The Everyday Prayer

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

“If you cannot go back to your mother’s womb, you better learn to be a good fighter.”–Anchee Min.

“I have fought the good fight”–the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:7)

It happened in the early church.  It will happen (has) in our church.  We will come to a point/place of disagreement. About truth.  About direction.  We will need to fight.

We will need to fight fairly.  Work hard to address issues and truth rather than personalities and feelings.  The same skills we use in marriage.

Acts 15 will serve as an example.  We will engage in honest and courageous debate–v 2.  We will seek wisdom from the apostles–v 3 (our application will be to “search the scripture”).  We will give testimony–v 7-12.  We will submit to our leaders–v 13-22.

I don’t know which is harder to teach.  The courage to fight for truth or the kindness to do it fairly.  For Christ-followers, neither is optional.

 

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

Paul witnessed with surgical precision.  He left Antioch with a specific model to reach devout Jewish men in their natural synagogue setting.  It made sense to Paul because they were his tribe, he knew them as well as anyone.  Paul was a Jew of Jews, he was a Pharisee, he had unique access, and now he was armed with the Gospel instead of indignation.  Being familiar with their order of worship Paul knew that as a guest rabbi he would have the opportunity to offer encouragement at the end of their service.  He was ready.  He restated their shared story and led them to the person of Jesus Christ as the culmination of all they believed.

Paul had a specific word, he had a specific place, he had a specific time, he was fully prepared to witness that day.  I hope that we can look around our spheres of influence to recognize people that we can specifically reach with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  You have a unique access to people that you can witness to just like Paul.  I hope that we can pray for a specific model that we can use to witness to our own tribes for the sake of the Gospel.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews…To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.  I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.  1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Re:Verse reading–Acts 13:1-52 (day five) In the first words describing the church in Antioch, we come to discover the study of God’s Word was a priority. They had teachers (plural). In Acts 11, Barnabas and Saul are preaching AND teaching. Notice in Acts 13, that teaching was accompanied by other activities: prayer, worship, fasting, and listening. Learning was not the end, but rather a means to the end of understanding and doing the will of God.

Sending Paul and Barnabas required great faith and courage. They were probably the most recognized and seasoned leaders in the church. Yet, they clearly heard God’s direction and plan. They responded with joy and obedience. Sound familiar?

Were there concerns and questions? I think so. Did the teaching ministry of the church in Antioch strengthen their faith? I think so. Did learning and understanding the faithfulness of God help guide that church to trust and follow God’s direction (change in leadership, new missional thinking). I think so.

I wonder if FBCSA demonstrates the same kind of priority (well-taught church), will our faith and trust in the Lord help us to look to the future (change in leadership, new missional thinking) with hope, joy, and obedience.  I think so.

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

V. 52 – “And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”

One of the keynote messages of Acts is the gift and work of the Holy Spirit.  Over and over, we see how the gospel is communicated, men are inspired to preach, believers are delivered from prison, or hearts and lives are changed…all by the work of the Holy Spirit.  Whether circumstances are difficult or encouraging, the Holy Spirit continually fills the disciples with joy.  What a blessing to have the steadiness of the presence of the Holy Spirit!

Have you allowed your circumstances to steal your joy?  It is easy to do.  We get caught up in the business of life and lose sight of the perspective of the Holy Spirit.  When Barnabas and Paul were set aside for God’s work, the church leaders were praying and fasting…looking for direction from the Holy Spirit.  Seek daily for the Spirit to continually fill you…joy is so much better than stress and discouragement.

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.

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

“Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”–v 2.

It will be a great day for you.  Among the best.  In His own way and time, the Lord will call you to the work for which He made you.

It will be His idea.  Not yours.  It will fit into a larger plan that you probably won’t be able to see.  And somehow the expectation of reward or recognition will matter less than it did before.  His approving nod will be all you desire.  You will do this work out of love for Him.

The deepest need of the human heart is to be useful.  God knows. Children who never learn to contribute become petty and anxious adults.  God doesn’t need my work.  I need it.

As you trust and follow Christ, He will call you to the work for which He made you.

And it will be a great day.

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

Jesus regularly got into trouble with religious folks.  One of the constant accusations against Him was eating with tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus made it a habit to eat with people no one else would eat with, going out of His way for people of different statures and ignoble backgrounds.  At the time, the disciples were not sure of Jesus’s behavior either, but here in Acts 11, Peter is being accused of the very same thing:  eating with riffraff.

As a pastor, I find my meals are filled up with good Christian people.  Those are always a great boon to me, but I’m never accused of eating with riffraff.  For my social standing that works out fine, but for my mission to be a witness to the world for Jesus Christ it is a terrible strategy.  If we are going to reach out and share the love of Christ with the world we must share meals with worldly people.  We eat with those that are exceedingly sinful and those that are ostracized by everyone else.

Who will you be accused of having lunch with this week?

The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”  And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”  Luke 5:30-32

 

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

The vision was God’s way of saying to Peter, “You are free to become all things to all people.” Paul would express the same truth later when writing to the Corinthians. For Paul missions was removing any and all unnecessary obstacles so that everyone could hear the Gospel. He would do whatever it took, even giving up dearly held and entrenched traditions if he had too. As he could, he would bend and yield to the traditions and customs of others (eat their food, speak their language, wear their clothes) so that he could tell the story of Jesus without any hindrance.

So, truly Peter’s vision was perhaps God’s first lesson on how to do missions; how to go about making disciples. With further reflection surely they must have realized that was precisely what Jesus had done. He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:6-7) Jesus is the best teacher.

What would it look like for us to put this lesson into practice in our communities? How about with the community immediately surrounding the church facility?

 

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

“Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; ²⁴ for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”

When we think of vision, we often think of God’s plan and purpose FOR a group of people. Vision keeps us looking forward and upward with hope and courage. In this week’s Re:Verse passage we see a different facet of vision. Vision is also the ability and capacity to see potential and opportunities IN a group of people. Barnabas saw this new church and didn’t immediately try to press them forward with vision. Rather, he just encouraged them with the vision of how he saw the grace of God already working IN them. Where does this kind of vision come from? (Holy Spirit and Faith vs. 23) What could happen in a church if people “full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” begin to see God’s Grace at work IN each other and intentionally encouraged obedience and joy?  “Where there is no vision, the people perish”  Proverbs 29:18