The Book of Acts: A Gospel For Everyone

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, How The Spirit Makes Assignments. J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

WORD

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

      “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

            and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,

            so he did not open his mouth.

      In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.

            Who can speak of his descendants?

            For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

Acts 8:26–35 (NIV)

CONSIDER THIS

In case you are still wondering whether non-apostles have apostolic authority, (i.e., you), keep your eye on the ball. In today's text, Philip takes it from Samaria to the next level: "the ends of the earth," also known as Ethiopia.

Note though, that he did not go to Ethiopia, rather he was on a Holy Spirit errand. The Holy Spirit regularly if not constantly does gospel traffic control. Some call them divine appointments. Divine appointments always lead to divine outcomes, whether we actually witness the fruit ourselves or not. Did you catch the Holy Spirit assignment today? 

The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

I see at least two major requirements to moving in apostolic authority: 1. Attentiveness to the Holy Spirit, and 2. Pre-emptive obedience.

First, we need to perhaps demystify a bit what it means to be attentive to the Holy Spirit. Hearing from the Holy Spirit is not reserved for a special class of Christians. It really should be an everyday experience for every follower of Jesus. We tend to set our expectations too high as to how this will happen. We expect an audible voice or an angelic visitation when the Holy Spirit works most commonly through Scripture, wise friends, and quiet inward impressions. Moving in apostolic authority requires honing those Spirit-empowered instincts and trusting them. One more thing of immense importance: purity of heart.

Second, pre-emptive obedience means asking the Holy Spirit to give you an assignment and saying yes before you get it.

Summarizing the keys to apostolic authority:

  • The Holy Spirit favors the attentive.

  • The Holy Spirit favors those who live immersively in the story of the Scriptures.

  • The Holy Spirit favors the pure hearted (and creates pure heartedness in the willing).

  • The Holy Spirit favors those who open themselves up to divine assignments and appointments.

  • The Holy Spirit favors those predisposed to obey his promptings.

I see all of these at work in today's text. Can you spot them?

And Philip, the widow-worker, non-apostle, apostolic powerhouse . . . he's headed to Caesarea.

PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 

Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

QUESTIONS

  • Are you becoming aware and attuned to the inward impressions being given to you by the Holy Spirit?

  • Are you ready to ask the Holy Spirit for an assignment? Are you prepared to commit to preemptive obedience—saying yes to the assignment before you get the assignment? Journal out some responses today. Perhaps remember and reflect on such an experience in your past. 

The Book of Acts: A Faithful Witness In Hard Times

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, A Check Up: How Is Your Confidence In Jesus? J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

WORD

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.

Acts 8:1–8 (NIV)

CONSIDER THIS

Did you pick up that curious line near the end of chapter 7? In case not, here it is.

"Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul."

Today, we meet the author of most of the New Testament books. He will later use a Roman name, Paul, but for today we will call him Saul. This story of Saul may be the most stunning story in all of the New Testament. At least it is the most unlikely. 

Does the name, Osama bin Laden ring a bell? How about Mohammad Emwazi (alias Jihadi John)? For all practical purposes, Saul was the first-century equivalent. He lived to destroy the church. Picture him, going from house to house, dragging fathers and mothers away as their children shrieked in tears of terror, never to see them again. Saul was nothing short of a first-century religious fundamentalist terrorist. He held the coats of the executioners at the public execution of Stephen. In twenty-first-century terms, he might be carrying the suicide vests.

Now, imagine the unimaginable: Osama Bin Laden becomes not only a follower of Jesus but his number one spokesperson! I'll save the details for when it happens, but for now, it's important for us to get very clear on who Paul used to be. In his mind, as in the mind of any religious fundamentalist terrorist, these heinous acts were nothing less than acts of divine worship.

We need to keep this story fixed in our minds because it reveals the incomprehensible power of the gospel of Jesus Christ not only to save but to completely transform a human being. True then. True now. This is perhaps the gospel case study of all case studies. It's truly astonishing to think Paul would one day write these words: 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Rom. 1:16)

And speaking of case studies, are you waking up to your own life as a case study of the power of God? 

It feels like a moment to check in with each other. Are you waking up to the power of God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit? Think about your own life for a minute. How are you being transformed? Where do you sense the most pressing need for the power of God in your life? What is your present confidence level in the power of God these days? 

PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 

Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

QUESTIONS

  • Where is your level of confidence in the transformative power of Jesus Christ these days? Scale it—1 to 10 (10 is the highest). How about in your own life? Do realize those may be different numbers. 

The Book of Acts: Guest Preacher - Mark Morrison

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men that serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Pastor Mark Morrison. Pastor Mark serves as the director of Shepherd Ministries. You can find out more information about Shepherd Ministries here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotion. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week and listen to the discussion podcast.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

The Book of Acts: A Final Plea

This week’s devotional was written by Dallas Willard and is entitled, “The Golden Triangle” of Spiritual Transformation. Dallas Willard was a professor, minister, author, and founding member of Renovaré. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

Some time ago I came to realize that I did not love the people next door. They were, by any standards, dangerous and unpleasant people — ex-bikers who made their living selling drugs.

They had never tried to harm my family, but the constant traffic of people buying drugs, a number of whom sat in the yard while shooting up, began to wear down my patience. As I brooded over them one day, indulging my irritation, the Lord helped me see that I really had no love for them at all, that after ​“suffering” from them for several years I would secretly be happy if they died so that we could just be rid of them. I realized how little I truly cared for nearly all the people I dealt with through the day, even when on ​“religious business.” I had to admit that I had never earnestly sought to be possessed by God’s kind of love, to become more like Jesus. Now it was time to seek.

But is it possible to be like Jesus? Can we actually have the character of the heavenly Father? We know God shows sincere love for everyone and is consistently kind to even the ungrateful. Jesus likewise showed himself to be merciful, freely forgave injuries, and was glad simply to give, expecting nothing back.

It is possible, I now believe, to ​“put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14). Ordinary people in common surroundings can live from the abundance of God’s kingdom, letting the spirit and the actions of Jesus be the natural outflow from their lives. The ​“tree” can be made good, and the fruit will then be good as a matter of course (Matt. 12:33). This new life God imparts involves both a goal and a method.

His Heart, Our Heart

As disciples (literally students) of Jesus, our goal is to learn to be like him. We begin by trusting him to receive us as we are. But our confidence in him leads us toward the same kind of faith he had, a faith that made it possible for him to act as he did. Jesus’ faith was rooted in his gospel of heaven’s rule, the good news of ​“the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 4:17).

Heaven is a deeply significant word. From Abraham (Gen. 24:7) onward, it signified to the people of Israel the direct availability of God to his children, as well as his supremacy over all that affects us. From heaven, ​“the eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, and his ears toward their cry” (Ps. 34:15; also 1 Pet. 3:12).

Jesus was concerned to pass on to his followers this reality of heaven’s rule that undergirded his life. When he sent his twelve friends out on their first mission, he told them it was like sending ​“sheep in the midst of wolves.” It would be butterflies against machine guns. Nevertheless — imagine sheep being told this! — there was no need for them to fear. Two sparrows cost a penny. Yet not one falls upon the earth ​“without your Father’s will.” Heaven is so close that even the hairs on our heads are numbered. ​“Fear not,” Jesus tells us, ​“you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:16, 29 – 31).

Avoiding Dreary Substitutes

Living under the governance of heaven frees and empowers us to love as God loves. But outside the safety and sufficiency of heaven’s rule, we are too frightened and angry to really love others, or even ourselves, and so we arrange our dreary substitutes. A contemporary wording of Jesus’ comparison of God’s kind of love, agapē, and what normally passes for love might be: ​“What’s so great if you love those who love you? Terrorists do that! If that’s all your ​‘love’ amounts to, God certainly is not involved. Or suppose you are friendly to ​‘our kind of people.’ So is the Mafia!” (Matt. 5:46 – 47).

Now reflect: Has your heart gone out in generous blessing to someone who has insulted or humiliated you? Can you work without thought of gain for the well-being of someone who openly despises you, maybe has told you to drop dead? Are you enthusiastically pulling for the success of someone competing with you for favor, position, or financial gain?

A much-used doormat says: ​“Welcome, friends!” Could yours also genuinely welcome enemies? When you lend a dress, a stereo, a car, or some tools or books, are you able to release them with no hope of seeing them again as Luke 6:35 suggests we should? I do a good bit of my own mechanical and carpentry work, and I have a good supply of tools — which neighbors soon discover. I am glad for opportunities to lend a chain saw, an ax, a crescent wrench, or pliers, for I see them as a true spiritual exercise in abandonment to God. I am learning to love others in these little things that truly matter.

The Golden Triangle

If this life of faith and love from heaven is the goal of the disciple of Jesus, the natural fulfillment of the new life in Christ, how can we enter into it? While it is in one sense a result of God’s presence within us, the New Testament also describes a process behind our ​“putting on” the Lord Jesus Christ. It is repeatedly discussed in the Bible under three essential aspects, each inseparable from the other, all interrelated. This process could be called ​“the golden triangle” of spiritual transformation, for it is as precious as gold to the disciple, and each of its aspects is as essential to the whole as three sides are to a triangle.

One aspect or side of our triangle is the faithful acceptance of everyday problems. By enduring trials with patience we can reach an assurance of the fullness of heaven’s rule in our lives.

James, the Lord’s brother, began his message to the church by instructing us to be ​“supremely happy” when troubles come upon us: ​“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance” (1:2 – 3, Phillips). When endurance or patience has been given full play in the details of day-to-day existence, it will make us ​“perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (v. 4).

Certainly James learned this from Jesus, his older brother, during more than 20 years of sometimes rancorous family life (John 7:2 – 8). We must never forget that for most of his life Jesus was what we today would call a blue-collar worker, a tradesman, an independent contractor. His hands had calluses from using the first-century equivalents of hammers, drills, axes, saws and planes. He was known in his village simply as ​“the carpenter.”

There James saw him practice all he later preached. We know what it is like to ​“do business with the public.” So did Jesus. Every single thing that Jesus taught us to do was something he had put into daily practice. In the trials of his everyday existence, in family and village life, he verified the sufficiency of God’s care for those who simply trust him and obey him. And, at least in retrospect, James understood. Once he saw who his older brother really was, he realized the power of patience in the events of daily life — manifested above all by an inoffensive tongue (James 3:2) — as the path in which God’s character is fulfilled in our lives.

Opening Our Lives to the Spirit

The second side of our triangle is interaction with God’s Spirit in and around us. As Paul points out, the Spirit allows us to ​“walk in” the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). This all-powerful, creative personality, the promised ​“strengthener,” the paraclete of John 14, gently awaits our invitation to him to act upon us, with us and for us.

The presence of the Holy Spirit can always be recognized by the way he moves us toward what Jesus would be and do (John 16:7 – 15). When we inwardly experience the heavenly sweetness and power of life — the love, joy, and peace — that Jesus knew, that is the work of the Spirit in us.

Outwardly, life in the Spirit manifests itself in two ways. Gifts of the Spirit will enable us to perform some specific function — such as service or healing or leading worship — with effects clearly beyond those of our own making. These gifts serve God’s purposes among his people, but they do not necessarily signify the state of our heart.

The fruit of the Spirit, by contrast, give a sure sign of transformed character. When our deepest attitudes and dispositions are those of Jesus, it is because we have learned to let the Spirit foster his life in us. Paul confessed: ​“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). The outcome of Christ living within us through the Spirit is fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22 – 23).

Both gifts and fruit are the result, not the reality of the Spirit’s presence in our lives. What brings about our trans­formation into Christlikeness is our direct, personal interaction with Christ through the Spirit. The Spirit makes Christ present to us and draws us toward his likeness. It is as we thus ​“behold the glory of the Lord” that we are constantly ​“transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18, NASB).

The Disciplines of Christlikeness

The third side of our triangle is made up of spiritual disciplines. These are special activities, many engaged in by Jesus himself, such as solitude and study, service and secrecy, fasting and worship. They are ways in which we undertake to follow the New Testament mandate to put to death or ​“make no provision for” the merely earthly aspects of our lives and to put on the new person (Col. 3).

The emphasis in this dimension of spiritual transformation is upon our efforts. True, we are given much, and without grace we can do nothing; but our action is also required. ​“Try your hardest,” Peter directs us (2 Pet. 1:5, NEB). We are to add virtue to our faith, knowledge to our virtue, self-control to our knowledge, patience to our self­-control, godlikeness to our patience, brotherly love to our godlikeness, and agapē to our brotherly love (vv. 5 – 7).

In Colossians 3, Paul urges us ​“as the elect of God, holy and beloved” to renew our inner selves with organs (“bowels” in KJV) of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness, and agapē (vv. 12 – 14). We should not only want to be merciful, kind, unassuming, and patient persons, we are also to make plans to become so. We are to find out, that is, what prevents and what promotes mercifulness and kindness and patience in our souls, and we are to remove hindrances to them as much as possible, carefully substituting that which assists Christlikeness.

Many well-meaning people, to give an example, cannot succeed in being kind because they are too rushed to get things done. Haste has worry, fear, and anger as close associates; it is a deadly enemy of kindness, and hence of love. If this is our problem, we may be greatly helped by a day’s retreat into solitude and silence, where we will discover that the world survives even though we are inactive. There we might prayerfully meditate to see clearly the damage done by our unkindness, and honestly compare it to what, if anything, is really gained by our hurry. We will come to understand that for the most part our hurry is really based upon pride, self-importance, fear, and lack of faith, and rarely upon the production of anything of true value for anyone.

Perhaps we will end up making plans to pray daily for the people with whom we deal regularly. Or we may resolve to ask associates for forgiveness for past injuries. Whatever comes of such prayerful reflection, we may be absolutely sure that our lives will never be the same, and that we will enjoy a far greater richness of God’s reality in our lives.

In general, then, we ​“put on” the new person by regular activities that are in our power, and we become what we could not be by direct effort. If we take note of and follow Jesus in what he did when he was not ministering or teaching, we will find ourselves led and enabled to behave as he did when he was ​“on the spot.”

The single most obvious trait of those who profess Christ but do not grow into Christlikeness is their refusal to take the reasonable and time-tested measures for spiritual growth. I almost never meet someone in spiritual coldness, perplexity, and distress who is regular in the use of those spiritual exercises that will be obvious to anyone familiar with the contents of the New Testament.

Like Stars in a Dark World

The three sides of the golden triangle of spiritual transformation belong together. No one of the three will give us a heart like Christ’s without the other two. None can take the place of any other. Yet each, connected to the others, will certainly bring us to ever-increasing Christlikeness.

In Philippians 2 the apostle draws all three together in one grand statement: ​“You must work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you, inspiring both the will and the deed, for his own chosen purpose. Do all you have to do without complaint or wrangling. Show yourselves guileless and above reproach, faultless children of God in a warped and crooked generation, in which you shine like stars in a dark world” (vv. 12 – 15, NEB).

When we accept moment-to-moment events and tribulations as the place where we receive God’s provision, we patiently anticipate the action of his Spirit in our lives. In hope we do our best to find the ways in which our inner self can take on the character of the children of the Highest. This is the path of radical change — change sufficient to meet the needs of the world and prepare a people to be the habitation of God.

Originally published in Christianity Today, August 20, 1990. Available in The Great Omission, San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2006. 

The Book of Acts: Words of Life

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good Christians? It’s The Wrong Question. J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

ACTS 5:17–26 (NIV)

Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”

At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.

When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.

Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.

CONSIDER THIS

NOTE TO THE UNAWARE: Did you know the Wake-Up Call is available in audio format? You can click the button at the top of the email to listen, or you can listen on the Apple Podcast App. It’s also on our YouTube Channel. I wish you would give it a try. I can promise it will take our relationship to the next level.

Let’s begin today in the spirit of some good old fashioned catechesis.

QUESTION: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31
ANSWER: A lot of people, powers, principalities, and pain can come against us.

QUESTION: Will the opposition ultimately win?
ANSWER: Not a chance!

QUESTION: Can they inflict unbearable pain on us in the meantime?
ANSWER: You better believe it.

As things heat up in Jerusalem we are going to start seeing some bad things happening to good Christians. The outcomes will vary. In this particular instance, it miraculously worked out for the apostles as an angel sprang them from jail. As we turn the page into chapter 6 we will witness our first martyr.

But notice as we go along that no one seems to be asking the perennial question of our time, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Do you know why the Bible does not answer the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Because the Bible is simply not asking that question. Neither were the early Christians asking that question. The early Christians were not philosophizing about sin, death, and evil. They were fighting it with everything they had. At times an angel would spring them out of jail at midnight. At other times they would take rocks to the face until the bitter end.

The gospel promises that we will win the war, but it almost guarantees we will lose quite a few battles along the way. The true sign of prosperity is not success in all things, it is endurance despite all things. We are not talking about a “grit your teeth and grind it out” endurance born of human effort. Where the Holy Spirit is involved, it often looks like joyful painstaking perseverance.

Fast forward to the present day. At times the enemy will look like a mentally ill assassin in an elementary school. At other times the enemy will take on the form of stage 3 cancer for an eighteen-year-old. Sometimes the police will get there first and save the masses from bloodshed. Sometimes the miracle will happen. Other times the chemo will work. Sometimes the scourge of cancer wins. Many of you are facing such situations right now. It’s not a matter of having enough faith to have your prayers answered. It’s the fact that we live on a battlefield. We live in the age of the Holy Spirit and yet still the present evil age rages on. 

The gospel does not guarantee a get-out-of-jail-free card, though at times, as a bonus of encouragement for believers, it will miraculously happen. We can rejoice when it does, but we must remember, the mission is not contingent on the miracle. After all, where does the angel send the apostles after delivering them? Yes, right back into the fray, where they will be arrested again. And lest we need to be put on notice—it is not going to end well for any of them. 

If the suffering of Christians designs to convey any particular message, it is this: Jesus plays the long game and takes the long view. The gospel nowhere says terrible things will not happen to good Christians. It actually says this:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:37–39)

Why do you think we spend so much time in the modern age trying to figure out and explain why bad things happen to good people? Why do you think they didn’t focus on this issue in the apostolic age?

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 
I receive the fellowship of sharing in your sufferings and release my sense of entitlement to a suffering free life.

Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen. 

THE QUESTION

REPEATING: Why do you think we spend so much time in the modern age trying to figure out and explain why bad things happen to good people? Why do you think they didn’t focus on this issue in the apostolic age? Journal out how you are personally dealing with the bad things that have happened or are happening in your life and those you love. 

The Book of Acts: Holiness Matters

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, The Most Important Lesson I Ever Learned And Am Still Learning. J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

ACTS 5:1–11 (NIV)

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” 

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”

“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

CONSIDER THIS

This is a tough story. This couple actually sold a piece of land in the interest of serving the growing church and helping the people of God. That’s a big deal and very commendable. He kept back some of the money for his own family. That seems like a small deal and perfectly acceptable. And they drop dead on being confronted about this? Seems like overkill; no pun intended. It seems to fall in the category of “no good deed goes unpunished.”

But this story is not about money or giving or any of that. This story is about lying. Nothing destroys a person, a relationship, a community, or church faster than lying. We must commend Ananias and Sapphira for their generous spirit in selling this land and making such a profound gift to God through the church. We can never excuse their lie, because truth be told, to the extent we excuse them, we excuse ourselves.

This story reveals the nature of a particular kind of lie. Ananias and Sapphira did not tell a bold-faced lie here. Yes, they misrepresented themselves, but it was by omission. They didn’t say anything untrue. They allowed an untruth to stand.

Their dramatic act of dropping dead startles us, but note, it does not say the Holy Spirit struck them down. No, they did it to themselves. Every time we lie to another person, no matter how small or justified or harmless it may seem, we put another nail in our own coffin. It deeply damages the person lied to, but the deepest damage of a lie is to the one propagating it. Anytime we lie to another person, we must first lie to ourselves. With every lie we tell ourselves, it makes the next one easier, until we have literally become lost to the truth. The most horrifying reality of lying is the way the liar develops such an immunity to lying, they eventually have no idea that they are doing it. This is not even the worst of it. The real tragedy is when we lie to each other we are lying to God.

You have not lied just to human beings but to God.

Growing up, my parents taught me many things, but one thing stands out for which I am eternally grateful. I can hear their voices now, “No matter what, always tell the truth!” 

The lesson of Ananias and Sapphira (in the first century, the twenty-first century, and every century in between) is precisely this one: Unswerving, unwavering, uncompromising honesty. In the smallest matters and the greatest concerns, always tell the truth, no matter what.

The good news? Because of the Holy Spirit, telling the truth is always within reach. The biggest liar, by telling the smallest truth, can start a brand new life.

Here’s the kicker. We only tell lies to the extent that we have believed lies. And the biggest lie we believe is that it’s okay to tell a small one; that it doesn’t really hurt anyone. It’s why there’s no such thing as a little lie in the end. 

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 
I receive your truthfulness and release my deceitfulness. 

Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen. 

THE QUESTION

How does lying destroy other people? How does it destroy the one who lies? Any experience with this? Which lie comes first, the lie to God, to ourselves, or to others? 

Guest Speaker: Rev. Dr. Kevin Austin

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men who serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week, we hear from Rev. Dr. Kevin Austin. Kevin serves as Director of the Set Free Movement. The Set Free Movement works to mobilize faith communities, financial partners, and all segments of society towards ending human trafficking and creating new futures through community-based action. You can find out more information about The Set Free Movement by clicking here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotion. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week and listen to the discussion podcast.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

The Book of Acts: Boldness in the Gospel

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, How The Church Becomes The Church Again. J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

ACTS 4:23–31 (NIV)

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 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?
The kings of the earth rise up
      and the rulers band together
against the Lord
      and against his anointed one.’

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. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

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.

CONSIDER THIS

There’s a new kid on the block now; a character we have never known in all of the story of God. The new actor has a name: “The Church.” Let’s remember our working definition of The Church: “The presence of Jesus in the people of God for the sake of the world.” 

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 

I want us to notice how “The Church” responded to Peter and John and their reporting on how they had been handled by the “Religious Establishment,” aka the temple, aka the Sanhedrin. 

When they heard this . . . 

They got angry?
They empathized and consoled Peter and John?
They pouted?
They established a task force and set up a series of meetings?
They started plotting about how to solve the problem? 
They hired a consultant? 
They called an executive session?

No, No, No, No, No, No, No. Behold what they did do:

They raised their voices together in prayer to God . . .  

There is a saying I heard many years ago when I first began in ministry. While I have not always heeded it I have never forgotten it:

“You can do more than pray after you have prayed. But you will never do more than pray until you have prayed.”

As we began our work with Seedbed we reframed that saying into a new one—Prayer is not the only thing we do but it is the first thing.

We see this powerfully at work in the early days of the church.

When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

Prayer was not the only thing they did but it was the first thing. Because they knew they could do more than pray after they prayed but they knew they would never do more than pray until they prayed.

Let’s go back to chapter 1 and remember what preceded the day of Pentecost.

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

Prayer was not just something these early Christians did. It was who they were. Look at how Luke describes them following the day of Pentecost:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42

Prayer was not the only thing they did but it was the first thing. Because they knew they could do more than pray after they prayed but they knew they would do nothing more than pray until they prayed.

I’ve been having a disturbing thought of late. It is this: What if the house of God (i.e., what we think of as the church) is only actually the house of God (aka the church) to the extent it is a house of prayer? Remember this?

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” Matthew 21:12–13. 

Consider what happened to the place formerly known as “the house of God” aka the temple. Now, let me ask again: What if the house of God (i.e., what we think of as the church) is only actually the house of God (aka the church) to the extent it is a house of prayer?

What if to the extent we are not a house of Prayer we are actually a den of robbers? 

What if the church could become the church again? What if it is as simple as reclaiming our identity as a house of prayer? 

How might that begin with you and me? 

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 

Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen. 

THE QUESTION

So what if my what ifs are on point? What are the implications? What might repentance look like? How might I own responsibility? What would it take to become a house of prayer again? 

The Book of Acts: It's All Jesus

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, The Acts Of Jesus Continued. J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

CONSIDER THIS

Acts chapter 3 is the big moment. It is the ultimate test. We know it would be no problem for Jesus to do this miracle. We saw him do it before. We also have it on good evidence Peter and John participated in miracles during their pre-crucifixion discipleship training period with Jesus. If we transport ourselves back to what I call the day after the day of Pentecost, we must locate ourselves in the place of not knowing what is going to happen. Here’s the test: Would the apostles be able to do the work of Jesus in the way of Jesus in the absence of Jesus being physically present? 

And even as I write this last sentence, the mind-bending epiphany hits me. It’s one of those moments when I feel like I finally, or at least more fully, actually believe what I believe. Look at that question again. 

Here’s the test: Would the apostles be able to do the work of Jesus in the way of Jesus in the absence of Jesus being physically present? There’s the problem . . . “the absence of Jesus being physically present.” That’s precisely wrong. Jesus is actually physically present. Remember our biblical cosmology meets physics class conversation the other day about the ascension of Jesus? Jesus did not move from the visible realm to the invisible realm. He moved from the seen realm of the earth to the unseen realm of the heavens. Just as he was physically raised from the dead, he physically ascended into heaven. Remember, a Jewish carpenter sits at the right hand of the throne of God in the heavens and rules the cosmos. 

Here’s the epiphany: By the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the unseen albeit physical presence of Jesus is made physically present in the actual bodies of his agents—on this occasion Peter and John. Because of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is physically present and active in the physical and active presence of his followers. Remember our working definition of the church—the presence of Jesus in the people of God for the sake of the world.

This is not a warm and fuzzy “spiritual” experience kind of thing. Otherwise, why did the Son of God tell us to eat bread and drink wine as though it were his body and blood? And here we envisage the full and true theology of the Eucharist, instituted in the upper room—not in a doctrine of transubstantiation wherein the physical properties of bread and wine turn into literal flesh and blood—but as the sacrament of kingdom transformation enacting the real and physical presence of the body of Jesus inhabiting the real and physical bodies of his followers turned agents. It’s not the bread and the wine that are transformed. It’s the people! 

Back to our question: Would the apostles be able to do the work of Jesus in the way of Jesus in the absence of Jesus being physically present? 

The answer, as we will see this week, is no. The apostles will not be able to do the work of Jesus in the way of Jesus in the absence of Jesus being physically present. Jesus is not physically absent. Because Jesus is physically present in and through the physical bodies of the apostles, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will be able to do the work of Jesus in the way of Jesus through the apostles. The whole notion and imagery of the church as the body of Christ is not a neat metaphor. It is a quite literal and physical reality. 

I know. I know. This is a lot. I feel some of you getting frustrated. But aren’t you tired of benign theology? Aren’t you weary of going through the motions? Don’t you want to know and deeply understand what the Bible is actually saying? What if this is part of why we aren’t “getting” it? Aren’t you ready to see Acts chapter 3 come to life in your life and in our time? Aren’t you ready to do the things Jesus did and even greater things than these because he has gone to the Father? Friends, this is not a once upon a time story; nor is it a one-off occurrence reserved for the first-century church. This is the right here, right now reality of the New Testament church. We’ve just been in an incredibly long period of hibernation. This is why it is said,

Wake up sleeper! Rise from the dead! And Christ will shine on you! 

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 

Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen. 

THE QUESTION

Are you seeing the difference between the wispy sense of Jesus being spirituallypresent among us versus Jesus being physically present in our actual physical bodies? In other words, Jesus is not invisibly present in the air or next to us on the couch. He is physically present in our physical bodies. Are you seeing the myriad implications of this for our actual physical bodies as a living sacrifice? 

The Book of Acts: Salvation for All

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, When the Holy Spirit Does Something Not In The Bulletin. J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

ACTS 2:14–21 (NIV)

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy.

I will show wonders in the heavens above

and signs on the earth below,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

And everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

CONSIDER THIS

Our movement, (aka the church Jesus is building,) began with phenomenology: tornadic sounding winds, tongues of fire descending on people, men and women speaking in foreign languages they could not themselves understand. This was not a pre-scripted ceremony as one might expect at say, a Passover celebration. This was live reality television. Things were happening that were not in the bulletin. The Holy Spirit did not come with an announcement of his arrival. He just arrived.

Note the two very divergent responses from those present.

1. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

2. Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

As it was then, so it is now. When the boundaries of one’s experience with God are stretched, it reveals two basic responses: self-abandonment or self-protection. The former marvels in stunned awe. The latter mocks with sarcastic antagonism.

To be sure, much of what gets passed off as Holy Spirit phenomenology these days may be dramatic expressions of human personality, but how we respond says much more about us than it does about them.

Years ago when I was in seminary a traveling revival descended upon our town. They had come from a Vineyard church called the Toronto Airport Fellowship in Canada. Never before or since have I witnessed the kinds of apparently supernatural phenomenology occurring in those meetings. Fireworks abounded, but so did miracles. And yes, it split our community into two groups; those who marveled and those who mocked. It always does.

At one of the evening services I approached one of my seminary professors and asked his take on what was unfolding. I will always remember his response. In a spirit of awed humility he said, “J.D., there’s a lot happening here that is clearly of the Spirit, and yes, there are some things happening that are clearly being driven by human personality. Don’t be afraid of this. Lean into it with discernment.”

Let me close today with a few simple rules of engagement when it comes to spiritual phenomenology outside our comfort zone.

1. Never make fun, belittle, or mock another’s experience of the Holy Spirit.

2. Resist the compulsion to be a spiritual thrill seeker. I call them storm chasers. (Oops! I think I just broke rule #1.)

3. Suspend your initial need to make a snap judgment, lean into the possibilities, and instead ask the question of true spiritual discernment, “What does this mean?”

4. Live a scripture-saturated life. Everything always comes back to the governing story of our lives. We will say more tomorrow, but that is exactly what Peter is doing here with his recounting of the prophecy of Joel. 

THE PRAYER

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sin. 
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your creativity and release my chaos.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your rest and release my striving. 

Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen. 

THE QUESTION

When it comes to the phenomena surrounding the Holy Spirit do you tend to be one who responds with abandonment and awe or with skepticism or suspicion or even cynicism and sarcasm? What is it about you that makes you respond in this way? Remember any such encounters in your Wake-Up Call Journal. 

The Book of Acts: A Hurricane of the Spirit

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, Don’t Pray for Wind. Set the Sales. J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

ACTS 2:1-4 (NIV)

When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place. 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.

CONSIDER THIS

On the the Day of Pentecost, the heretofore impenetrable seam between the Heavens and the Earth collapsed and the realms became a seamless reality. This was not a dissolving of the Heavens into the Earth but rather an interpolation of the realms into a seamless reality. 

How do we know these things? We see it all in the biblical text. This was not a quiet, subjective, spiritual happening later adherents could have embellished and later mythologized. This is eyewitness-based, attested history. Acts 2:2-4 and following are not an interpretation of events by later observers and analysts, but a dynamically unfolding account of the ground zero event of the birth of the Church Jesus is building. 

The collapse of the seam between Heaven and Earth was sonically demonstrative. 

2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

The collapse of the seam between Heaven and Earth was a visually demonstrative. 

3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

The collapse of the seam between Heaven and Earth was transcendently demonstrative, with Divine personhood entering into human personages.

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit

The collapse of the seam between Heaven and Earth was linguistically, ethnically, and culturally demonstrative.

and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

On this day, an exponentially multiplicative movement launched into the world and for three hundred years astoundingly turned the mighty Roman Empire upside down. The prayer of Jesus—”Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” unfolded in myriad fulfillment from the mundane to the miraculous. There was both sudden fulfillment accompanied by long “patient ferment,” to borrow Alan Kreider’s poignant phrase. It is an oversimplification to be sure, but then came Constantine and later Christendom and Roman Catholicism, a massive split, a mighty Reformation resulting in twenty something thousand splinter movements (aka denominations), a series of great awakenings and lesser revivals and here we are. 

We stand in the ruins of the still collapsing facade of Christendom. And all our churches are like so many blind people standing around a massive elephant each with our hand on a different part of the animal and each proffering and preferring a different diagnosis, prognosis and plan. 

So what’s the point today? The point is to say the Day of Pentecost never ended. We need not return to the first century church but to restore the 21st century church. This will come by Word and Spirit and the recovery of plain Scriptural Christianity. We must cease fiddling with forms and fads. We must find each other again, not as so many churches but as “Church.” We must cease chasing after phenomenology and begin to run after Jesus on the path of the race marked out for us. 

We must meet one another again at the level ground of the foot of the Cross and awaken to the fact the Heavens have been rended once and for all. Jesus is ascended as Lord and King. The Spirit is outpouring in unceasing abundance. We don’t need the Lord to somehow do Pentecost again. We need to awaken to the fact that he is now doing it. He never stopped. The Wind of Heaven is blowing. It is time to reset the sails. We have enough songs and books and bible studies for the next hundred years. We are the most resourced Christians in the history of the Church. It is time now for a great awakening of bold love and courageous faith. 

It’s time to stop asking for the Wind. It’s time to set the sails. 

Still Day One.

THE PRAYER

God our Father, who with your son Jesus Messiah, fills us with the Holy Spirit, thank you for the miracle and the mystery of Pentecost. Reset our sails to catch the Wind of Heaven that never stopped blowing. Awaken us to Jesus, the Lord of the Church, to the Word and Spirit. Lead us to find one another at the lower ground of the Cross and to open our hearts to one another like never before. Come Holy Spirit, bring us great awakening to who you are and what you are doing in our day. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

THE QUESTION

Do you sense faith, hope and love rising up in you? How might the sails need to be adjusted to catch the fresh wind? 

The Book of Acts: An Important Transition

This week’s devotional was written by J.D. Walt and is entitled, You Had One Job… J.D. is the Executive Director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages you this week.

WORD

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 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.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:6–11 (NIV)

CONSIDER THIS

If I'm honest, and you know I try to be, I mostly want God to fix the broken things in my life. I want Jesus to heal me inside and out. I want him to restore to me—borrowing the prophet Joel's imagery—the years the locusts have eaten. I want him to provide good opportunities for my children and good health for my parents. I need him to provide for my needs and some of my wants. I need more margin between the end of the month and the end of the money. Consequently, those are my prayers. And I pray such things for others. In short, I want him to restore the kingdom to me and those I love. What could be wrong with that? 

I'll give those emerging apostles credit. They thought bigger:

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

On my better days, my prayers hold similar aspirations. I pray for great awakening in my church and town; in my state and nation. I want Jesus to slay mental illness, desecrate poverty, restore deep-hearted love in people, bring multitudes of people into deep wholeness and otherwise save us from this present darkness. I want Jesus to "restore the kingdom to America," or at least start there. What could be wrong with that? 

Those aren't wrong prayers or aspirations. Those are just my and maybe your agenda items for today and the way ahead. Jesus, however, is chiefly concerned about one thing—one primary act. 

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.”

Jesus wants me and you, and us together, to be completely changed into fire.

You will be my witnesses . . . that's what it means—to become illuminated with a life so transcendently powerful and a love so transformationally potent that we lose sight of our agendas and become caught up in and carried by the Holy Spirit into the very acts of Jesus—on earth as it is in heaven. This is not aspirational, philosophical, or theoretical. This is the real life for which we were made. All these things, our health maintenance and wealth management (or lack thereof) and the problems of our parents and our children, and mental illness and crime and poverty and gun violence and all the things that consume our daily lives—it is as if he is saying, I can handle all of these things if you will just do your one job: Be my witnesses. 

Earlier he put it this way: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33).

Here's what we don't want to hear him say one day: "You had one job." 

PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Abba Father! Lord Jesus! Holy Spirit! 

We are so caught up in so many things. We, like our sister Martha, are worried and upset and anxious about so many things in our lives and world. Lead us to this transformational life of the only necessary thing—our one job–becoming your witnesses. I am weary of being my own witness; of witnessing to you and anyone else who will listen of all my concerns and agendas. I desire the transformation that comes from your life in me which becomes your witness through me. I want to be caught up in you, Jesus, and carried along by your Spirit, who alone can handle all these things. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory. Praying in Jesus's name, amen. 

QUESTIONS

  • Can I get a witness? Or is it just me? Are you seeing the difference between you being your own witness and you becoming Jesus's witness? Are you seeing the difference between you "witnessing" about Jesus and Jesus witnessing through you?

Summer Psalms 2023 - Psalm 139

This weeks devotional is entitled, His Intimate Knowledge of Us: Psalm 139, and is written by Dr. Timothy Tennent. Dr. Tennent serves as the President of Asbury Theological Seminary. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

CONSIDER THIS

In this psalm, David celebrates God’s intimate ­knowledge of us. The opening phrase “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me” summarizes the entire psalm. He knows us when we rise in the morning; he knows us when we go about our daily activities; he knows us when we lie down at night. There is no place to hide from his presence. He is in heaven. He is even with us when we are in the depths of Sheol (the place of the dead). Even if we move and settle on the other side of the world, “even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (v. 10). He even knew us before we were born, knitting us together in our mother’s womb. This psalm is the inspiration for those familiar words in the liturgy known as the Collect for Purity, dating back to the eleventh century: “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid . . .”
We live in a time when life is regarded as a personal commodity. We are told that we are the masters of our own lives and have autonomy over the direction of our lives. This is not the worldview of the Psalms. God’s eyes saw our unformed bodies in the womb (v. 16). Even before we draw our first breath, he has already ordained the very number of days we will live (v. 16). Our lives from inception to the grave belong to him. He alone sets the path of our lives and directs us according to his gracious plan. The fact that we are his creation means that there are certain moral boundaries to the decisions we make regarding our lives. When we feel overwhelmed and think our life is going all wrong, we must remember that he knows so much more than we do: “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand” (vv. 17–18). Life is not a random sequence of days determined simply by chance or even by the feeble choices we make. Ultimately, our lives are in his hands.

When we reflect on God’s intimate knowledge of us, it should bring us both comfort and disruption. On the one hand, it is comforting to know that God knows everything about us, including all our sins, fears, cowardice, and just plain kookiness, and yet still loves us everlastingly. On the other hand, it is disquieting, to say the least, that he knows everything about us, including every inner thought, every impure motive, every jealousy, and so on. This psalm even goes so far as to say that he not only “perceive[s] [our] thoughts” but even “before a word is on [our] tongue[s],” he knows it “completely” (vv. 2, 4). When this psalmist asks, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7) it is both comforting (God is always with me and will never forsake me) and terrifying (I cannot hide from him; his eyes are always upon me).

At times, all of us resist this great truth and want to maintain control of our own lives. We want to determine our own destiny and do it our way. Alternatively, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can hide from God. When this happens, we should turn to the concluding prayer of this psalm: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23–24).

Before we leave this remarkable psalm, we should clarify two rather disturbing verses that appear just before this final prayer. David says, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies” (vv. 21–22). These verses are not about any personal vendetta that David has against his enemies. Rather, he is zealous for the preservation of the glory of God and this is expressed by the word “hatred”—which, as we have noted earlier, means his “standing against” all those who plot and scheme against the rule and reign of God in the world. The New Testament will, of course, redirect this zeal by showing the even greater power of love. In the end, God’s foes are defeated, not through an exercise of power and righteous vehemence, but through kindness, love, and prayer. Jesus’ admonition for us to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44) is, remarkably, not the cancellation or erasure of David’s prayer. Rather, it is the fulfillment of it. It was through Jesus’ own sacrifice, bearing the curses that were deservedly cast upon the wicked, that a “new and living way” is opened up (Heb. 10:20). The way of love is an even more powerful way of standing against evil. The zeal of David in these closing verses is not cancelled by the New Testament, but we are shown a “more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31 ESV) in how that zeal interfaces with those who defy God’s rule.

Summer Psalms 2023 - Psalm 97

This weeks devotional is entitled, God Has Walked Among Us - Psalm 97, and is written by Dr. Timothy Tennent. Dr. Tennent serves as the President of Asbury Theological Seminary. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

PSALM 97 (NIV)

1 The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
    let the distant shores rejoice.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him
    and consumes his foes on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world;
    the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
    before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
    and all peoples see his glory.

7 All who worship images are put to shame,
    those who boast in idols—
    worship him, all you gods!

8 Zion hears and rejoices
    and the villages of Judah are glad
    because of your judgments, Lord.
9 For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
    you are exalted far above all gods.
10 Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
    for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
    and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light shines on the righteous
    and joy on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
    and praise his holy name.

CONSIDER THIS

One of the great doctrines of the Christian faith is the doctrine of the incarnation, Jesus Christ stepping into human history and dwelling among us. The word incarnation means “in the flesh.” It reflects the great truth that God is not simply enthroned in the heavens, but that he has walked among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:17). This psalm recalls the time when God’s presence descended on Mount Sinai. He was surrounded by “clouds and thick darkness” (v. 2). Fire and smoke went up all around him (v. 3) and the “mountains melt[ed] like wax before the Lord” (v. 5; compare the description in Exodus 19:16–19).

The incarnation on that first Christmas wasn’t like this. God came among us in humility, and unlike the tumultuous time on Mount Sinai, we could see him face-to-face. This psalm prepares us for Christ’s second advent, which the New Testament describes with similar language to Psalm 97: “This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels” (2 Thess. 1:7). His first advent was in weakness; his second will be in power. His first advent came in the stillness of a star-filled night; his second will come in a blaze of glory. His first advent was seen by only a few shepherds, but at his second, “every eye will see him” (Rev. 1:7). When he returns, as this psalm declares, all will “see his glory” (Ps. 97:6) and “all who worship images [will be] put to shame” (v. 7).

Summer Psalms 2023 - Psalm 16

This weeks devotional is entitled, His Holy One Did Not See Decay! (Psalm 16), and is written by Dr. Timothy Tennent. Dr. Tennent serves as the President of Asbury Theological Seminary. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

PSALM 16 (NIV)

Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.

I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
I say of the holy people who are in the land,
“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their names on my lips.

LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

CONSIDER THIS

The psalms have always been the prayer book for the people of God. It is, therefore, no surprise that the Book of Psalms is the most quoted book in the New Testament. The psalms not only give voice to the prayers and meditations of God’s people, but they connect us to the whole of biblical revelation. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the first recorded public proclamation of the gospel occurs in Acts chapter 2 when Peter, standing with the other Apostles, addresses the crowd. Only a few weeks earlier, they were in fear behind locked doors. Now, they are publicly declaring the resurrection of Jesus.

In his sermon, Peter quotes Psalm 16:8-11 which gives the promise that God will not “abandon me to the grave” and “you will not let your Holy One see decay.” Peter declares that if the psalm was only referring to a promise made to David, then why were David’s bones in decay and the place of his tomb so well known? (Acts 2:25-32). The answer is that the psalm was speaking prophetically about Jesus Christ who never suffered decay but was raised from the dead on the third day! He is the Risen Lord! He is the “first fruit” of the general resurrection which will someday come to us all.

Because Jesus Christ is risen, not only is his death on the cross vindicated as God’s plan of salvation, but we have the assurance that, in the end, we will also be resurrected from death. Christ’s death and resurrection is what has made known “the path of life” (vs. 11). It is the empty tomb which finally fulfills this psalm, granting us joy in his presence and eternal pleasures at his right hand where Jesus Christ is seated in glory. This is why the entire gospel is summarized in what is known as the great Paschal greeting: “Christ is Risen!” (with the reply) “He is Risen Indeed!”

Summer Psalms 2023 - Psalm 63

This weeks devotional is entitled, Remembering, Even In The Dark: Psalm 63, and is written by Dr. Timothy Tennent. Dr. Tennent serves as the President of Asbury Theological Seminary. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

PSALM 63 (NIV)

1 You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
    and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

6 On my bed I remember you;
    I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
    I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I cling to you;
    your right hand upholds me.

9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
    they will go down to the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the sword
    and become food for jackals.

11 But the king will rejoice in God;
    all who swear by God will glory in him,
    while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

—

Sing this psalm with the Seedbed Psalter today! Visit the resource here.

CONSIDER THIS

A wise person once said that we should never forget in the days of darkness what we have learned in the days of light. This is the lesson of Psalm 63. This psalm was written in one of the most difficult periods of David’s life. David is in exile in the desert. He is in a desert, both physically and spiritually. He has fled from Jerusalem. He cannot experience God’s presence in the temple. The ark of the covenant has been left behind. When David declares that he is in a “dry and weary land where there is no water” (v. 1), it is a statement as much about his spiritual condition as it is his physical one. Yet, in the midst of this difficult time, David remembers God’s faithfulness in the past: “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory” (v. 2). Spiritual amnesia is one of the great problems that beset us during times of trial. We forget God’s past faithfulness. In contrast, David teaches us to remember, to call out upon him even “through the watches of the night” (v. 6), knowing that the same God who was with us in the light will guide us in the days of darkness and trial

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Summer Psalms

This week’s devotional is entitled, What Does The Holy Spirit Do For The Church? and is written by Matt Ayars. Matt Ayars is the author of The Holy Spirit: An Introduction and is a contributing author at Seedbed.com. We hope this devotional encourages your faith.

Many Christians tend to be relatively familiar with what the Holy Spirit does for each individual believer when it comes to applying the work of Christ in our lives (for example, his regenerating and sanctifying work).

But what does the Holy Spirit do for the collective church as a whole? Among many things, the Holy Spirit nourishes the church (Jn. 7:37-39), comforts the church (Jn. 14:25-27), and empowers the church for ministry (Rom. 12).

Above and beyond all of these things, however, the Holy Spirit unites the Church to Christ, and therefore brings the church into the inner life of the Holy Trinity.

The church only exists in restored relationship with the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit, on the merits of Christ’s work, restores what was lost in the fall: divine-human relationship. The restoration of this relationship brings the church into existence. Restored relationship with the Creator constitutes the very being of the church. Just as the Holy Spirit brought Jesus into the world, he also births the church, the body of Christ, into the world.

The Holy Spirit gave birth to the church at Pentecost by bringing the disciples into union with Christ. The Holy Spirit filled each disciple as he did the temple in the Old Testament. This time, however, the temple is the unified body of Christ. In the new covenant, God is not just near but within. Eden, the place of divine-human fellowship and unity, is now in the heart of each believer.

While the Holy Spirit indwells individuals, each is a part of one baptism, worshiping one Lord, making up one temple (Eph. 4:5). Like the inner life of the Trinity, there is a mutual indwelling (perichoresis) among believers with one another, and with Christ. There is no single Christian apart from the rest, and there is no collective apart from the individual. There is unity with distinction, diversity in oneness. Through the church, the body of believers, salvation comes to the individual, never apart from it. The salvation of one always originates in another.

All of this is because in being united with Christ who was united to humanity through the incarnation, humanity is introduced into the inner life of God. That new race in Jesus is the church, and the Holy Spirit is the bond of love that joins them together in unity. There is no church without the Holy Spirit because there no union with Christ without the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, there is no union of Christ with the human nature (i.e., incarnation) without the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit’s activity then extends backward and forward, making possible both the originating work of salvation found in Jesus Christ, as well as its application which went outward from his person into all the world.

We can see then that the work of the Holy Spirit enlivens all of the good and beautiful works that bring God into union with his creation, especially his people.

This is what the Holy Spirit does for the Church.

Words Matter: Witness

This week’s devotional is entitled, Understanding Worship and is written by Richard J. Foster. Foster is a pastor, writer, and the founder of Renovaré. We hope this devotional encourages your faith.

Worship is our human response to God’s divine initiative. 

Think of Isaiah in the splendor of Solomon’s temple, experiencing the astonishing vision of the Lord high and lifted up. The temple is filled with a myriad of angels flying around and calling out to one another, ​“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The foundations of the temple begin to shake and the whole place is filled with heavenly smoke. No wonder Isaiah cries out, ​“Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips: yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”1

Or think of John on the barren island of Patmos ​“in the spirit on the Lord’s day.”2 He hears a booming voice like a trumpet, and he sees seven golden lampstands with the resurrected Jesus in the middle, clothed in a long robe with a golden sash. Jesus’s hair is like a blizzard of white, his eyes like a flame of fire, his feet like furnace-fired bronze, and his voice like the sound of many waters. He holds seven stars in his hand, out of his mouth comes a razor-sharp sword, and his face shines like the blazing sun of noonday. No wonder John ​“fell at his feet as though dead.”3

What an explosion of supernatural sound and color and image and energy! Who wouldn’t fall to the ground in the face of such staggering divine initiatives? 

But most of us must admit that these are not our normal experiences when we shuffle off to our local church. There the drums are too loud, the person next to us sings off-key, and we fight to stay awake through the sermon. Even when we wander into the magnificent granite cathedrals of nature, we struggle, for the sun is too hot and the mosquitoes bite. 

Our efforts at worship certainly seem rather ordinary when compared with Isaiah and John. Perhaps we feel like we are stuck in the outer court when everyone else has gone into the inner court and a select few have entered the holy of holies. Still, we should not despise our seemingly feeble efforts at worship. God is with us. Who knows when the divine initiative may come to fan the coals of our worship into a burning blaze? George Fox counseled, ​“Meet together in the Name of Jesus… he is your prophet, your shepherd, your bishop, your priest, in the midst of you, to open to you, and to sanctify you, and to feed you with life, and to quicken you with life.”4

So whether our worship experience is of the fireworks variety of Isaiah and John or of a more ordinary kind, we can all follow the wise counsel of the apostle Paul: ​“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.”5 Then, in the presence of God the prayer of our hearts can be simply, ​“Set my spirit free, that I may worship Thee.”

Words Matter: Redemption

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men who serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Pastor Nikki Rossiter. As one of CrossView’s online pastors, Pastor Nikki hosts our online services and leads our online prayer group. To join our Thursday evening online prayer group, click here. To share a prayer request, click here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotional. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

Words Matter: Love and the Cross, Part 2

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men who serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Pastor Scott Rossiter. As one of CrossView’s online pastors, Pastor Scott hosts our online services and leads our online prayer group. To join our Thursday evening online prayer group, click here. To share a prayer request, click here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotional. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle