Posted on

An Extraordinarily Ordinary Layman

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Acts 6
Meditation: Acts 6:8

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

Shift Your Focus… “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.

Stephen was an ordinary man set apart by the Holy Spirit for an ordinary job—to wait on tables (verse 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 Stephen, who was “just a layman”?  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 

Prayer… Holy Spirit, I offer you this ordinary day for your extraordinary purposes.

Posted on

A Holy Uproar!

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Acts 5
Meditation: Acts 5:28

“Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine…”

Shift Your Focus… If you didn’t take the time, go back and read Acts 5—you’ll enjoy it!  This is Christianity at its best. This is church as it was meant to be.  This is real power evangelism and authentic church growth. This is the unstoppable force Jesus had in mind when he said to Peter and the others,

“Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)

I don’t know about you, but I long for this scene to be replayed in my church. I’m not too excited about the jail and flogging part, but to cause such a holy upheaval through our active witness in the community is church as Christ intended.  I would pay good money to see that.

I have seen that, by the way.  Several years ago, I met a church planter in Ethiopia. He was in a training session I was leading, and afterwards I interviewed him.  He was twenty-three years old at the time and his name was Mulu.

Two years prior in one of our conferences, Mulu had an encounter with the Holy Spirit.  Full of the Spirit, he went out to a remote Muslim-dominated village and began to preach Christ. He led so many of villagers to faith that the Muslim leaders hired an assassin to shoot Mulu. When Mulu walked into the assassin’s path, the man couldn’t pull the trigger.  So the assassin went to Mulu to ask him about this powerful force that had prevented him from pulling the trigger. Mulu led his would-be killer to Christ.

The frustrated Muslim leaders then threw Mulu into jail, thinking that would put a stop to his teaching. Within three days, Mulu led forty-three prisoners to Christ, so the jailers threw him out of jail. To make an exciting but very long story short, despite threats, beatings, assassination attempts, intimidation and jail, Mulu, this twenty-three year old, uneducated church planter, had led over 2,000 people, many of them Muslims, to faith in Christ at the point of our interview.  In the best sense of the phrase, Mulu had become a holy terror to the forces of darkness.  Furthermore, it was Mulu who should have been training me!

Peter…Mulu…you…me:  It doesn’t matter who you are, where you live, what your circumstances are, once the Holy Spirit truly gets a hold of us, we will cause a holy uproar wherever we go.

“The triumphant Christian does not fight for victory; he celebrates a victory already won.” ~Reginald Wallis

Prayer… Holy Spirit, take hold of my life, and turn me into a holy terror!

Posted on

Religious Pedigree or Personal Experience

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Acts 4
Meditation: Acts 4:13

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.

Shift Your Focus… 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-eye-ball with these intimidating leaders, told them in no uncertain terms that it would be quite 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, the 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

Prayer… Father, enable me to live my life in such a way that when I am dead and buried, they will write on my headstone, “He had been with Jesus!”

Posted on

Encounter!

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Acts 3
Meditation: Acts 3:6

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

Shift Your Focus… The proper title of the book of Acts is “The Acts of the Apostles,” but in reality, it should be “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Nothing else explains the complete metamorphosis of these disciples into mighty apostles—especially the transformation of Peter. Without the Spirit’s indwelling and empowering work in their lives, if we had this history of early Christianity at all, it would probably have been entitled, “The Attempts of the Disciples,” and the subtitle might well have been, “Close, But No Cigars.”

You cannot help but be impressed with the dramatic change in the big-mouthed, braggadocios Peter. He was always passionate, if nothing else, but was terribly unfocused. Peter was all over the map prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Like a cross-eyed javelin thrower, Peter never set any records, but he sure kept the crowd awake.

Now, through the Spirit, there came a laser-like focus that turned Peter’s passion into power and his out-of-control expressiveness into finely tuned eloquence. Jesus’ prediction that Peter would become a rock was well on its way to coming true. Indeed, the Lord’s prediction in Acts 1:8 had materialized: Peter and the others had been baptized in the Spirit, and the first result had been this dramatic empowerment for witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

What is most exciting about the Acts of the Holy Spirit, however, is that it is not just history; it is an ongoing saga, a work of non-fiction still being written. If you were to flip to the end of the book, you will notice in Acts 28:31 that the author, Luke, doesn’t close with, “the end.” There is no “that’s all, folks.”

Acts is the only book in the Bible that doesn’t have a proper conclusion. It is the never-ending story. And here is the exciting part: You are Acts 29! You are the next chapter, waiting to be written! That’s why there is no end. The Holy Spirit is still at work in the world, and he desires to transform you just as he did Peter, turning your passion into power and your unfocused expressiveness into finely tuned eloquence. Or perhaps your personality is more reserved than Peter’s. Not to worry—the same Holy Spirit can energize your reticence and modesty as well.

Here’s the deal: You are one encounter with the Holy Spirit away from becoming Acts 29. So if you are interested, talk to the Holy Spirit about the possibilities!

“Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.”  ~Corrie Ten Boom

Prayer… Holy Spirit, here I am. Fill me, empower and equip me, and use me to be the continuation of your Acts in the world today. I pray as St. Augustine prayed, “Breath in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.”  May the life and ministry of Jesus flow out of me.

Posted on

High Octane Fuel For Kingdom Expansion

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Acts 2
Meditation: Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Shift Your Focus… In my humble opinion, far too many churches in American are relying on smoke and mirrors to create a thriving church rather than a simple reliance on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

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 fret over what constitutes the perfect worship style, the best ministry philosophy, the most effective structure for church growth and even the feng shui of the platform.

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 high octane fuel for 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 fret over style, fight over philosophy, focus on its facilities and fixate on cultural relevance rather than connecting with the Spirit, it ceases to be God pleasing. What churches need more than anything these days is a little bit—no, a whole lot more of what the first church experienced in Acts 2!

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

Prayer… 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.  Make us an Acts 2 church!

Posted on

Christ’s Plan For World Domination

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Acts 1
Meditation: Acts 1:6-8

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.”

Shift Your Focus…  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 at that time, the syrupy music and lyrics are probably running through your head right now. You might even find yourself quietly singing the song 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!

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 God’s 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.

Things haven’t changed, you know. Two thousand years later, that is still Christ’s plan for world domination. Christians don’t need the House, Senate and Presidency—they need the Holy Spirit’s power! And the good news is 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 

Prayer… 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.

Posted on

Taking Care Of Business

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Mark 16
Meditation: Mark 16:15

Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Shift Your Focus… You may recall the television show from years ago called Mission Impossible. It always began with a scene in which Mr. Phelps, leader of a team of government spooks, would receive a tape describing his next mission. The tape usually began with the line, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” Then, after describing the mission, the tape would self-destruct in a puff of smoke.

For the believer, Jesus’ command here at the end of Mark’s Gospel is our “mission possible.” But unlike Mr. Phelps, we don’t have the option of accepting it. If you desire to be a Christ-follower, you will do this.

The mission is very clear and quite simple: Take the Good News with you wherever you go and share it. That is the mission of the Christian.

Don’t let the word “preach” trip you up. For sure, the Gospel is to be formally preached by preachers from pulpits in church services and by evangelists to great crowds of listeners. But the word “preach” has a simpler application as well. It simply means “to proclaim.”

Proclamation can happen in both formal presentations as well as informal conversations. I think the church has done a pretty good job in the formal aspect of this mission. It is the informal, everyday part of the mission to be carried out by the individual believer where we have not done so well.

The mission of the Christian is proclamation. You and I are tasked to go and tell the story of Jesus. That is our business.

So that begs the question: How’s business? When was the last time you talked about your faith in Christ in a casual conversation with a friend or a co-worker? In the last six month? This past year? In the last five years? Have you ever shared Christ with another?

Don’t you think it’s time we get back to business? I do!

What do you say you and I look for opportunities today to carry out the mission! Jesus is counting on us.

“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 

Prayer… Lord, keep me acutely sensitive to the opportunities that will come my way today to share what you have done in my life with others.  Help me to lead someone to faith in you.