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Thursday, September 23, 2004
It should be getting a bit more familiar to you, but glance over Acts 2: 41--47 again. Just to get the feel of it. And keep in mind we've talked about our unique tribe as well as the different things the early church did that made them unique (see below).
3,000 souls added to the tribe.
The next thing that happened is the church started growing spiritually. They devoted themselves to sound teaching. They hung out together. They ate together. They prayed.
Note the result of this in verse 43: "And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. Verse 44 reads: "And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common..."
Awe.
Merriam-Webster defines it this way: "an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime."
In my world, a football team can be awesome. So can a plate of spaghetti. A girl. Parents or teachers. I don't think we really get the meaning behind the word, though.
But their emotions were on edge. God was at work in their midst. They saw it. They were watching people of "a perverse generation" saved by grace, feeding on the Word of God, and they are literally struck with awe.
I think we lost that sometimes. We get in our Christian bubble and we read the Word, we get used to growth in ourselves as well as in those around us, the sacraments don't seem so sacred in plastic cups, and we ho-hum answers to prayer requests.
In the words of Ian Thomas, "We forget to remember."
We forget the saving work of God in our lives.
We forget where we were in the past and the work He is doing currently, not to mention the glorious promises regarding what we will be in the future (for you theology fans, when our sanctification is completed).
We forget the wonderful reminder of hope and unity and faith that, say, the Lord's Supper truly is (even if we use Nabisco crackers and plastic cups). And to think that every time we do that, Jesus is abstaining from it, waiting until He drinks it with us in The Kingdom. And He will, too.
We spend so much time with Christians that when people inform us about that college acceptance letter that confirms to us where God wants us, or when someone gets a better grade in the class, or didn't drink at the party for the first time in a year, or their parents started listening to them, or the dad that is recovering from surgery quite nicely, or...you get the idea. We have a tendency to "ho-hum" those acts of God we ought to
be...
awed...
by.
So, today...take some time. Slow down. Be sensitive to what God is doing in, around and through you today. No mind vitamin for that, but you can journal if you decide to fill up the page with stuff that God is doing in, around or through you.
But I heard a speaker at a youth conference say one time: "Conference halls make me go 'hmmmm.' Drawing close to God makes me go 'WHOA!'"
We need more "whoa" in our lives, don't you think?
Brent 4:04 AM
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