Category Archives: Acts

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God Remembers

Reflect:
Acts 10:1-11:18

“The angel answered, ‘Cornelius, your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.’” (Acts 10:4)

No one knows how long Cornelius had faithfully prayed to God and regularly demonstrated kindness to people before he experienced this dramatic moment of divine visitation. The flavor of the story seems to indicate that day after day Cornelius simply offered up a life of quiet piety with no real or visible acknowledgement from God.

Maybe that is your story. It could be that you have faithfully trusted God, consistently served his cause and patiently waited for his favor over the years with seemingly nothing to show for it. Perhaps you are wondering if you really matter to God or if he even notices your faithful life.

It is not uncommon at times for Christians to feel as if their prayers are nothing more than an exercise in futility and their acts of kindness simply go unnoticed. Honestly, there have been times where we all have felt that our faithfulness just doesn’t matter. According to this verse, however, and others like it, every act of faith, whether reaching out to God in prayer or touching someone with the love of God, matters greatly to a watching Heavenly Father.

According to Revelation 5:8, every prayer you offer in faith to God rises up to heaven and is offered as precious and pleasing incense before his very throne:

“The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

And according to Hebrews 6:10, your every act of kindness toward people counts in God’s book, and will one day result in his kindness being turned back to you.

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

Cornelius simply, consistently, faithfully set his course for a long obedience in the same direction, and one day there was a spiritual breakthrough. He didn’t know it would happen that day—but the God who watches and remembers had other plans.

This may or may not be your day of spiritual breakthrough—you just don’t know. But here is what you do know: God is watching, he remembers, and he has plans for you!

“The reward of being ‘faithful over a few things’ is just the same as being ‘faithful over many things’; for the emphasis falls upon the same word; it is the ‘faithful’ who will enter ‘into the joy of their Lord.’” ~Charles S. Robinson

Reflect and Apply: Ask the Lord to strengthen you today for a long, consistent, determined and practical faithfulness. Perhaps this day will be the day of breakthrough into a deeper realm of God’s favor for you—you just never know when, not if, but when it will happen.

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Promptings

Reflect:
Acts 8:26-40

“The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’” (Acts 8:26)

Have you ever had a sense that you were to go talk to a random stranger about Jesus? Maybe they were sitting alone in a booth at the restaurant, or on a bench at the park, or sitting at the gate waiting for their flight, or whatever. Oh, you weren’t thinking about blasting in on them with the Four Spiritual Laws, but you felt the urge to strike up a dialogue that could possibly lead to a spiritual conversation.

The next time that happens, can I encourage you to pursue that urging? It will take courage and you will have to overcome a hundred rationalizations why doing it would be so wrong, but do it. It is not an urging, it is a prompting from the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, there is nothing random about it. Since it is the Spirit prompting you to be his mouthpiece, it is entirely strategic. And that is no stranger with whom you will be speaking; it is someone who matters to God and whom he has chosen for a kingdom purpose.

If you will accept this assignment, all you have to do is walk through the open door—if it opens. If it doesn’t, move on, you have been obedient. If it cracks a little wider, plant a seed. If it leads to an invitation, have that spiritual conversation. Just respond in the moment with obedience and watch God do the rest.

Philip, a layman in the early church, had one of those “promptings”. He followed it and struck up a conversation with a man who happened to be an important official in the Ethiopian government. He saw the man was actually reading from the Book of Isaiah and Philip asked him a brilliant question: “Do you have any idea what that means?” The man said, “Uh-uh…don’t have a clue!” And that began a very strategic spiritual conversation—although Philip had no idea how important it would be when he first followed that prompting.

It is likely that the conversion of this Ethiopian official planted the first seed of Christianity in a nation that is now 84 million people, of which 18% (some reports say the percentage is even higher) are born-again believers. A veritable revival is currently taking place in that nation with signs, wonders, miracles and church growth akin to the book of Acts. It is very much within the realm of possibility that one day soon all of Ethiopia will happily surrender to Jesus Christ.

Might we say it all started with a prompting—and a believer who obediently and faithfully followed that prompting? I think so!

Following your prompting may not turn out to be that dramatic, but then again, Philip had no idea that his encounter would lead to the salvation of a nation. He simply responded to the Spirit.

How about you and I do what Philip did—and leave the rest up to God.

“Evangelism is not a professional job for a few trained men, but is instead the unrelenting responsibility of every person who belongs to the company of Jesus.” ~Elton Trueblood

Reflect and Apply: Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to simply listen to and look for those promptings, then follow them.

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“Just” A Layman

Reflect:
Acts 6:8-15, 7:1-60, 8:1-8

“And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” (Acts 6:8)

“But I’m just a layman!” Those words may not be spoken openly, but I think they represent an attitude that is fairly prevalent among average churchgoers. Behind those words is this mentality: “I am not a pastor. I don’t have theological training. I’m not gifted. I’m not able to do much more than simply show up and offer moral support.”

I am glad Stephen didn’t feel that way. He, too, was “just a layman.” He was not theologically trained nor did he have a special calling to be a pastor. But out of the ranks of the rank and file churchgoers in Jerusalem, this faithful man was selected by his peers, along with six others, to be a deacon—one who would take care of the daily organizational demands of this growing church so the Apostles could concentrate on their prayer and preaching ministry.

Stephan was an ordinary man set apart by the Holy Spirit for an ordinary job—to wait on tables (Acts 6:2). However, there is nothing ordinary about a simple ministry assignment in the church. Behind ordinary jobs the Holy Spirit has extraordinary purposes in mind—as we find out in Stephen’s story.

Stephen’s ministry in the church was brief—he was martyred in the following chapter—but his brevity was oh so bright! Stephen, “just a layman”, selected to wait on tables, was used by God to perform great wonders and outstanding signs in the church.

Why was Stephen, who was “just a layman”, so significantly used by God? The text points out that it was his faith. That was the key to his extraordinarily powerful life. He was full of faith! Not just saving faith—every Christian has that. It was that little measure of faith that God has given every believer, including you and me, that Stephen took and leveraged for all it was worth. Stephen turned his mustard seed faith into an “I’m-taking-God-at-his-word-and-living-my-life-accordingly-in-scorn-of-the-consequences” kind of faith, and that faith transformed this ordinary man into a fired up layman.

Great miracles and outstanding signs are reserved not only for pastors and evangelists, but for ordinary, everyday laymen, too—including you. In whatever you are doing, as simple and ordinary as it may seem, offer your measure of faith for the Holy Spirit’s use and he will use you for extraordinary purposes.

“God loves to effect His greatest works by means tending under ordinary circumstances to produce the very opposite of what is to be done.” ~Christopher Wordsworth

Reflect and Apply: Offer you this ordinary day to the Holy Spirit for his extraordinary purposes.

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Hanging Out With Jesus

Reflect:
Acts 3:1-4:37

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)

Peter and John didn’t have much—no money, no position, no education, no religious pedigree. They were simple Galilean fishermen—blue collar, hardhat types who were now standing before the most august body of religious leaders in the land. And not only were they holding their own, they were blowing these highbrow Jewish leaders right out of the theological water.

The Jews wanted them to stop using the name of Jesus. They thought they had taken care of the “Jesus” problem when they had him crucified. They figured his small band of uneducated, backwoods followers would disband and go away once their leader was dead and buried. Now here they were, not only teaching in the temple and perpetuating this myth, they had actually healed a man who had been crippled for over 40 years. What were they going to do with these pesky disciples?

Peter, who had publicly denied Jesus just a few weeks prior, and John, who had fled naked into the night when Jesus was arrested, now standing toe-to-toe and looking eyeball-to-eyeball with these intimidating leaders, told them in no uncertain terms that it would be impossible to quit preaching about Jesus and healing in his name since salvation came only through Jesus, “for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Since the man who had been healed was standing right there as living proof of Peter and John’s message, the Jews had no alternative but leave this narrow, intolerant theology alone and let these ignorant men go. But on the way out, they Jewish council paid the highest compliment any follower of Christ could ever receive—that “they had been with Jesus”. (Acts 4:13)

You may not have much of a religious pedigree. You may not be well versed in Christian theology. You may not be naturally winsome, articulate, or all that likeable. Your “cool factor” may be pretty much non-existent. In your self-assessment (and the assessment of others, too), you lack more than you have. Doesn’t matter!

What you do have trumps all that you don’t have. You have every possibility that Peter and John had to “be with Jesus”.

That is the greatest goal any and every Christian can have, including you—that at the end of the day, the only thing people can do with you is to take note that you have been with Jesus.

Make that your goal. And then, simply begin to hang out with Jesus.

“By the time the average Christian gets his temperature up to normal, everybody thinks he has a fever!” ~Watchman Nee

Reflect and Apply: Imagine that at the end of your life, those who know and love you inscribe on your gravestone, “Had been with Jesus!” What a high compliment! Now, between now and then, how can you live so that possibility becomes a reality?

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Infilling

Reflect:
Acts 2:1-47

“And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)

When churches aren’t filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, they have to resort to smoke and mirrors to get the job done.

That’s why churches these days devote inordinate amounts of time, energy and resources trying to figure out who they should be, what they should look like, and how they should go about attracting their community to Christ. In an effort to reach lost people, they stress over what constitutes the perfect worship style, the best ministry philosophy, and the most effective structure for church growth.

Pardon me, but when I read about the first church here in Acts 2:42-47, I don’t see any of that. Perhaps this is an unfair and oversimplification of things, but I think all they were concerned with was being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

When it comes to church, I am not sure there is such a thing as “perfect” or “best” or “most”. Frankly, there are not only a thousand ways to skin a cat, but to do church as well. I can take you to congregations all over the world that violate every single best practice for doing church well, yet they are thriving, impacting, God-pleasing outposts of Kingdom expansion in their communities. Without buildings, without resources, without training, without a cultural “cool factor”, they are flat out getting the job done.

What is their secret? It’s the indwelling and empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

The secret to church growth, health and impact is not to be found in a technique or a philosophy or a style. It is found in a relationship. It is found in a vital connection with the Holy Spirit. Churches that thrive under the least conducive environments do so because they flow in and overflow with the lifeblood of the Spirit.

When a church begins to stress out over style, fight over philosophy, drain resources fixing its facilities and care more about cultural relevance than connection with the Spirit, it ceases to be God pleasing. What churches need more than anything these days is a little bit more of—okay, a lot more of—the power of the Holy Spirit.

When that happens, God will add to the church daily those who are being saved!

“How little chance the Holy Spirit has nowadays…churches have so bound Him…that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves.” ~Charles Thomas Studd

Reflect and Apply: Offer this prayer today: “Holy Spirit, come and fill your church once again as you did on the day of Pentecost. Form us, empower us, and equip us to be the same kind of high impact church we read about in Acts 2. Make us a church of the Spirit!”

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What The World Needs Now

Reflect:
Acts 1:1-11

“When they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” (Acts 1:6-8)

One of the most popular songs in 1965 was Burt Bacharach’s, “What The Word Needs Now Is Love.” If you were alive and interested in music back then, those syrupy, sappy lyrics are probably running through your head right about now. Since I’ve planted the thought in your mind, you will probably be singing it throughout the day: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love…” Sorry about that!

It seems to me that many in the modern American church would change those lyrics to, “what the world needs now…is a political party that represents our Christian values.” It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but that’s the way a lot of believers think these days. That is unfortunate!

The disciples were thinking that way too. After Jesus rose from the tomb as the victor over death, these followers were thinking that the Roman Empire was next in line for conquest. Perhaps the current Jewish religious regime could be dealt with at the same time. Finally, the kingdom of God would rule the earth in power and glory!

However, in this post-resurrection interaction in Acts 1, did you notice how Jesus distanced himself from that line of thought? He pointed out that political domination was not high on his list. What the world needed, Jesus said, was not political power, but a good dose of spiritual power being exercised through his people.

The kingdom of God was coming, all right, but it wouldn’t be through political persuasion or military conquest or social reformation. It would come when the Holy Spirit baptized believers with power, enabling them to do the works, speak the words and live the witness of Jesus before a watching world.

God’s kingdom on earth will not come through presidential elections or political persuasion or military conquest or social reformation. It will come only as Jesus prophetically outlined it in Acts 1:8–when the Holy Spirit baptizes believers with power, enabling them to do the works, speak the words and live the witness of Jesus before a watching world.

Things haven’t changed, you know. Two thousand years later, that is still Christ’s plan for world domination. The Holy Spirit is still available to all believers (Acts 2:38-39). He will fill those who yield, empowering ready vessels to extend the kingdom of God to a lost world, not in their own strength, but in the glorious might and supernatural power of God himself.

What the world needs now is power—sweet Holy Spirit power.

The Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit is still available. All you’ve got to do is ask and receive. I think I am going to ask today! Want to join me?

“There is no better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit.” ~D.L. Moody

Reflect and Apply: Offer this prayer today: “Father, baptize me in the Holy Spirit at this moment! Cause a fresh wave of the Spirit’s presence and power to wash over me. Enable me to do your works, speak your words, and live your witness before a watching world.”

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Hilariously Happy

Reflect:
Acts 20:35

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Jesus was a different kind of leader than the world had ever known. Instead of taking, he gave—even giving up his very life. Instead of seeking power, fortune and fame, he came to glorify the Father. Instead of insisting his rights as the Son of God, he came to incarnate a God who touched lepers, ate with sinners and healed on the Sabbath. Instead of being served, his very purpose in coming to earth was to serve.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

So when Jesus—or his apostles who led the early church and formulated the New Testament theology by which we now order our lives—calls us to serve and to give our lives away, we are not being asked to do anything that wasn’t authentically modeled for us. Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-7, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God…took on the very nature of a servant.”

Jesus did that—now he asks us to do the same. We are called to serve, and quite frankly, the call is even stronger than that: it is a command. Jesus said, “I have set an example for you…now do as I have done.” (John 13:13-17) Paul commanded in Galatians 5:13, “Serve one another in love.”

Now it may sound a little harsh to say we are commanded to serve, but it is what we were created, and recreated, to do. Christians serve! Like fish swim and birds fly, Christians serve! Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God shaped us to serve him. God was there at the moment you and I were conceived, even before, deliberately engineering us to fulfill his purposes.

Now there are a couple of very important results that occur when we begin to serve our God-shaped purpose. First, we will begin to capture the world’s attention. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:16, NLT) Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples: That you have love for one another.” By our authentic servanthood and sacrificial giving, we become living proof of a loving God to a lost world.

Roy Hattersley, a columnist for the Guardian (U.K.) and an outspoken atheist, laments, “It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian.” But after watching the Salvation Army lead several other faith-based organizations in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, he wrote,

“Notable by their absence were teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers’ clubs, and atheists’ associations—the sort of people who scoff at religion’s intellectual absurdity… [Christians] are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others. Civilized people do not believe that drug addiction and male prostitution offend against divine ordinance. But those who do are the men and women most willing to change the fetid bandages, replace the sodden sleeping bags, and—probably most difficult of all—argue, without a trace of impatience, that the time has come for some serious medical treatment. The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make [Christians] morally superior to atheists like me.”

The truth is, the spotlight never shines more brightly on Jesus than when Christians serve. “By this, all will know…”

Second, when we begin to serve our God-shaped purpose, happiness is produced in our soul. When we serve we find it is indeed more blessed to give than receive. The word “blessed” here means “hilariously happy.” We are really serving ourselves when we serve others, because health and happiness gets produced in our inner core. You see, there is just something ennobling about serving others—and therefore joy-producing.

Karl Menninger, founder of the famed psychiatric clinic in Topeka, Kansas that bears his name, was once asked, “what would you do if you thought you were going crazy?” Without even having to think about it, he said, “I’d go out and find someone less fortunate to serve.”

Jesus said, “I’ve washed your feet…now go do that for one another.” Did he mean that literally? Probably not. Washing someone’s “barking dogs” back then was akin to getting treated to a hour-long massage in our day. It is the spirit of the foot-washing that Jesus is wanting us to capture. He is wanting us to follow his lead, take the posture of a servant, give our lives away and allow his love to flow to others by doing so.

In return, his joy will flow into our souls. And we will be hilariously happy.

“Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.” ~Charles Spurgeon

Reflect & Apply: Christians serve! Do you? If you want to experience the “hilarious happiness” that Jesus spoke about, find a need and serve in his spirit and in his name.