Bryan Richardson

Ask

Re:Verse reading–Luke 2:39-52 (day three)

“They found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”

Do you know why it’s so hard to bring ourselves to ask honest questions? Because questions reveal to anyone who hears them what we’re interested in and what our limitations are, the exact two things we tend to hide—our frailties and what we really think. But Jesus demonstrates that this is the way human beings grow—and he introduces no alternative. Scripture shows us that Jesus is divine; he is God. But he’s human nonetheless, and fully so. Jesus did not appeal to special privilege when it came to growing up the hard way. As his questions shaped his spirit, his inmost thoughts and his weakness grew into his obedience to God and his self-sacrificial love. What questions are you asking?

Buzz

Re:Verse reading–Luke 2:1-20 (day three)

“They spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child ” Research into corporate communication culture has shown consistently that the company grapevine remains a valuable and mostly reliable source of news. In fact, a sizeable portion of employees rate the grapevine higher than formal channels of communication when it comes to telling the unvarnished truth. You know why? Because momentous news never fits well into carefully crafted containers of control. People who try to dribble it out to the masses only get in the way, and pretty soon, people figure that out. The ancient grapevine spread the gospel without stilted methods or flashy gimmicks and despite efforts by fearful leaders to rewrite it. The buzz was that something good had occurred in a backwater village. This was back-fence conversation—the way the gospel is meant to be shared.

Start

Re:Verse reading–Luke 1:1-38 (day three)

“How can I be sure of this?” Doubt is a function of our finiteness: We don’t know everything, so we doubt. Rightly channeled, doubt can press us on to further investigation of mystery. In that way, doubt can lead us to deeper faith. Zechariah and Mary both express doubt to the angelic messenger. In Zechariah’s case, lifelong training in the theological and scriptural tenets of the priesthood and the high holy work of service to his people has welled up in his soul as…skepticism. It’s as if Zechariah’s posture is one of looking back at the priesthood’s storied past and asking, “Where’d all the glory go?” Conversely, Mary seems to look out at the future from where she stands and ask, “What glories are yet to be?” Doubt isn’t a bad place to start. But it’s a terrible place to end up.

Become

Re:Verse reading–Acts 23:11, 25:12, 28:16-31 (day three)

“For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.” This situation looks like an old man who’s finally settled down after his nomadic ways and now spends his days regaling wide-eyed young hangers-on with war stories, doesn’t it? Don’t be fooled. The man in this narrative is none other than Paul “Straining-Toward-What-Is-Ahead” the Apostle. In his welcoming guests to his home, he is wielding the shaping power for the future of the human race. In these “Rome sessions”, he’s teaching people, forming spirits, enlightening minds. He speaks not of the old days, but of new possibilities. He’s hasn’t “ended up”, but rather he presses on. We think aging means fading. Paul new the older he grew, the newer he became. And that’s what he showed the world.

Step

Re:Verse reading–Acts 20:17-38 (day three)

“They would never see his face again.” The Spirit’s here, and we look forward to Christ’s appearing and the resurrection at the end of the age, but there sure are a whole lot of people who’ve left the scene. And there’s still a church to lead, character to form, a cross to bear, and a world to seek. It seems we could have used a few more years with the ones who made it happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know: We would become so dependent on them that we wouldn’t ever develop the strength we need to do the work at hand. But it’s probably worse than that. Forget depending on them; we might just leave it to them altogether. Something about absence forces a choice, though: Step into the gap, or step down. Paul’s gone. Where are you?

End

Re:Verse reading–Acts 17:10-12, 16-34 (day three)

“Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God.” Ecclesiastes tells us that the end of a matter is better than its beginning. As the church began, the band of believers saw an explosion of growth and joy. Even though the establishment—through arrests, beatings, and jail time—responded harshly, the joy of so many people embracing Christ opened the disciples’ hearts to a Holy Spirit-fueled courage and a command of circumstances they had never before known. As years passed, did they perhaps begin to think of themselves as naive in retrospect? Things would get much, much worse. And through it all, their faith and joy would grow much, much deeper. These were the days that taught Paul how all things bend toward the good in the lives of those who love God. That was reality. It still is.

Nurture

Re:Verse reading—Acts 16:11-34 (day three)

“The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” Jesus said that his Father is always working. He also said he had “other sheep that are not of this sheep pen” and that “they too will listen to my voice.” Just as with Lydia, who was already seeking the truth and had become convinced that God was where truth would come from if it would come, God is engaging people in ways that we do not know. God has granted human beings a great deal of power—more than we probably realize—and we can employ that power to cultivate and nurture his work if we want. We would be surprised to see the extent of God’s work in the world, but then again, our surprise might indicate how little we’ve been expecting it. So, what can you nurture today?

Heart

Re:Verse reading–Acts 15:1-29 (day three)

“Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” Ours is a sentimental society, that is, sentiment—feelings—have a cachet of authority. If one is sincere, nothing else matters. Paul will later teach a “circumcision of the heart”. When Paul speaks of heart circumcision, though, he doesn’t use “heart” like we often do, as a synonym for “feelings”. By “heart”, Paul means the very core of one’s being—the will or spirit of a person. In rejecting circumcision as a prerequisite to the Christ-life, the Jerusalem council could have simply placed Christianity on a foundation of feelings. That seems good if you feel good, but what happens when you don’t? On what do you depend when you feel conflicted and confused? No, they declared. Christ transforms the spirit, and gives us sure footing.

Praxis

Re:Verse reading–Acts 13:1-52 (day three)

“Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you.” The reason Jesus appeared so extreme—even anti-scriptural—to his contemporaries is that his life was exactly what a human life looked like when lived the way the law and the prophets teach us to live. We’re all pro-Bible, we’re all pro-God, blah, blah, blah. But theory isn’t practice. Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die, as blues artist Albert King sang. We can talk about the Bible; Jesus lived it. The fulfillment of the law was the perfect man who would show us what the law looked like in practice. Paul’s chilling words point us to the good news that Jesus will teach us how to live the kind of life he himself lived.

Argue

Re:Verse reading–Acts 11:1-26 (day three)

“Surely not, Lord!” There is a strain of thinking that warns us against disagreement with God, against verbalizing our negative reaction to his direction. But repeatedly in scripture we see honesty with God met not with anger, but engagement. Abraham opposed God’s intention to destroy Sodom, and God granted escape to Abraham’s family. Jonah disputed God’s withholding of the destruction of Nineveh, and that conversation enabled Jonah to see God’s compassion for non-Hebrews. Here, Peter’s honest dissent resulted in the revelation that Christ came to seek and to save all men, regardless of ethnicity or culture. There is such a thing as rebellion against God. But disagreement is not disloyalty. God can tell the difference. And he’ll use it as an occasion to shine the light of understanding.