Persecution

In this chapter we begin to see great persecution, the church was being scattered but everywhere they went they continued to preach the gospel, and people continued to respond.

I wonder to myself. Had persecution not have come would the early church become complacent? Would the gospel have spread as fast. It seems like persecution in the early church was a piece of the spreading of the gospel, because the church was scattered.

Peace and prosperity seem to put the church in idle. I think some of what is getting the church back in motion today is seeing the injustice around the world. Where there is no peace and prosparity, and being called of God to do something about it.

Stephen

Acts 7, Stephen is on trail because people stirred up the crowd, saying that he was going against Moses and God. Stephen tells the story from his perspective from Abraham (Gen. 12 all the way through Solomon, and the temple). My friend Justin has a post about knowing the story that drives your life. We Stephen knew well God's story and how he fits in.

Acts 7 is his telling of it. Towards the end of his speach he goes off on the Sanhedrin, calling them stiff-necked people always resisting the work of God. Stephen saw heaven open, was stoned and goes out in the spirit of Jesus saying, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

Stephen inspires me, to more deeply understand my place in God's story, and to have boldness and follow Jesus in all things.

What a Blessing

So yesterday (my day off) was one of the best day's that I have add in ministry at the Grace Place (my church). I took a group of over 30 people from my church to Bridge Town Ministries to minister to the homeless in Portland. The ministry involved eating with them, hair cuts, foot washing, shaving station, clothing distrabution, and pretty much just hanging out and showing God's love through our lives.

Several things meant so much to me, and had a big impact on me:
1) we did this as a multigenerational church. Kids from elementry students, youth, college age, young married, young familes, parents with teens, through seniors. We had every stage of life represented in our goup.
2) watching a senior citizen from our church kneel down to wash the feet of homeless people.
3) watching one of our elders who I have sat in countless board meetings with, kneel down to wash the feet of the homeless.
4) watching one of the other pastors at our church giving some pretty sweet hair cut to those who really needed it.
5) Having the oppurtunity to pray with those who truly need prayer.
6) Ministering this way with the people I worship with. Somebody wispered to me as we were leaving the parking area under the burnside bridge, "We just did church." I could not agree more.
7) To have this type of experience not thousands of miles away on a mission trip where you will never see the people again, but right here in our home town, where they can go back this next Friday. (and I know many of them will.)

My heart is full, and I praise God for what he is doing in my church.

Full of the Holy Spirit

In Acts 6 it describes Stephen as a man full of the Holy Spirit. It seems that different people are "more" full of the Holy Spirit than others. At least by reading this passage. I wonder to myself if God just chose some to be more full that others, or if it is a result of seeking God. Was Stephen just more diligent in seeking God. I guess this is an age old question . . . but I wonder.

A quick reflection

I thought I would post a quick reflection on my journey so far in reading through the Gospels asking the question, "What is the Gospel, what is the Kingdom of God?"
Here's my thoughts.
1) Defining the gospel/Kingdom has little value.
2) Understanding the Gospel/Kingdom is the important first step.
3) Living/communicating the gospel is the goal.

So in my journey, I am going to stop trying to define it, because definitions don't create understanding. I am going to see to enter into the story, and apply my understanding to my context.

Back to Acts tomorrow.

The Holy Spirit

As I read Acts 6, the thought dawned on me. No wonder Jesus had them wait for the Holy Spirit to come before he sent them out in ministry. Because there is no way that they could do the things they were doing with out the Spirit of God. To the early church it was obvious that the spirit of God was the one directing, guiding, and doing the work. They were just vessels being used. Without the Spirit they would not have got very far.

It makes me think. How dependant are we on the Spirit of God in our lives. Do we even know that he is there? Is it hard to tell the difference between us just doing a good job on our own power, or God really speaking through us in the power of the Holy Spirit. It seems like my denomination that tense to shy away from talking about the Holy Spirit, has lost something huge . . . the power of God manifest in our lives.

I guess a journey to know God, means not only pursuing Jesus, and trying to become more like him, but trying to understand and seek after the Spirit of God as well. Thoughts?

Acts 4 -- conviction

Peter and John have their first real test where the Sanhedrin tell them to stop speaking about Jesus. Their response, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and hear."

I am impressed by their boldness, covniction, and that these men just a few years ago where fisherman, untrained in the scriptures, or in speaking. But the Spirit's work in them changed everything.

The Kingdom of Heaven, and the person of Jesus, got into their hearts.

Oh Crap?! (literally)

So I did something I have never done before! For 4 years my wife has been wanting a dog. About 3:00 pm today I had a moment of weakness and said YES! WOW! My whole life I have been a cat person, and I guess starting today, I am now a dog person! Anyway, we got a great deal on it (which was the reason for my moment of weakness). It is half lab, half great peraneze (sp?) and she doesn't have a name yet (only 8 weeks old). So if you have any name suggestions feel free to let me know.

Most Recent Sermon

I just put up my most recent sermon on my sermons page. It's call Joining God's Story. I preached it the day before we went on vacation. Here it is.

Acts 3 -- Captive Audience

Back to blogging through the gospels/acts . . .
In Acts 3 as Peter presents the Gospel (in this stituation it is again an explaination of who Jesus was, that the prophets had fortold, that you killed him, God raised him up, repent and turn to God) he does so to a captive audience.

God had just healed a man (through Peter) and the people were astonished. Peter's explanation is really the gospel presentation. As I read this chapter it made me think of where Jesus spoke of not casting pearls to pigs . . . a mediphor for not throwing the beauty of the Gospel to those who have no heart for it and would trample it.

As I think about being a good steward of the Gospel, I think part of that is not only how you show the gospel, how you speak the gospel, but also when and to whom you share the gospel. The more we love the gospel, the more beautiful we see it, the more we understand it, the more we will share it in compelling ways, and guard it's beauty and integrity.

4th Anniversary -- Maui . . .

So for our fourth anniversary we decided to go to Maui! We hooked up with my Dad and Mom who also just happened to be going to Maui for their 27th(?) anniversary. I have never been one for scrap booking, but now that I have a blog, I guess I will be doing a type of scrap booking with our trip so you can come into our living room, and see the highlights.



My Dad and Mom.
Here is where we stayed.

The day of our Anniversary

On the day of our anniversary we took a snorkel boat trip. It was very windy but we had a great time, and got to see some humped back whales.


That night we ate at Sarento's . . . here are some pictures from our table. Very nice resturant. The wine list was an actual book including a couple of bottles of wine that will cost you over $2100!

Trip to Hana and Back

Picture of Maui's North Shore!


We saw lots of beautiful ponds and water falls!


This picture I took from the top of a water fall that was dry. I was right out on the lip of the fall, and the view was amazing. This picture really doesn't do it justice.


A wise old tree.

We hiked through a bamboo forest.

Still on the Hana Trail

When the wind blew through the bamboo forest it sounded like wind chimes.


Water fall at the end of the hike.

Morning Walks

Every morning we would take a walk. One of the trails we liked followed the Ocean down in Wailea.

Wailea beach. I did a lot of snorkling there. I even caught a wave for Brian on a buggie board.

Other pics

Picture of the olivine pools, you can dive and swim in a pool of water created by the lava flow. The scenercy of the ocean around you as you swim is breath taking.



Sunset from our room.

Golfed the Emerald course at Wailea

OJ, this is for you! Here is a few pictures of the most beautiful golf course I have ever played. In the golf carts, they have a GPS system that has a map of the hole you are on, shows where your cart is on the hole, and tells you exactly how many yards to the pin. The problem was it was very windy, and all that technology didn't seem to help my game.

Last night

After our golf game we ate dinner at the at the club house. It was incredible, and the sunset was wonderful. You can see Lynsey's food here. She is holding up the knife because of a story about Lynsey's mom at Clancey's . . . you will have to ask her about it sometime.


Sunset at dinner

A flower (duh.)

And me.
It was truly hard to come back to 40 degrees from 80 degrees. I think I might look into the mission field in Hawaii!

I'll be back . . .

This coming week Lynsey and I are celebrating our 4 anniversary together, so we are going on vacation for about a week and half! I always look forward to our anniversary every year as we take time to celebrate our marriage. I am not planning on blogging at all on our vacation so I can be fully present . . . it will probably be a while until my next post, but hang tight as I am excited about going through Acts together, and I can't wait to get back on again.

Enjoy the rain and hard work everyone, I am out of here!

The Gospel -- Acts 2

So the Holy Spirit came, and Peter stands up to preach the Gospel. Just some quick observations.

1) He is talking to an audience who is very familiar with Jesus. Jesus' lived among them, in fact these where people who participated in Jesus death.
2) So naturally Peters message focus on Jesus' resurrection and that he is the Christ. The perfect gospel message for the people he was talking to.
3) He spoke to their hearts, he captured them, and they ask "What must we do?"
4) Only then did Peter say repent and believe.

It seems to me that to often Christians go around with the message repent and believe, but there is actually no context or good news presented, so it seems like those people just end up beating up others. Trying to push their agenda. The more we understand the Gospel and are able to adapt it to the culture we are in, the more fruitful we will be.

I really like this chapter because the people asked "What must we do?" before Peter told them. It's seems like that is something to aspire to in sharing your faith. Present the Gospel in a way that you get some form of "What must we do?" And you have an open door to respond.