Scripture Passage
Scripture Focus
You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years. I fear for you. (Galatians 4:10-11 NLT)
Observation
I read recently about a young actress who made boatloads of money in a series of popular movies. The thing is, she didn’t know it. While her wealth accumulated, her parents had kept her on a strict allowance of $75 a week. (Yeah, I know, $75 a week doesn’t sound too restrictive to me, either…but it’s all relative, right?) In recent days, however, the actress celebrated a key birthday and learned the details of what she possessed. She'd been completely unaware and was utterly beside herself with amazement at what was hers.
Her story parallels ours. The Apostle Paul says, “That’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. …Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.” (Galatians 4:3-5, 7 NLT)
The trouble is (and this is the reason Paul writes Galatians), we forget our favored status as children of God…and we forget how we received it—God’s grace! We too easily go back to attempting to “earn our place”. We miss the freedoms, privileges, and blessings that are ours simply because of who Christ is to us and what He has done for us!
“Why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years.” (Galatians 4:9-10 NLT)
It may not be the observance of certain days, months, seasons, or years by which we hope to gain God's favor (or it may!), but God’s favor is always His gift through Jesus Christ, never something I earn. Anytime culture, religion, or Satan himself suggests otherwise, Galatians stands against the lie.
None of this diminishes the significance of my actions (cf. Galatians 5:13). Rather, it changes the basis for my behavior. Instead of earning my favor with God through righteous living, I simply reflect through my life the relationship of favor that already exists. “So help me today, God, to live a life that reflects the grace and favor you’ve given me in Jesus Christ!”
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Scripture Passage
(Get it? "Receiver?")
Scripture Focus
Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. …After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
…I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. (Galatians 3:2-5 NLT)
Observation
My journaling was delayed this morning—perhaps providentially—because I’ve just read an article by Leonard Sweet on what he calls a “theology of receiving.” Sweet suggests that the modern church has it all wrong with regard to finances—that the question is not “What should I give?” but rather “What have I received?” That only after we’ve recognized God’s generosity and our privileged place as receivers will we truly be able to understand our role as “trustees of God’s resources” rather than “givers” from what we have (own). (Sweet does a much better job of articulating his position himself, of course. You can read it for yourself here.)
What’s that got to do with Galatians 3:2-5? Just this: Americans—at least, those from my Baby Boomer generation—are all about production…about what we have done and what we can do. We love to compare this month to last, and then this year to last…to compare our country to others, and my church to yours, and on and on it goes…all of it (ultimately) so that we can see what we’ve achieved.
I’m that way, at least. I want to grow the biggest church in Kansas. And since that likely won’t happen in Meriden (even if you include Ozawkie, Hoyt, Valley Falls, and Oskaloosa), I want to grow the biggest church in Jefferson County, then…or the biggest church among similar-sized communities in Kansas…or at least the biggest Assemblies of God church among Assemblies of God churches in similar-sized communities.
I make the list narrower and narrower until I can identify some level of achievement on my part that exceeds somebody else’s…until I can celebrate my performance as exemplary!
The point of Galatians 3:2-5 is that it just doesn’t work that way with God. He doesn’t get impressed when I come before Him with my list of achievements…with my “t’s” crossed and “i's” dotted and my forms all properly filled out. His heart is moved when I come before Him in faith—just like I did the first day we met…the first time I cried out, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13 KJV). That’s how I received to start with…and how I’ll receive today.
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Scripture Passage
Scripture Focus
Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon (called “the black man”), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. (Acts 8:6 NLT)
Observation
Antioch of Syria, I think, deserves more attention as a significant New Testament city than I’ve usually given it. I’ve often said that one purpose of the book of Acts is to trace the transition of the early church from Jerusalem-centered to Rome-centered and from Jewish-dominated to Gentile-dominated. I’m appreciating, today, the role of Antioch as a pivot point from one status to the other.
Part of the reason for Antioch’s importance has to be the strength of church leadership at Antioch. Acts 8:6 says that “among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch”…were Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul. The key word is "among". Even those great men were not the whole leadership team!
I heard someone recently make the point that a committee or congregation never led a church—that it takes a person…an individual…to step up to the plate and lead. I agree. At the same time (as Acts 8:6 reminds me), it takes a great team to carry out a great vision. A coach can plan, teach, and inspire but it takes a team to implement the game plan. Antioch, it seems to me, had a great team.
I write as a guy with a lot to learn about leadership—not just about leadership generically, but especially about the nuances of leadership—of *letting* others share leadership, of *motivating* still others to take responsibility and lead, of effectively sharing the dreaming, the planning, and the execution with others. But I do know that the best and most significant work gets accomplished in partnership with others. Look at the church in Antioch—with a team of great leaders they launched the greatest missionary journeys in all the New Testament. “Lord, help me to lead…a team!”
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Scripture Passage
Scripture Focus
When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. (Acts 11:18 NLT)
Observation
What openness to the Holy Spirit and to things new and changing!
Today’s reading opens with Cornelius, a God-fearing Gentile and Roman army officer, whose “prayers and gifts to the poor” (Acts 10:4 NLT) have been honored with God's response. In a vision, an angel of God directs Cornelius to send for “a man named Simon Peter…[who] is staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore [in Joppa].” (Acts 10:5-6 NLT)
The next day, while the men sent by Cornelius are nearing Joppa, God speaks to Peter. In a prayer-induced trance, Peter sees a vision of a sheet full of all sorts of animals and hears a voice giving clear instructions: “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.” (Acts 10:13 NLT) Peter protests because to obey would violate the dietary restrictions of Israel’s covenant with God, and—though certainly saved by the grace of God—Peter’s never done that. He’s continued to observe all the practices of an orthodox Jew. But the voice speaks again—“Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” (Acts 10:15 NLT)
God’s timing is always perfect, and at that moment the men from Cornelius’ house arrive. Peter returns to Caesarea with them, bears witness to Christ before a Gentile audience, and they are all—even as Peter is still speaking—saved and filled with the Holy Spirit just as Peter and his fellow Jews were on the day of Pentecost!
Wow! It’s hard to imagine how this must have rocked Peter’s world. In spite of numerous Biblical prophecies regarding a Messiah who would bless all the nations of the world, it appears to have never occurred to these Jewish believers that God would redeem and fill Gentiles with the Holy Spirit just as He had done for them.
Still, to their credit, when what had happened was reported to the leaders at Jerusalem, “they stopped objecting and began praising God.” (Acts 11:18 NLT) That’s really what I love today. They stopped objecting and began praising God.
I have a friend who’s both a father to a young son and a sheriff’s deputy. Tongue-in-cheek and as only an officer of the law can, he’ll sometimes correct his child’s slow obedience by declaring, “Stop resisting!” I think I hear the Lord’s loving challenge in a similar way to me today—“Stop objecting (to whatever God’s doing that doesn’t fit your paradigm, Kent) and (instead) begin praising God!”
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Scripture Passage
Scripture Focus
Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. (Acts 8:6 NLT)
Observation
Philip, it seems to me, was just your average Joe—or, at least, just your average Philip. Nothing of what we know about Philip suggests he was particularly educated or wealthy or popular or…anything, really, except available. He had not been personally disciple by Jesus—this was not the Philip among Jesus’ twelve disciples. Rather, we’re introduced to Philip as one of the seven men selected in Acts 6 to solve the challenges of equitable food distribution among the widows. In that regard, about all we know of Philip is that he was “full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3 NLT). Oh, yeah—and from Acts 6 we also know he was willing to take on specific and challenging responsibilities in order to see God’s Kingdom advance. I suspect that’s significant.
But when Stephen is martyred and persecution breaks out against the whole church, it’s Philip’s story the New Testament picks up on. You’d have to work pretty hard to convince me his story is especially unique—Acts 8:4-5 describes the believers (all of them, apparently) preaching the good news about Jesus wherever they went, and then cites Philip specifically only as an example. But what an example!
Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:5-8 NLT)
Here’s the deal. This was Philip—just an ordinary guy—being used mightily of God in miraculous ways to advance God’s heavenly kingdom on earth. These miracles were not just isolated events, but expressions of God’s eternal Kingdom (the kingdom Jesus announced was “at hand”) invading time—the “stuff” of heaven invading the now! (When people are healed and delivered, God’s Kingdom comes on earth as it always exists in heaven, and the prayer Jesus taught us to pray is answered.) This, I’m convinced, is God’s ongoing intention for the people who bear His Name—to continue to do "everything Jesus began to do and teach" (Acts 1:1 NLT).
Which means the story of Philip’s faith is an indictment of my faith, and of Christian faith generally (at least, within the U.S., to be sure). Though I’ve seen the miraculous happen, and specific prayers clearly answered, I’m convinced God’s intention is to “show up” more consistently and more powerfully through His people. And so I pray…
LORD, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
(Habakkuk 3:2 NIV)
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Scripture Passage
Scripture Focus
“You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit?” (Acts 7:51 NLT)
Observation
I confess—I laughed out loud as Stephen began his defense in Acts 7:2. (Maybe you won’t think it’s funny, but…) Stephen is accused of “always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses.” When asked, “Are these accusations true?” Stephen reaches clear back to Abraham in Mesopotamia to begin his lengthy defense! Can you not imagine the Sanhedrin, eyes rolling back in their heads, thinking to themselves, “A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ would do!”
The beauty of Stephen’s response, however, is that he’s able to show how persistently the descendents of Abraham had resisted God’s voice. Most powerfully, Stephen argues that the Jews resisted Moses’ leadership—someone the Jews, of course, thought they had revered and followed! I noticed particularly, today, references to their rejection of Moses that certainly would have left the Sanhedrin recalling their rejection of Jesus. For example…
“Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t.” (Acts 7:25 NLT)
“But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside. ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. (Acts 7:27 NLT)
“So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’” (Acts 7:35 NLT) (Perhaps a subtle reference to Christ’s return?)
Bottom line, Stephen insists that the rejection of God’s voice has been standard operating procedure for Israel from day one. “Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered” (Acts 7:52 NLT). And his challenge to the Sanhedrin serves to challenge me.
Do I think that I resist the Holy Spirit as these men did? No—I don’t *think* so…but that’s the difficulty, isn’t it? Those dirty dogs in the Sanhedrin had their blind spots—and so do I! “Savior, help me to not resist—ever or in any way—your Holy Spirit!”
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Scripture Passage
Scripture Focus
When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God… (Acts 4:24 NLT)
Observation
As a result of the healing of the lame man and the ensuing gospel proclamation in Acts 3, Peter and John are called before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4 and “commanded…never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18 NLT). Their response is the right one—“Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19 NLT), but a commitment like that requires supernatural reinforcement. So “as soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said” (Acts 4:23 NLT). Here’s where we get to the good stuff—Acts 4:24…
When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God… (Acts 4:24 NLT)
Using Scripture (Psalm 2) as a starting point, the believers prayed till they’d “touched heaven” (that’s what the old-timers call it). And their time together produced a powerful result. “The meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31 NLT).
This kind of prayer—passionate, vocal, corporate, Scripture-based—was commonplace in the church of my childhood. There were moments in every service when the whole congregation prayed aloud together, each person voicing his or her own prayer audibly to the Lord while everyone else did the same. The same concerns were shared in common by all (remember “prayer request” time?), but the prayers were individually articulated. And all I know to tell you (assuming you’ve never experienced it for yourself) is that there was significant spiritual power evident in those times of prayer. This kind of passionate, united praying is a “lost art” in today’s privatized, individualized faith-culture, but it “shook the heavens” in those days—and I’m convinced it retains the same potential today.
What’s that got to do with a “private” devotional time? Just this: Reading Acts 4:24 (and the verses that surround it) strengthens my commitment to pray with others in exactly the way I’ve described—and to encourage passionate corporate prayer in every way I possibly can. I'm convinced that, more than ever before, a privatized culture demands a unified church.
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