I can’t help but pick up on the 40 year old man again. I believe we are supposed to make some connections here to the 40 years of wilderness wandering.
In the Gospels we see Jesus feeding the 5000 in the wilderness. Over and over Jesus turns wilderness/deserts into fruitful land. This 40 year old fruitless man was made fruitful.
This is the theme of Psalm 107 (and indeed the whole Bible). He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. – Psalm 107:35
The Lord does this for a purpose. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, *in order that we may bear fruit for God. – Romans 7:4.
Can you see visible fruit in Acts 4? Can you see visible fruit in those around you who claim to believe in Jesus? How about in your own life?
Take that section in Acts 4:23-31. Are you a good friend? Are you there for your brothers and sisters? Do you listen? Do you lift up your voice with them? Do you pray for the continued speaking of the gospel?
I believe there’s some imagery to see in this amazing chapter!
As you might be aware, the man was not allowed inside the temple because of he was cripple. In fact, he needed someone to bring him to the gate daily in order to ask for alms.
All he could do was behold from a distance. He could not get to God, if I may push the imagery here.
However, there is a way to God! We see Peter and John crossing paths with this man and they carry with them the keys to the gate!
A theme is emerging in Acts in that even though Jesus has ascended to heaven he is ruling the Kingdom. The Apostles offer healing to this crippled man *in the name of Jesus. (They asked Jesus who should replace Judas). Now the disciples are advancing the Kingdom under the reign of King Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit!
The man receives the gift and guess what happens? He ENTERED the temple—the Presence of God! And his entrance was that of praise! Sounds like Psalm 100:4…Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
I would suggest that his story is our story if we have faith in The Way…The Gate! We too should rejoice, for now his presence is with us always! We have no need to go to the temple. The Spirit dwells in us!
Take note of people in whom you cross paths with today. May we beggars tell other beggars where to find the Bread (of Life).
The setting is Pentecost which is a celebration to God for the harvest! It is fifty days after Passover.
You might say on this particular Passover the Seed (of David) was planted in the soil and due to the implications of that, a new harvest will come.
Indeed, the promised Holy Spirit comes! Eden is being restored for now the Presence of God is restored. God can remain with His people because the ransom had been paid!
Therefore, those who received the gift of the Holy Spirit took the Presence of God into Jerusalem that day! You might think the miraculous gift of speaking in other tongues would be enough to convince others to believe but it’s not. Another miracle must take place.
Peter preaches Christ and calls them to repentance and faith. And guess what happens? A harvest of souls is gathered on Pentecost!
So what? If you are trusting and treasuring Christ you have the same Holy Spirit/ Presence of God. One of the primary results of the indwelling Spirit is the forth-telling of God’s Word and the gospel.
We are His witnesses of grace! He has given us the Spirit. The resurrection is certain (don’t worry about what might happen to you…not a hair of your head will perish).
Tell someone about God’s amazing grace today. You never know, a harvest may come. We are just farmers who sow seed and wait for God to give the harvest.
There have been two words in this opening paragraph that I have lingered over for some time! They are “began” and “after.”
1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus *began to do and teach,
2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
3 He presented himself alive to them *after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. – Acts 1:1-3
“Began” most certainly means that God’s Kingdom will advance and continue. And the means of advancement is to do and teach-discipleship!
And most certainly, this would not have happened had not Jesus been raised! The contrast between the disciples in Luke and Acts can only be attributed to the truth and effects of the resurrection.
Had not it been true, these men would have continued fishing. They would have never risked their lives for a dead Jesus!
May the Kingdom advance through us as we risk, do, and teach! “May the Lamb receive the reward of his suffering!”
Cultural Christians must love this song for it is a Christianity without Christ. What he loves about Sunday has nothing to do with Jesus. At best he is assumed and altogether left out of this song. This song is false.
Let me be clear, if Jesus is not what you love about Sunday (indeed everyday) then you are NOT a Christian.
There are moments in reading the Scriptures that something grabs my attention. Time does not always allow for digging deeper but when I do it is always beneficial. I would also add that the extra time spent soaking in a particular text doesn’t have to take that long. Even brief meditation makes a difference. That was the case this morn!
As I read through the Bible each year, I use that time to wash me with the Word while I am also doing sermon prep on a particular text to which I am giving much attention. I am in the beloved Psalm 119 right now and it us full of “wonderful things” to quote verse 18.
This morning verse 17 struck me wrong because of my culture and how words are taken. Let me quote the text: Psalm 119:17 Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word.” I thought there’s something wrong with this translation so I checked the Hebrew in BibleWorks along with other translations.
I thought something was wrong because what I heard commanded in this verse was give me lots of stuff…deal bountifully with your servant! I asked myself how that would help me do what was supposed to result from the bounty, namely, “that I may live and keep your word.” I could only think of how the bounty would keep me from obeying the word.
As I dug into that command, the optional nuances were striking. Initially, I began to get of feel for why they chose “deal bountifully” because the word means to ripen. As I considered how “ripen” would fit I could see how that idea would cause me to live and keep his word.
But as I thought about the ripening of fruit it struck me that that was on the end of its life. Then I noticed the most frequent use of the word was to wean, which is at the beginning of life. I needed to familiarize myself with the definition of wean, which means:
accustom (an infant or other young mammal) to food other than its mother’s milk.
accustom (someone) to managing without something on which they have become dependent or of which they have become excessively fond.
be strongly influenced by (something), especially from an early age.
Now the idea was forming the right ideas of how this command would result in living and keeping God’s word. It made me think of Paul addressing the saints in Corinth in (1 Cor. 3:1-2) “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,”
Or in (1 Pet. 2:2-3) “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation–if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” It seems the psalmist is longing for God to mature him so that he might live and keep His Word. Now I understand. But it took digging deeper into the Word (a word) to see it. I hope you will too!
The idea behind this meme is very unhelpful in the fight against sin. It reminds me of the classic Bob Newhart clip where he simply says, “Stop it!” As much as we might want to use this method, it obviously doesn’t work.
However, I would like to point out an observation that might help. I think there is something to be noticed (be warned) from the swiftness of this scene. In a matter of 4 verses that can be read in about 30 seconds, David is absent in battle to the impregnating of a woman who is married and it’s not to David.
I would suggest that sin moves quickly in our hearts. Whether David should have been in battle or not is somewhat irrelevant. The same thing could have happened out in the field of battle. It’s how you respond to temptation wherever you are that you need to be concerned with.
Read the passage:
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” – 2 Samuel 11:2-5
What could he have done?
Maybe it’s hard for kings with such power to have advisers who are godly and do not mind losing their job (or life) by reminding him of God’s law but I would suggest having those kind of people around you.
Recognize that success will do things to your heart. Seeing those signs of pride may indicate that you need to step away. The world will continue on without you, I promise.
Another thing, when you see something like David did, act fast in opposition. Start saying out loud what the consequences would be if you do this all the while praying that God would forgive you for even entertaining the thought. Let’s be people who take our thoughts captive instead of being captive of our thoughts.
We never know how we will respond in temptation. Therefore you already need to be satisfied in Jesus daily and be satisfied with your wife (and I mean in more ways than one). If you are full then you will not need.
As I begin reading 2 Samuel, I am amazed by the unique love of God. As the scene opens in this book, King Saul has died but the oddness comes from David’s response to the death of his violent enemy who was the LORD’S Anointed. It is strange how broken David and his men are over this news.
I contribute this to God choosing a man after His own heart. In other words, David responds like God does to his enemies. I might also add that David’s men are following his heart and in turn are following God’s heart. This was a good observation for me to see. Those whom God has given us to lead can and will model our hearts. Therefore, we need to pay particular attention to our own.
As I ponder this, I can’t help but think of how the Lord responded to me when I was His enemy. He loved me by sending/giving His only Son that if I believe in him I will have eternal life. It is one thing to avoid your enemies so as not to quarrel with them. It is something unique to purse your enemies and reconcile them to yourself through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the unique love of God on display here in 2 Samuel through His servant David and a looking forward to David’s greater Son!
When we think of God’s unique love towards man, we must acknowledge that all are enemies of God. I can’t imagine what that is like but I also cannot imagine the perfect love within the Trinity that has never been anything but full and complete. The trinitarian nature of God is essential to understand the love of of God. All other concepts of god do not have this unique and fundamental love as we see displayed through David, a man after God’s own heart. Wow!
As I finish reading 1 Samuel today it struck me that David (the LORD’s anointed) looked more like a wandering vagabond hiding out from one place to the next than the next king of Israel. He was unwanted every where he went.
I was also amazed how the Lord directed his path even when it seemed his path was very crooked. Like when he wanted to go with the Philistines into battle the commanders would not have it. Yet in returning (reluctantly) he found his village burned and empty.
In the providence of God he was sent back to rescue his people. Amazingly, he did not assume this but inquired of the Lord BEFORE going to rescue them. Maybe it was while he prayed that his men wanted to stone him!
It is interesting how helpless and crazy David’s life seemed to be before he was actually king. Humility precedes exaltation.
I heard someone recently say that God draws straight lines with crooked sticks. David’s path appeared crooked to us but in God’s economy it was straight.
The Word Is Not Imprisoned 