Romans 5 starting in verse 12. This was the passage that we heard on the first

Sunday of Lent when everything still seemed like it was going

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