Greater Things

I came across an extremely though provoking quote in an article regarding the prostitution of underage girls in Phoenix, Arizona. I will let the quote speak for itself. "I've always wondered why the criminal world can network so well, and we can't. You see the government agencies doing their stuff autonomously, churches and parachurches doing their stuff autonomously. What if we could network as well as the criminal world? We would be awestruck at what God would accomplish." -Pat McCalla Churches within the Phoenix area have been working with each other and local government to protect these young girls. It is not everyday that you hear the call for the church to emulate organized crime.

If you are like me, then you probably say it a lot. I think there are several factors that play into this: I don't exercise like I should, I don't eat the right food, and I don't have a regular sleep pattern. I sometimes pray, "God give me the energy to get through this day." I often wonder if I should really pray that since I am not taking any steps to be disciplined in my physical habits to improve my energy levels. In some sense I am humbling myself before God and admitting that He is the only way I am going to have the energy to get through the day but I still feel like I should back up my words. I think that I don't deserve for God to sustain me through the day if I don't take any action. But then I am reminded of God's grace. Its true that I don't deserve it, in fact no one does and that is the beauty of God's grace. Even if I did eat right, exercise, or had a regular sleep pattern there is no reason why I should have good energy...

Acts 5 I need to be honest the beginning of Acts 5 confuses me.  The church has been growing super fast, people were being healed, the gospel was spreading.  Then God decides to freak everyone out by killing someone who gave money to the church. I should be clear here, Ananias and Sapphira conspired together to gain favor in the fledgling church by appearing spiritual in an act of giving.  They decided together to sell some land and give part of the money to the apostles and make seem as though they had given all the money they received.  Peter being full of the Spirit knew they were attempting to deceive the body of believers and, more importantly, God himself.  Peter called them out and both were struck dead. This strikes fear in my own life because I feel I've committed equally, if not worse, sins against God my savior.  God clearly is the author of life and is sovereign over all, so he can at any point exact his wrath or demonstrate his mercy. ...

Acts 4 continued.   32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.  34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales  35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.   36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement),  37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. How's that for an open hand.  While I won't advocate for some sort of theocratic socialism, I will say it seems that as believers we should hold our possessions a little more loosely.

On Wednesday evening, my daughter Sara was playing in the backyard. She decided to go down the slide w/ a metal pole in her hand. The pole hit her one inch below her right eye. We took her to the doctor. Her eye is fine. Thank God!!! (I’m not just saying this as a throwaway cliché.) I have seen many of these “near misses” in the lives of my children and in my life. These make me mindful of the “common grace” which God grants to all humankind. Though we live in a fallen world, God continually expresses His love for the world through His providence. Colossians 1:16-17 reminds us that Lord Jesus Christ made it all and keeps it all: “… all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Wow! In this life I’ll never know all that God does for me. To my shame, I go through most days taking this for granted. I grumble when things don’t go my way, but rarely praise Him when things go well. And how much more should we as believe...

Acts 4 Continued After being told to shut up, Peter and the rest of the disciples prayed together for the boldness to continue speaking the good news of Christ's resurrection: 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." God's response: 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Incredible.  What we're finding as we read through these chapters in Acts is that God is doing some very remarkable things to establish his church.  While what we are reading seems to indicate that these things aren't the norm, I can't help but wonder what God could do if we as a group sought to proclaim his name boldly and asked him to help us do it.

I guess just to followup on my talk from Sunday on the need for church leaders to train the next generation of leadership. We've all heard the cliche about having 3 types of people in your life: a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy. In other words - a mentor; a peer and a "mentee" or "disciple". We of the Boomer generation have to make a concerted effort to prepare the Millenials for leadership service and we need to start now. That means being willing to release our grip on leadership roles - move into a mentoring role and also release the methods of ministry to a new generation. This goes against the grain because some see these new methods as "not the right way to do things". Two things need to happen: 1) we need to identify potential leaders and 2) be willing to support those leaders when they do things different than we would -- after all we aren't doing things the way our parents did. Above all tho we need to allow methods to change while...

Acts 4 picks up in the middle of a dramatic event outside the temple in which a crippled man regains his mobility.  Peter and John, early leaders of the church and close friends of Jesus, are taken into custody by the authorities at the request of the Sadducees (the Sadducees are a sect of Jewish priests who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead as Peter and John preached - Acts 3:15).  They are held overnight and brought before a group called the Sanhedrin - a word meaning "sitting together" and referring to an assembly of judges in Israel.  Here they were questioned. During their inquisition Peter and John boldly proclaim the gospel and in so doing "astonish" these educated leaders.  The disciples' boldness and apparent authority are so shocking that the Sanhedrin withdraw into closed quarters to discuss the plan for dealing with these men.  For fear of losing control and favor among the Israelites decide to order the apostles...

I read this post:  http://theresurgence.com/misguided_christian_outrage  from the Resurgence blog and found it interesting enough to repost.  Hopefully, I'm not breaking some sort of blogging etiquette.