Love

Has it ever struck you how central love is in the Bible, particularly the New Testament Epistles?  I wonder what that sort of love would look like today?  I get the sense that many early Christians truly loved one another as family, willing to die for each other, putting the needs of others before themselves.  That’s what Christ called us to, that’s what the Bible calls us to, can you think of anyone that lives that way? 

I would love to see a church exhibiting that kind of community and love for one another.  I think we’d probably freak out and think it was some sort of cult if we saw it, it’s so counter-culture for us.  Am I there yet?  No way, but I wish I were.  Baby steps .  Adoption is one way Natalie and I can love someone who is part of our family in Christ as much as ourselves and our own flesh and blood and maybe someday that circle will continue to expand until we can truly weep for believers in need around the world as we would for one of our own children and be stirred to action.

When early church believers became Christians many of them were literally leaving their families, their friends and therefore this new group of believers was in a very real sense their families.  I can only imagine the impact the church could have on the world if we truly loved the way Christ called us to.

Prayer is the answer

Have you ever asked…

Why isn’t God using me?  I don’t feel like God has given me a clear purpose?  I want to tell people about Jesus but God hasn’t given me opportunities.  I want to do great things for God but I don’t know what he wants me to do.  I just can’t “hear” God speaking to me…

Acts 1:14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place [What were they doing? Praying, See 1:14]. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. [And so… as a result…] 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. [and…] the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 3:1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer–at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man crippled from birth was being carried … [And they healed the crippled man]… But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

Acts 4:31 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.

Acts 6:2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”  They weren’t being arrogant, they just knew that they could only do the ministry God called them to if they continued grounded in prayer and the word.  When the busyness of the ministry crowded out their time for prayer they had to refocus on prayer or else the results would have dried up as they were starting to due to their losing focus on prayer.

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. 11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”’

 

Pattern: Prayer + waiting = Opportunity (They did not go out and look for opportunities to lead people to Christ per se, rather they constantly prayed and as they were praying God would bring along opportunities, or in some cases bring them to the opportunities).  While they were praying, not immediately when they began praying, not after 5 or 10 minutes, but as they were praying, perhaps after hours, days, weeks or months opportunities would present themselves and God would answer their prayers.

There is no clear model to the early church.  Sometimes they worshiped in houses, sometimes they preached in synagogues.  Sometimes they met in small groups, sometimes in huge gatherings.  Sometimes they had their own “pastors”, sometimes they considered the apostles their pastors.  However, there is one thing that is common throughout Acts as it talks about the development of the early church… Prayer!  They were devoted to prayer and the Word.  If someone says what is the primary difference between the early church and how we do church now I could only find Prayer as the primary difference (the amount of it and focus on it).

But I don’t know how to pray like that?  How did they pray then? …

24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ” ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. ‘ 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 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.”

Conflicted

So God has really been working in my life and doing some amazing things that I am so excited about.  I have a renewed passion to serve Him and to give my entire life, all of my possessions, and everything (which were all gifts from God in the first place) to Him and His service.

The tough question I think for many Americans who come to that point (or come back to that point) is how?  What does living a radical, sold-out, passionate Christian life look like in American culture?  The only examples I can personally think of where it’s obvious that they are living that way are pastors.  But there has got to be a way for someone other than a pastor to live passionately, radically for God in a way that makes the world notice. 

It has been a source of enormous frustration to wake up and spend the most amazing, sweet, passionate time worshiping God, reading His Word, talking with the very creator of the universe, and then go into work and have meetings, read emails, and go on living my life as if that stuff has any real importance.

God calls us to be “in the world but not of it”.  What does that look like in a practical sense?

How does one “Set your mind on the things above, not the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2) and continue to get things done and be effective in the workplace?

A huge portion of people I come in contact with each day I don’t know where they stand with Christ and if they’ll spend eternity in Heaven or Hell – how can I go on ingoring that fact?  And yet how can I address it?  Our culture isn’t one where someone can say to a client “So, how is your spiritual life” and expect them to open up or be moved to have a spiritual coversation.  Those subject are taboo, and my fear is not that I will offend them or lose a client, but that it would be completely ineffective and only serve to turn them off to the Gospel of Christ if they are not already a believer.

I know God has a purpose for putting me where I’m at, and a plan, but waiting on God can be so difficult.  I just pray that somehow during this waiting time I will be able to be a witness to others, and that God will soon reveal more of His plan for my life.

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2 Timothy 2:1 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.  – Again, How can we square this with “Normal” “everyday life”?

God is good!