The One Who Went

The front end of the 8th chapter of Acts records a great revival in Samaria.  No Apostle or highly paid evangelist from another city led this movement of the Spirit.  Instead, one of the Hellenistic helpers named Philip was the lead evangelist.  The language of the record tells us it was a Pentecost like revival which broke out in that place.  :The two (Peter and John) went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit...they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit."  (Acts 8:15-17)  Jesus centered preaching and miracles were a part of this mighty work of the Spirit. 

 

 And midst it all the Word says, "Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.'  ( This is a wilderness road.)"  (Acts 8:26)  Had I been Philip, I would have paused.  No, I would not have paused.  I would have said, "Wait a minute, I am needed here."  I would not have wanted to leave a powerful revival where everyone knew my name for the wilderness and all its emptiness.  But, I was not there.  Philip was there and the Word says about his response, "So he got up and went."  (Acts 8:27)  Without blinking an eye or looking back with regret, he went.  Not later. Now. Immediately.

Obedience is what possessed Philip and pushed him away from the crowd to the wilderness.  He was not one who was interested in doing his own thing, but doing the thing that God wanted Him to do.  Even when it seemed to be taking him from a place where he thought of himself as being more useful, he still chose obedience.  Obedience is never about self choice or convenience, but God.  One of the reasons so many of us struggle with obedience is because we are still claiming a right to ourselves.  Philip belonged to God and God's purposes which is where we are called to live.

The Untrustworthy Ones

The church and Holy Spirit no longer mix.  It is not the fault of the Spirit.  The church is distrusting of anything that seems to undermine its control.  The church is about long term strategic planning, financially sound practices, and setting goals.  When the Holy Spirit breaks loose it is often at the expense of these things so treasured by the control conscious institutional church.  Who knows?  People may get carried away into some kind of spiritual experience which is not kosher or theologically correct.  Whatever happens within the church must happen within its prescribed practices and disciplines.

 

The Spirit must surely feel like an outsider in many of the places where the church seeks to be the church.  Shortly after Pentecost a revival broke out in Samaria and the one in charge was not an Apostle, but a Hellenist named Philip.  So the church in Jerusalem sent two of their own to check it out.  (Acts 8:14)  A little later a similar thing happened in Antioch and the leaders were some unknowns from Cyprus and Cyrene.  Great numbers were becoming believers so the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas. (Acts 11:22)  Organized religion has always felt threatened by those are used by God in a way that seems to undermine its control.

 

Control and power.  When these things are threatened, the church often reacts in extreme measures.  The cross is one response organized religion has made to its power being threatened.  Religious power brokers could not tolerate Jesus.  Today, it is more subtle.  Those who would choose to trust the Spirit instead of the things which empower the institutional church are often viewed with a kind of skepticism which discredits their integrity.  The Spirit trusters end up being not trustworthy.  When the church gives the Holy Spirit so little room to work, there can only be trouble which speaks volumes to the state of the church today. 

A Little Place

As I think back over the years of preaching, I remember a lot of different churches of different sizes in so many different locations.  While I did not always perceive it as clearly as I do now, each one had a unique place in shaping my spiritual journey.  Today as I saw the obituary notice of one who sat in the pews at my first preaching place and was a long time Sunday School leader, I found myself thinking about that small country church so far back in the woods you had to know where it was to find it.  It was called Zoar which literally means "a little place" and it was.

 

It was a little place compared to some of the other churches I have served, but none blessed me as this one did.  I went to it while still in seminary. I thought I knew more than I did know.  I was the spiritual novice in that place for it was filled with many a soul far more under the influence of the Holy Spirit than their preacher.  They were a patient and encouraging bunch when it came to my preaching.  But, the thing I remember most is their praying.  I have never been anywhere as a preacher where so many prayed for me.  I have often thought over the years that it would be a good thing for every young preacher to go to a "Zoar" and know what it is to be a part of a church that really takes praying for the preacher seriously. 

 

Today I gave thanks for this man who spend time praying for me.  He is now truly a part of that great cloud of heavenly witnesses.  He will be missed and always loved.  The effects of his praying will go on and on.  No doubt he prayed for those he loved with more fervency than he prayed for his preacher.  Those who pray for us leave with us a legacy that is eternal. 

Asbury Revival 1970

There are several days which I count as formative in the beginning of my journey toward God.  The first was December 19, 1955.  It was the day my father died.  I was seven years old and on that day I started looking toward heaven.  Two years later I was baptized in Waycross, Ga. by a pastor who would later marry my mother.  Just before I turned 18 years of age I gave my life to Jesus and heard a call to preach.  Some six months later as a member of a lay witness team in Blue Ridge, Ga. I said "yes" to that call to preach.  And, then on February 3, 1970 the Holy Spirit blessed Asbury College with a powerful overwhelming revival.  I was blessed to be present that morning when it started.

 

The Asbury Revival became more than just a memory.  It was a moment in my spiritual journey which brought me to a place of wanting to give my whole life to God.  It was a moment in which the Holy Spirit worked to create in me a hunger for God which has always driven me forward; yet, which has never been satisfied.  This is not to say this life I have lived has been without the same sins and distractions with which we all struggle, but it is to say a hunger and thirst for God started growing in me that day that has been unshakable.

 

There have been those moments which I have sought to put what happened to me on February 3rd at Asbury College in some kind of neat theological box.  I have never been able to really wrap it up.  It was powerful and life changing in the moment and it brought me to an awareness that we ought to expect the powerful and the life changing work of the Holy Spirit to always be unfolding before us.  I have not always understood what it means to live under the control and authority of the Holy Spirit, but since that day I have been one who has been pressing toward that goal even though it always seems to be somewhere beyond attainable.  

The Unasked Question

"...live in love, as Christ loved us."  (Ephesians 5:1)  Sounds simple enough.  Here is a word which is not difficult to understand.   But, then, we are not sure we want to live our life by such a high standard.  If we did our friendships would not go bankrupt and our marriages would not go bust.  To look at the way Christ loves us is to see a love which goes beyond anything most of us have ever really practiced.  From time to time we may rise to heights which surprise us, but most of the time we live too much in that world which seeks to serve self.

 

Christ had nothing to do with serving self.  He gave up all rights to Himself when He made the journey from heaven to Bethlehem.  "...though He was in the form of God, (He) did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness..." (Philippians 4:6-7)  But, the emptying out of Himself for us did not stop with the moment of birth.  To continue reading that same section is to encounter a Word from God which says, "...(He) became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross."  (Philippians 4:8)  Nothing was more important to Christ than living in love and dying in love for the likes of me and you.

 

He asked for no response guarantees before He acted.  What He did He did because of the love which motivated Him.  He did what He did not for just a few, but for everyone regardless of their attitude toward Him and despite the things which were wrong about their lives.  To much of our loving brings us to the question, "What's in it for me?"  It is a question Christ never has asked and never will ask.  And, if we are serious about living in love as Christ loves us, we will never ask it either. 

More Than Imitation

I confess to being a cow watcher.  Here on the farm it is often our evening entertainment.  Parking the truck at the fence and watching is what we do around these parts in the final twilight moments of the day.  The young calves make it even more interesting.  Not being weighted to the ground with eight  hundred pounds and a few years enables them to run and frolic with feet kicking high in the air.  The calves are like children.  They learn how to be calves by imitating the older cows who share the pasture with them.  It is no different with two legged children who walk among us.

 

In Ephesians 5:1 the Word of God says, "Therefore be imitators  of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us..."  It is both striking and interesting that the Apostle would write about being imitators with one stroke and being children with the next.  Could it be that even as calves learn to be cows by imitation, so do we learn how to live through imitation.  When the Son came into the world through Bethlehem and lived among us, he gave us a life to model and imitate. 

 

Of course, imitation alone is not enough.  Most of us can remember a time in the early days of our spiritual journey when it seemed possible to simply grab hold of our life and make it after the example of Jesus.  As we walked a few steps down that road of faith, we soon learned that being Christ-like is not something we can manufacture out of human determination.  Oh, it can be done.  We can be shaped into the image of the heart of Christ from within, but it means putting our life completely in the hands of the Holy Spirit.  He is the One who can do with us what we cannot do for ourselves.  He can shape us from within in such a way that the spirit and heart of Christ begins to show through us. 

No Wiggle Room

When it comes to forgiving others, most of us wish the Word gave us a little more wiggle room.  Actually, when it comes to forgiveness, we have absolutely no wiggle room.  We may exercise some discretion about who is going to be the recipient of our forgiveness, but discretionary powers do not really belong to anyone who is serious about walking the way Jesus calls us to walk.  There is a Word the Apostle Paul was inspired by the Spirit to write which says to us, ", "...be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you."  (Ephesians 4:32).  No wiggle room there.  We are to forgive as Christ forgives.  And, in that prayer we pray there is a Word which says, " ...forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors."  (Matthew 6:12)  No wiggle room there.

 

What we like to do is pick and choose.  We like to forgive those who according to our perspective are worthy of being forgiven.  We are ready to forgive some of those who act and speak out the words of regret and sorrow for their offensive behavior directed toward us, but we are not always ready to forgive them just because it is what Christ calls us to do.  The hard truth is that none of us in our right mind want God to forgive according to our meriting that forgiveness.  We would much rather fall on mercy than merit when it comes to being forgiving.

 

The Word points toward forgiveness coming to us according to the measure we are willing to forgive.  And while God will even forgive us for not being forgiving to others, who among us wants to live in a way which is known to be displeasing to Him?  The hard way is the way of the cross.  The cross was a means of offering forgiveness according to mercy and not merit.  It is how Jesus would expect any follower of the way of cross to live....even me and you.