the game plan

(written by Pastor Joe)


The Word for today: Acts 1:1-11

Mark this: Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

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Special Note

I find it very fitting that today's reading falls on May 21,2011, supposedly judgment day according to a fringe group. Acts 1:7 reads, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority." But apparently this group knows better than Jesus, so if they're right- its been a joy to know you all!

Now back to reality- the blog! I am sure that Franklyn would be somewhat relieved if yesterday was the last blog he ever had to worry about. But we are choosing NOT to stare at the sky and instead continue on with the work assigned to us until God says otherwise.

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What a blessing the church of Jesus Christ has been given in this book- Acts. It's been sometimes called the Acts of the Apostles, which is true in some sense. But a much more accurate title would be the Acts of the Holy Spirit. He saturates this book- from chapter 1 to chapter 28, and beyond. He is the One promised in today's reading. He comes into the lives of Christ disciples in power on the day of Pentecost in chapter 2, and then again to Gentile believers as the message spreads (1) . People such as Peter, Stephen, Barnabas, and Paul are all said to be full "of the Spirit."(2).

The Holy Spirit speaks and leads and directs all of the actions of the "movers & shakers" in this book. He reveals truth to Peter in the matter of of Ananias and Sapphira. He empowers Stephen to speak boldly. He leads Phillip's very travels- sending him to share the Gospel with the Ethiopian Eunuch, and then whisking him away suddenly. The Spirit compels Peter to include non-Jews in the church. He personally chooses Paul and Barnabas for their missionary work. He navigates the church trough its first theological crisis. The Spirit even directs Paul where to go and not to go with the Gospel message. (3)

In short, this book is saturated in the Holy Spirit, as He leads, rebukes, opens some doors and closes others. We cannot come away from Acts thinking that the apostles, by their "own power or godliness (4)" somehow established God's Kingdom. Here in today's reading, the Lord Jesus lays out His game plan and His method: He ascends to the Father. The Holy Spirit comes in power. The Spirit-filled disciples are Christ's witnesses. The message spreads from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. That is precisely what happens in the next 27 chapters of Acts.

I cannot wait to explore this book together- all the ups and downs, twists and turns, joys and sufferings- because this is no mere human endeavor. Today, we get to see the game plan. The rest of the time, we see the Holy Spirit make it reality. Never forget that all of this is God's idea. Nothing can be more encouraging see flawed and ordinary people doing amazing things because it is not them, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ who carries it out! Nothing prevents any of us to join in their company because it isn't us, but the Holy Spirit who sees things through.

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(1) Acts 8:15-17, 10:44-48

(2) Acts 4:8, 6:5, 11:24, 13:9,

(3) Acts 5:3-9, 6:10, 8:29 & 39, 11:12, 13:2, 15:28, 16:6

(4) Acts 3:12

the Director

The Word for today:

Psalms 11, 12

When Bin Laden and his henchmen took the Twin Towers down, I'd seen that scene before:

He lies in wait near the villages;

from ambush he murders the innocent,

watching in secret for his victims.

He lies in wait like a lion in cover;

he lies in wait to catch the helpless;

he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.

His victims are crushed; they collapse, they fall.  (Psalms 10:8-10)

For look, the wicked bend their bows;

they set their arrows against the strings

to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.

When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?  (Psalms 11:2-3)

And I knew what prayer to pray:

O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;

you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,

so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

(Psalms 10:17-18)

And I knew what would become of Bin Laden:

The LORD examines the righteous,

but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.

On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur.  (Psalms 11:5-6)

***

The Word of God is always ahead of tomorrow.  So turn to its pages when you need to put this present darkness (1) in its proper perspective.  All things will unfold exactly as the prescient, omniscient pages of your Bible have decreed.

History is the handmaiden, the vassal, of Scripture.  The Word of God doesn't reflect history; it directs history,  it creates history.

In the beginning, the Word created space.  In the now, the Word is creating time.  We think of prophecy as a fore-telling.  Better to think of it as a command from the King.

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(1) Ephesians 6:12/RSV

what the stars are saying--part 2

The Word for today:

Psalms 9, 10

mark this: Psalm 8:3-4

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, 

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

What is man that You take thought of him, 

And the son of man that You care for him?

Why are there so many stars?  What is the cosmos doing out there?  Is it just "taking up space?"

Certainly the stars have a physical purpose.  The gravitational constant depends on their presence!  But the stars have another purpose.  In fact, they have a story to tell:
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 
There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. 
(Psalms 19:1-4)

What are the stars telling us?  Yesterday, we provided some background for that question.  Today, we'll offer an answer.

***

The awesomeness of creation has been the subject of famous biblical poems like Job 38, Psalms 19, 33, 136, and Isaiah 45.  Isaiah 40 references creation repeatedly, culminating in this expression:
"To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?"

says the Holy One.  
Look up at the sky!
Who created all these heavenly lights?
He is the one who leads out their ranks;
he calls them all by name.
Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,
not one of them is missing.  (Isaiah 40:25-26)
           

The power and the splendor, the majesty and the infinite reach of God's creation gives us pause.  It causes each of us to wonder, "Why in the world would he bother with me?"--

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, 

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

What is man that You take thought of him, 

And the son of man that You care for him? (Psalms 8:3-4)

Some look for answers in the stars.  But the stars weren't made to provide answers.  Indeed, they clearly show us that we don't have all the answers.

More than anything else, the stars were made to make us wonder:

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

"Awesome wonder" will prevail in the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is the only rational response to a God who will never be contained by his ever expanding creation:

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.  (Isaiah 9:7)

Our perceptions of him might sometimes get stuck in neutral, but it must be understood that God is never confined by our perception!  Puny faith and tiny intellects don't leash the Lion of Judah.  They only shackle us.

God is never contained and never confined.  That's the story the stars are telling.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder...

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what the stars are saying--part 1

The Word for today:

Psalms 7, 8

mark this: Psalm 8:3-4

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, 

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

What is man that You take thought of him, 

And the son of man that You care for him?

Why are there so many stars?  What is the cosmos doing out there?  Is it just "taking up space?"

Certainly the stars have a physical purpose.  The gravitational constant depends on their presence!  But the stars have another purpose.  In fact, they have a story to tell:
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 
There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. 
(Psalms 19:1-4)

Over the next couple of days, Stand in the Rain will listen for what the stars are saying...

***

We saw last week, in Luke 24, that Jesus holds the Bible together, giving it shape and coherence and meaning. 

He also holds the cosmos together:

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  (Colossians 1:17)

Certainly he holds my life together:

In him we live and move and have our being.  (Acts 17:28)

He is everywhere, all the time.  Astride the cosmos, he is bigger than the universe he built.  His creation cannot contain him: 

"Am I only a God nearby," declares the LORD, "and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD.   (Jeremiah 23:23-24)

     

"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!" 

(1 Kings 8:27)

Where can I flee from your presence? 
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10)

Stephen Hawking, generally considered the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein, says in the best-selling "A Brief History of Time" that our galaxy is an average-sized spiral galaxy that looks to other galaxies like a swirl in a pastry roll and that it is over 100,000 light years across--about 6 hundred trillion miles.  He says,  "We now know that our galaxy is only one of some hundred thousand million that can be seen using modern telescopes, each galaxy itself containing some hundred thousand million stars."

It is commonly held that the average distance between these hundred thousand million galaxies (each six hundred trillion miles across and containing one hundred  thousand million stars) is three million light years!  On top of that, the work of Edwin Hubble, based on the Doppler Effect, has shown that all red-spectrumed galaxies are moving away from us--and that nearly all are red.  Thus, the universe is constantly expanding.  Some estimates say that the most distant galaxy is eight billion light years away--and racing away at two hundred million miles an hour.

     

Moreover, God created every speck of dust in the hundred thousand million galaxies of the universe.  He created every atom--the sub-microscopic solar systems with their quarks and leptons and electrons and neutrinos--all of which have no measurable size.

     

So it would seem, according to our best current evidence, that physical creation is infinitely expanding, and made up of infinitely smaller building blocks...

("The Story the Stars are Telling" will continue tomorrow.   We hope to see you then.)

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a time to repent, and a time to refrain from repenting

The Word for today:
Psalm 6

In the famous opening lines of Ecclesiastes chapter three, we read that there is a time for this and a time for that:
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.

Well, the following line isn't in Ecclesiastes, but it could be:
A time to repent, and a time to refrain from repenting.

***

As I write this, I'm in trouble again.

Trouble follows me, like metal filings incline towards a magnet: if I'm over here, trouble leans this way; if I'm over there, trouble leans that way.

Most of my trouble comes from my own wrongdoing.  But I can even get in trouble for doing right.  Lies have gotten me in loads o' trouble, but the truth has gotten me in more trouble than you might think.

As a Bible teacher, I'm a Truth-teller.  Any faithful Bible teacher must determine not to notice who's in the room.  Truth is universal and impartial, and thus is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34);  truth should never be tailored to fit the "room."  But you can get in a passel of trouble when you practice that precept.

I've been asked on various occasions to apologize for something I'd said.  If what I'd said was just mean-spirited or nasty, then I have (usually through clenched teeth) attempted to repent.  But when it's truth that I'm in trouble for--because the truth ruffled a feather or two--then I must run from even a hint of apology.

For if you apologize for telling the truth, the truth will be taken from your mouth.  (That isn't in the book of Proverbs, but it could be.)

***

Psalm 6 is a repentant lament, often included among the "Penitential Psalms" (with Psalms 32, 38, 51, 102, 140, and 143).  These Psalms remind us that when we do wrong we should say we are sorry.

But when you are in the right, don't you dare "do" Psalm 6; don't you dare repent just for the sake of getting along.  Unwarranted repentance turns the truth inside out.  Truth will flee from you if you treat him the same way you'd treat any lowdown, low-life lie.

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I don't know where I'm going, but I know the Way

The Word for today:

Psalm 5

mark this:  Psalm 5:3

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;

In the morning I will direct it to You,

And I will look up.

I don't know where I'm going.

But that doesn't bother me.  In fact, the unknown is what lends  life a sense of adventure and drama.  There's a certain measure of fear in the unknown  but you have to admit that there's a measure of thrill in there as well.

And I know how to minimize the fear and maximize the thrill!

Our entire relationship with God is based on trust.  So, just as salvation is received by trust, so too is God's guidance:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

That scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6, just happens to be my wife Shelley's "life verse."  So I encounter it often.  I hear her recite it to our sons, and we even have it carved into a plaque that hangs on the kitchen wall.

So I've thought about it more than a few times.  And I've come to the conclusion that faith makes rational sense! 

I mean, why would we lean on our own understanding when we don't even know what the next minute will bring? 

And why wouldn't we entrust our lives to someone who sees the end from the beginning--who will never be surprised by the headlines in tomorrow's newspaper, and who always has our best interests at heart.

Psalm 5 is a prayer for guidance, so don't just read it, pray it!--

Lead me in the right path, O LORD, or my enemies will conquer me. Tell me clearly what to do, and show me which way to turn.  (Psalms 5:8/NLT)

Whenever you can, pray Psalm 5 early--the earlier the better:

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; 

In the morning I will direct it to You, 

And I will look up.  (Psalms 5:3)

"And I will look up."  

That's the thrilling  part!  It's an acknowledgement that the answer is not within us, so we will seek it outside of ourselves.  It also conveys anticipation and expectation as we look up for his guidance and forward to what he has in store for us each day.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).  You don't have to know where you're going when you know the Way.

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face lift

(written by Pastor Joe)


The Word for Today: Psalms 3 & 4

Mark this: Psalm 3:3 (ESV)

But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

What causes wrinkles?

Age? The sun? Stress? Children? The Buffalo Bills? Gravity? All of the above?

Regardless of the cause, our society does not like them, and we've developed manifold ways to remove them from our bodies. Elective cosmetic surgery is a $10 billion industry in this country alone.

Thankfully, we're here today, not to talk about plastic surgery, but a different kind of face lift.

It's a lift that has nothing to due with wrinkles or crow's feet or Botox. It is a much deeper and more essential kind of lift. Its actually more of a "head lift."

Here in Psalm 3 we have one of the greatest titles for God as found in the Bible. God is the "Lifter of my head."

That is a wonderful thing- because so much of life, our experiences, our poor choices or those of others, and even our circumstances, can cause our heads to hang downwards. Despite all of our technological advances, despite our best efforts, life repeatedly lets us down, and our souls become "downcast." We see this multiple times in the Bible. In Cain's resentment and anger (1). In Hannah's unfulfilled quest to be a mother (2). In Job's suffering (3). In Jeremiah's despair (4). In Ezra's expression of his nation's shame and disgrace (5). In the faces of two disillusioned disciples (6). The sheer weight of these kinds of things literally drag our heads downwards.

And many of us stay there for a while. Shame. Guilt. Sorrow. Grief. Regret. These burdens add pound after pound to our countenances. And as soon as we find relief in one area, we find two more to take its place. Our world is full of hanging heads, and often the church is not much different.

The good news of this verse, and of the entire Bible is that, God is in the head lifting business. He is very much aware of everything His children go through, and He promises, in His time, to rescue and restore and renew. The Psalms frequently repeat the theme: "You lifted me out of the depths" or "the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down (7)." That is our hope. And in order to guarantee this promise- God did a little lifting of His own.

Jesus Himself said "just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." and "when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (8).” The cross shows us the lengths that God would go to to enable our salvation- it is the only reason we have anything to hope for to begin with.

So when we say "cheer up!" it is not based upon wishful thinking or sentimentality. We, by faith, choose to participate in the victory that Christ has already won. And when there seems to be no immediate answer or relief, we trust in the One who was lifted up once for all. Here's a classic hymn that words it much better than I could:

Give to the winds thy fears,

Hope and be undismayed.

God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,

God shall lift up thy head.

Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears thy way;
Wait thou His time; so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day.

Still heavy is thy heart?
Still sinks thy spirit down?
Cast off the world, let fear depart
Bid every care begone.  (9)

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(1) Genesis 4:5

(2) 1 Samuel 4:10

(3) Job 10:15

(4) Lamentations 3:20

(5) Ezra 9:6

(6) Luke 24:17

(7) Psalm 30:1 & 146:8

(8) John 3:14-15 & 12:32

(9) written by Paul Gerhardt 1656