As we look into the book of Acts powerful community relationships is one of the aspects that is clearly portrayed. There was a camaraderie and a commitment to one another that is often not seen today in the American church. The Scriptures say that the people were ‘devoted to meeting together.’ Devoted is not necessarily a term that is used today to describe people’s commitment to one another. The reality that people walk out on marriage, walk out on children and walk out on financial commitments might indicate a devotion problem in our culture.
One of the fallouts of people ‘walking out’ is that it causes everyone to be cautious in their relationships. Those that remain tend to pull back. The question is asked: Why should I be ‘devoted’ if others are just going to walk out when they feel like it? People become hesitant to extend themselves to others. People become undecided and don’t try to really get to know each other.
The ‘individuality’ of the American church shouldn’t surprise anyone should it? We are a country that prides itself on individuality. The American motto is not: “All for one and one for all.” We pride ourselves on the ‘self-made man.’ Pity the person who is successful because of someone else’s fortune. “He had it handed to him on a silver platter” is a slam on a person’s character.
The community of faith that Jesus flows through isn’t like that. The book of Psalms says: How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony! (Psalms 133:1 NLT)
Commitment, devotion and love is the life that is portrayed in the book of Acts. ‘A life of harmony.’ The Life God desires can’t be lived any other way.
Albert Schweitzer wrote: "In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." Rekindling the inner spirit is part of life lived together.
Jesus said that the world would know that we are His followers because of our love for one another.
Our daily prayer should be: Jesus, create this kind of faith community in us!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
The Jesus Story ... Continued!
As we begin the 6 month study of the New Testament book of Acts, I want to call your attention to a verse from the Gospel of John that describes the substrata of what occurs throughout the first 30 years of church history and is, I believe the way that God intends for the church to live today. The verse is John 3 just before the most famous verse of all, John 3:16.
Here is the verse:
The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit. (John 3:8 NLT)
You can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going …
The Book of Acts is an historical recording of what happened when the wind blew – the wind of the Holy Spirit. People didn’t know where the wind was coming from and they didn’t know where the wind was going.
Sometimes they were blown by the wind to new places and sometimes they set their faces against the wind and pushed forward. Listening, following, working with and, at times, standing against the wind required a continuous engagement with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. There was no ‘been there, done that’ attitude. They were living with their hearing aids turned up to full volume; the gain was turned all the way up on what was happening. They couldn’t sit back – putting the transmission in neutral and coast their way through life. Things were happening in such a way that it required serious engagement with Jesus.
But -- that was then and this is now. We can turn the hearing aids down; we can push the ‘gain’ down to a one; we can put the transmission in to neutral – we can just coast. NOT.
The life of faith is meant to be – The Jesus Story … Continued!
We are only living a life of faith when we are in serious engagement with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. I contend that anything less than that either borders on living a secular Christian life or is a full blown secular Christian life.
Is – The Jesus Story … Continued in your life?
Here is the verse:
The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit. (John 3:8 NLT)
You can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going …
The Book of Acts is an historical recording of what happened when the wind blew – the wind of the Holy Spirit. People didn’t know where the wind was coming from and they didn’t know where the wind was going.
Sometimes they were blown by the wind to new places and sometimes they set their faces against the wind and pushed forward. Listening, following, working with and, at times, standing against the wind required a continuous engagement with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. There was no ‘been there, done that’ attitude. They were living with their hearing aids turned up to full volume; the gain was turned all the way up on what was happening. They couldn’t sit back – putting the transmission in neutral and coast their way through life. Things were happening in such a way that it required serious engagement with Jesus.
But -- that was then and this is now. We can turn the hearing aids down; we can push the ‘gain’ down to a one; we can put the transmission in to neutral – we can just coast. NOT.
The life of faith is meant to be – The Jesus Story … Continued!
We are only living a life of faith when we are in serious engagement with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. I contend that anything less than that either borders on living a secular Christian life or is a full blown secular Christian life.
Is – The Jesus Story … Continued in your life?
Friday, February 11, 2011
Self-Feeder
The Jesus Story … Continued!
Starting on February 20th the Sunday morning teaching time will be from the book of Acts in the New Testament. We’ll be looking at one chapter each week and then drawing a single lesson for the morning. It will take us about 6 months to go through the book of Acts. However, since there are so many lessons in this book we will only be able to look at certain ones during our Sunday mornings! It would take years to cover the variety of subjects that the Bible teaches in Acts. There are really only two subjects not covered in the 28 chapter book: Marriage and Parenting. Those two subjects are probably on the agenda for late 2011.
One of the primary areas that I believe God wants to bring growth in each person is in the area of ‘feeding.’ The book of Hebrews talks about milk, meat and feeding.
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14 NIV)
God wants to make each one of us into ‘self-feeders.’ He wants to teach each one of us to feed ourselves spiritually… that each of us would learn to dig, catch, gather, sort, prepare and eat the kinds of spiritual food that will nourish us long-term.
Those of us who teach on Sundays work very hard to prepare a fresh hearty meal that includes a variety of nutrition. Sunday is important, but Sunday is not enough. Sunday is more like a restaurant. Sunday morning is not meant to be the only place that each of us eat. Going out to dinner at a nice restaurant is great! Eating at a restaurant can be convenient and a pleasure to the palate. Restaurant food is often rich, fattening, prepared by a ‘trained’ chief – it is good and often mouth watering but it is missing a lot. Eating at a restaurant is not how a healthy spiritual life is lived.
There is a great deal to be learned by planning, shopping, preparing, chopping, cooking, serving and then eating. If eating is the only thing that happens in the way of spiritual nutrition then it is not a well rounded spiritual life.
When the only food someone gets is from a restaurant, the food is likely to get ‘old’ and ‘boring.’ When the restaurant is a ‘supplement,’ then it is less likely to get ‘old’ and ‘boring’ but instead it becomes an anticipated outing. (People go away thinking – I’m going to try that at home!)
Jesus, Teach us to be ‘self-feeders!’ Amen
Starting on February 20th the Sunday morning teaching time will be from the book of Acts in the New Testament. We’ll be looking at one chapter each week and then drawing a single lesson for the morning. It will take us about 6 months to go through the book of Acts. However, since there are so many lessons in this book we will only be able to look at certain ones during our Sunday mornings! It would take years to cover the variety of subjects that the Bible teaches in Acts. There are really only two subjects not covered in the 28 chapter book: Marriage and Parenting. Those two subjects are probably on the agenda for late 2011.
One of the primary areas that I believe God wants to bring growth in each person is in the area of ‘feeding.’ The book of Hebrews talks about milk, meat and feeding.
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14 NIV)
God wants to make each one of us into ‘self-feeders.’ He wants to teach each one of us to feed ourselves spiritually… that each of us would learn to dig, catch, gather, sort, prepare and eat the kinds of spiritual food that will nourish us long-term.
Those of us who teach on Sundays work very hard to prepare a fresh hearty meal that includes a variety of nutrition. Sunday is important, but Sunday is not enough. Sunday is more like a restaurant. Sunday morning is not meant to be the only place that each of us eat. Going out to dinner at a nice restaurant is great! Eating at a restaurant can be convenient and a pleasure to the palate. Restaurant food is often rich, fattening, prepared by a ‘trained’ chief – it is good and often mouth watering but it is missing a lot. Eating at a restaurant is not how a healthy spiritual life is lived.
There is a great deal to be learned by planning, shopping, preparing, chopping, cooking, serving and then eating. If eating is the only thing that happens in the way of spiritual nutrition then it is not a well rounded spiritual life.
When the only food someone gets is from a restaurant, the food is likely to get ‘old’ and ‘boring.’ When the restaurant is a ‘supplement,’ then it is less likely to get ‘old’ and ‘boring’ but instead it becomes an anticipated outing. (People go away thinking – I’m going to try that at home!)
Jesus, Teach us to be ‘self-feeders!’ Amen
Monday, February 7, 2011
Vision Breakfast - February 13
Vision Breakfast
Next Sunday, February 13th at 10:00 will be our annual Vision Breakfast. There will not be an early service at 8:30 but Breakfast at 10:00.
We’ll eat together, worship, hear some stories from the church family, hear a little about Vision and take Communion together.
I HOPE THAT YOU WILL BE HERE – THIS IS NOT A MORNING TO SKIP OUT.
The Jesus Story … Continued!
Starting on February 20th the Sunday morning teaching time will be from the book of Acts in the New Testament. We’ll be looking at one chapter each week and then drawing a single lesson for the morning.
It will take us about 6 months to get through the book of Acts. I would like to challenge you to read through the book of Acts a number of times over the 6 months. Read it in different translations. Read it slow. Read it from cover to cover over a weekend. I encourage you to read the chapter that we will cover each weekend before you come on that Sunday.
The book of Acts is ‘The Jesus Story … Continued!’ What I hope becomes very clear to each of us is that Jesus is still, daily, writing His story in our lives. He is writing His story on the good days. He is writing His story on the tough days.
The book of Acts is ‘The Jesus Story … Continued!’ in the first days and years of the church. The book of Acts is about people trying to figure out how to let Jesus work in their lives and through their lives – in a totally brand new reality. We’ll look at some great things that happened in the book and we’ll look at some very troubling things.
If you are unable to make one of the weeks in the study of Acts I hope that you will catch it on line.
Remember – BREAKFAST NEXT WEEK – FEBRUARY 13TH – 10:00 AM.
Next Sunday, February 13th at 10:00 will be our annual Vision Breakfast. There will not be an early service at 8:30 but Breakfast at 10:00.
We’ll eat together, worship, hear some stories from the church family, hear a little about Vision and take Communion together.
I HOPE THAT YOU WILL BE HERE – THIS IS NOT A MORNING TO SKIP OUT.
The Jesus Story … Continued!
Starting on February 20th the Sunday morning teaching time will be from the book of Acts in the New Testament. We’ll be looking at one chapter each week and then drawing a single lesson for the morning.
It will take us about 6 months to get through the book of Acts. I would like to challenge you to read through the book of Acts a number of times over the 6 months. Read it in different translations. Read it slow. Read it from cover to cover over a weekend. I encourage you to read the chapter that we will cover each weekend before you come on that Sunday.
The book of Acts is ‘The Jesus Story … Continued!’ What I hope becomes very clear to each of us is that Jesus is still, daily, writing His story in our lives. He is writing His story on the good days. He is writing His story on the tough days.
The book of Acts is ‘The Jesus Story … Continued!’ in the first days and years of the church. The book of Acts is about people trying to figure out how to let Jesus work in their lives and through their lives – in a totally brand new reality. We’ll look at some great things that happened in the book and we’ll look at some very troubling things.
If you are unable to make one of the weeks in the study of Acts I hope that you will catch it on line.
Remember – BREAKFAST NEXT WEEK – FEBRUARY 13TH – 10:00 AM.
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