Holy Spirit Revival

Holy Spirit Revival

In Acts chapter nineteen we read that when Paul arrived in Ephesus and began preaching about Jesus being the Savior, a large group of Ephesians believed in Jesus, repented of their sins and changed their whole way of living. Let’s read the story in Acts.



“The name of Jesus was held in high honor to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus. And many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A large number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas (a vast sum -fifty thousand pieces of silver). In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” (Acts 19:17b-20)



This revival in Ephesus was a red hot Holy Spirit revival. Nothing lukewarm about it! When the people of Ephesus believed in Jesus they completely made a break with the way they had been living their lives in the past. We see here in Acts 19 that in mass these new Christians publically confessed that what they had been doing was wrong, - the very way they had been making their living had been wrong. But now they knew better and were willing to change!



Since Jesus is the only Way, they needed to reject this false way, this occult power that wasn’t of God. They couldn’t follow Jesus and follow the occult too! It was clear they had to make a choice. So a large crowd of excited new believers brought their idols and scrolls and secret formulas- the tools of their trade, and together they threw all of these expensive items into a huge bonfire in the middle of town for everyone to see. What a scene – so many Ephesians publically rejecting their professions and their livelihoods. So many new believers willingly renouncing the power of sorcery and burning their valuable magical items . Nothing like this had ever happened before! All of Ephesus was astir!



In the secular records of the time we read that Ephesus had the reputation of being a major center for the popular magical practices. It was also the center of worship of the goddess Diana. In fact the ruins of the temple of the goddess Diana in Ephesus are listed as one of the ancient wonders of the world. It would appear that many of the new Ephesian believers had been earning a good living by practicing magic, casting spells and making magic potions. And now they were giving up their lucrative professions as magicians to follow Jesus.



These new Christians might lose money while they were finding another line of work, but that didn’t matter! They might not make as much money in the future learning another trade, but they didn’t care. Money didn’t matter! Security didn’t count! They would sacrifice it all in order to follow Jesus, the Pearl of great price! A real revival was happening!



The impact that Paul and these Christians had on the people who lived in the surrounding countryside was significant. The news of the huge bonfire in Ephesus spread and many other people were throwing away their idols and coming to Jesus. Christianity was spreading throughout Asia and southern Europe! Scripture says: “All who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:10b)



Paul stayed and preached in Ephesus for several years and God blessed his ministry and blessed the new believers in Ephesus with many miracles and healings. Let’s listen to how Scripture tells it. “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul. So that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” (Acts 19:11-12) I like to believe that God drew near to the Ephesian believers and to Paul because they drew near to Him.



But whenever the kingdom of God is advancing, persecution from Satan is sure to follow. And it didn’t take long for persecution to show up in Ephesus. Thousands of Ephesians were turning from idol worship and following Christ. Real revival was changing the fabric of the Ephesian economy. When part of a culture is changed, everything is affected. And people don’t like change, especially when it affects their money or their power. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10) So there was anger in Ephesus. The craftsmen and silversmiths were upset that all of these new Christians were no longer hiring them to make more idols. With so many thousands becoming Christian, their businesses in Ephesus were being affected. Let’s hear what Scripture says about this.



“About this time there arose a great commotion about the Way (Christianity). For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen. He called the craftsmen together and said: ‘Men you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned many people, saying that these idols are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is our trade in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.’” (Acts19:23-27)



The angry craftsmen ran through the streets spreading fears and stirring up the crowds. Soon a furious mob began shouting, ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians’ and a riot began. More crowds joined in and accused Paul and the Christians in Ephesus of starting an illegal new religion and undermining their goddess Diana. Finally after a day of rioting, the city clerk was able to calm the unruly crowd, but Paul had to leave Ephesus to avoid more trouble.



Before Paul had come to Ephesus he had started a Christian church in Corinth and he had been attacked and taken to court and later driven out of that city. And then after the riots drove him out of Ephesus he went to Macedonia to preach. And there were more plots against him there and the persecutions continued. Wherever Paul preached and people believed in Jesus, persecution and trouble were sure to follow. Jesus had warned us of persecution. It is just part of the territory.



Are we sometimes jealous when we hear about the healings and the conversions that accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys into Greece and Asia? When we read the book of Acts we are struck with the fact that the Holy Spirit moved with great power through all of the churches. Don’t we sometimes wish that we could see that kind of power in our churches today?



But along with the Holy Spirit power comes the many persecutions. There was always a price to pay and those early Christians were willing to pay it. Are we willing to pay the price? Most of the early Christians in that day were also willing to give up their safety, their money and their reputations to follow Jesus. What are we willing to give up?

The Sheep and the Goats

The Sheep and the Goats

(Matthew 25:31-46)

In the Bible we are given a glimpse ahead into the future - a preview of an event that we are able to read about today while knowing that it won’t happen until later. The time is at the end of the age when Jesus comes back in His glory with all of His angels. The place is the great white throne in heaven. And the event is the final judgment - a somber and serious day! The purpose of the final judgment is to determine who will be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven and who will be left out.



You and I will be there; and we will be judged along with the rest. Scripture prophecies: “All the nations will be gathered there” (Matthew 25:32a) And the Bible prophecy continues telling of how all the peoples down through the ages who have ever lived on this planet will all be standing there together before the great white throne. And Jesus will separate all the people in the world into just two groups, a group to stand on His right and a group to stand on His left. A group that will be allowed to enter heaven and a group that won’t. The sheep and the goats!



Let’s listen to the story from the Bible. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him. And he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right. ‘Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you visited me.’



Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ The king will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’



Then He will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’



They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’



Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)



Were we given this prophecy of our future judgment day – as an encouragement to us to be more generous while we are here on earth? How does one become more generous? How does one become a sheep? Or a goat? Would a goat be someone who is selfish and usually only thinks of himself?



We remember that Adam and Eves’ son, Cain, asked God this question, “Am I my brothers’ keeper?” (Genesis 4:9) And of course the correct answer is, “Yes, you are your brothers’ keeper.” Scripture says: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he/she who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) It would seem that the people who turned their backs on the poor in this life may be labeled as the “goats” in the next life.



And who are the sheep? Scripture says that: “My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) The Bible tells us that if we believe in Jesus as our Savior and repent of our sins that we belong to Him. And when we belong to Jesus we are His sheep and we receive the Holy Spirit. And one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to speak to us. So as sheep we do hear Jesus’ voice since the Holy Spirit is in us speaking to us.



And as sheep, Scripture also says that when we hear His voice we will follow Him. And if we love Jesus we will try to do what He wants us to do. So if we say that we belong to Jesus but yet we never do what is in our power to do to stop the suffering of our neighbor, do we really belong to Jesus? Since we are meant to bear fruit, are we really Christian (a sheep) if there is no fruit of compassion on our tree? Do we just look like sheep but really are wolves in sheep’s clothing? Could we just be faking our sheep hood?



Scripture says that we are Jesus’ body. (1 Cor. 12:12-26) We are His hands and feet. When another person is in need we are privileged to be able to be used by our Lord to help meet that need. Scripture says that when Jesus tells the sheep that they took care of Him when He was in trouble; they were surprised and asked Him when they had helped Him. “The righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?” (Matthew 15:37) Amazingly it seems that the sheep aren’t even aware that they have done good deeds in order to get rewards in heaven. They are just living their normal sheep like life and doing what the Holy Spirit is telling them to do.



Not just in Matthew 25, but everywhere in Scripture God is telling us to take care of the poor. When Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, He has a righteous priest, hurrying past the injured man lying in the dirt. The priest might be late for church if he stopped to help. And Jesus has the hated Samaritan (Everyone knew that Samaritans were heathens!) stopping and caring for the wounded and bleeding traveler. In Jesus’ story the ugly Samaritan was the sheep and the godly priest rushing to church was the goat! The world is turned upside down!



When we stand there before the great white throne on that final judgment day, the world may also be turned upside down. We may be in for some big surprises. Some of the goody goods who we always thought were sheep, may end up as goats instead. And some of the folks that we figured were no good nothings may just be sheep after all. The only question Jesus asks us on that day is how did we treat the poor! How will your life have answered His question? When you stand before Jesus, will He put you on His right side or on His left? Enter the kingdom or be left out? Sheep or goat, what will it be?

Paul's Second Missionary Journey

Paul’s Second Missionary Journey

Paul and Silas, along with Timothy had planned to go to Asia and preach on Paul’s second missionary journey. But God seemed to be telling them that it was the wrong time to go. We don’t know how they knew they shouldn’t go into Asia at that time. All Scripture says is: “they were forbidden at that time by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia.” (Acts 16:6b) Scripture says that Paul, Silas and Timothy kept going. I am sure that they were asking God to guide them and were waiting for His further directions.



When God closes one door He usually opens another one. So soon after that Paul had a vision while he was sleeping. “A man from Macedonia (Greece) stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’”. (Acts 16:9b)

So Paul, Silas and Timothy headed off for Macedonia (Greece). It must have been exciting to follow Gods’ leading and to know that they were part of Gods’ plan. Paul, Silas and Timothy walked to Philippi, which was one of the main cities in Macedonia and settled in.



Usually when Paul and his helpers arrived in a city they would go to the synagogue and preach, but they couldn’t do that this time because there was no synagogue in Philippi. Instead a group of Jewish women and God fearing gentiles held prayer meetings at a spot outside the city down by the river. Paul, Silas and Timothy joined the prayer meetings at the river and soon Paul was opening the Scriptures and showing this prayer group how the Scriptures prove that Jesus is the Savior. Lydia, a gentile woman who sold purple dye, was one of the first to believe in Jesus. But many others at the riverside prayer meeting believed in Jesus along with her. Lydia and her whole family were baptized and she invited Paul, Silas and Timothy to stay at her house while they were preaching in Philippi.



Paul, Silas and Timothy settled into Lydia’s home and continued going to the prayer meetings and telling everyone that Jesus is Savior. One day as they were going to one of the riverside prayer meetings they were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of fortune-telling. Scripture says that this girl “earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.” (Acts 16:16b) `The girl with the spirit followed Paul and Silas and Timothy everywhere they went. She shouted after them “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” (Acts 16:17b)



Even thought this young girl shouted the truth about Paul and the others, she was really mocking them. Everywhere they went the slave girl followed close behind screaming and yelling. “She kept this up for many days and finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.’ At that moment the spirit left her.” (Acts 16:18)



The spirit came out of the girl and she quit shouting at Paul and Silas. She could no longer tell fortunes and her owners were really angry. “When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.” (Acts 16:19) The girl’s owner accused Paul and Silas of preaching about Jesus which they insisted was unlawful. Roman subjects were not supposed to have any other king besides Caesar and perhaps Paul and Silas were teaching the Philippians that Jesus was king instead of Caesar. The magistrates agreed that Paul and Silas were dangerous and the slave girls’ owners stirred up a crowd against them. The mob gathered around shouting angrily. They grabbed Paul and Silas, tore off their clothes and beat them with rods. When they were bloody and badly beaten they threw them in prison where the jailer fastened their feet in the stocks. Poor Paul and Silas!



You would think that Paul and Silas would hate being chained with their feet in the stocks on the dirty prison floor. But Scripture tells a different story. “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening in. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.” (Acts 16:25-26) Could the power of praise from Pauls’ and Silas’ lips have opened the prison doors?



The jailer came running in and when he saw that the prison doors were open he pulled out his sword and started to kill himself. Since the jailer was responsible for his prisoners, if they escaped, he would be killed. Paul called out to the jailer and told him not to worry! “All of us are still here and we won’t run away,” Paul assured him. The jailer was trembling as he got a light and tiptoed into the jail. “What must I do to be saved?” he asked Paul and Silas.



“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Paul answered. (Acts 16:31) The jailer took Paul and Silas into his house and washed their wounds and fed them a nice dinner. They preached the Word to the jailer and his family and told them that Jesus is the Savior. And the jailer and his whole family believed in Jesus and were baptized that very night. Scripture says: “He (the jailer) rejoiced greatly because he believed in God with all of his household.” (Acts 16:34b) There is always a lot of joy in being a Christian! Joy is one of the gifts of the Spirit that we receive when we believe in Jesus.



The next day the Philippian magistrates sent word to the jailer to let Paul and Silas go. Paul and Silas spent more time at Lydia’s house encouraging the new believers and then they said their goodbyes and left for their next destination – Thessalonica.



Paul’s plan was to stop at the large cities and plant churches. When they arrived in Thessalonica they did what they always did and started preaching in the local synagogue. Soon a large number of people both Jews and Gentiles believed in Jesus! And as usual the trouble came. It seems that Paul gets persecuted in nearly every city he goes to. “But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob and set all the city in an uproar…” (Acts 17:5a) Paul and Silas had to run away. They had started a large church but they had to leave it and flee Thessalonica so that the angry mob wouldn’t harm them. Paul and Silas fled to Berea where they stayed and preached and many Bereans came to the Lord.



On this second missionary journey Paul stopped in Athens along the way and preached in the Areopagus, which was a place where intellectuals came together to debate ideas. Athenians had for centuries been patrons of the arts, music, and free thinking. Athens was the only city where very few people came to Christ when Paul preached to them. There are no records of baptisms in all of Athens. We have the Thessalonian church, the Philippian church, the Corinthian church and the Ephesian church, but there was no Athenian church! The Athenians had their art and their literature. They had their great thinkers and their fashion and culture. But they didn’t want Jesus!



Perhaps few came to Christ when Paul preached in Athens because the intellectual Athenians considered the claims of Christ to be just another theory to debate. To become a Christian they would need to open their hearts and give their lives to Christ. But the sophisticated Athenians were only willing to debate the claims of Christ as an interesting idea: and that wasn’t enough.



When we read the book of Acts we see that when Paul preaches about Jesus he gets into trouble again and again. In Philippi he and Silas are beaten and thrown in jail because he casts an evil spirit out of a young girl. Instead of the Philippians being glad that a young girl in their town is no longer mentally ill, Paul and Silas are thrown in prison because without her mental illness the girl can no longer make her owners money. So money was the bottom line here. Do we Christians ever allow children in our midst to stay mired in their problems so that we can save money? Scripture says that we cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:19-24) And “The love of money is the root of all evil”. (1 Timothy 6:10) We have to love Jesus more than material possessions.



Scripture tells us that Paul suffered many persecutions because he obeyed Gods’ call and went traveling around Southern Europe bringing Christianity. And the Bible also says that every Christian (that means you and me) will be called on to suffer persecution as well. Does that mean that we will have as many problems as Paul had? Maybe not? In reading the book of Acts it does seem that often Paul got into more trouble than his helpers did. Paul was thrown out of several cities while the believers he left behind in those cities were tolerated. Was this because Paul was an apostle and signs, miracles and healings seemed to accompany his ministry more than they did for most of the other believers? We don’t have all the answers, do we? But we do know that when we follow Jesus we are told to take up our cross. That means that we can expect some persecution along the way. Are we ready to take it?

The Jewish Christian Church Makes Room for the Gentiles

Paul's Vision of the Man from Macedonia





The Jewish Church Makes Room for the Gentiles

Paul and Barnabas had come back from their first missionary journey and they had made many Gentile converts along the way. More and more Gentiles were listening to the gospel and becoming disciples of Jesus. The first believers in Jesus had all been Jewish and of course they made up the first Christian (Jewish) church. These Jewish Christians had continued worshiping in the temple and following the laws of Moses as had been their custom.



But when the Gentiles began joining their ranks, the Jewish Christians needed to move over and make room for new ideas and different cultures. The Church was becoming multicultural now and having growing pains. Some of the Jewish Christians felt that the new Gentile believers should become circumcised and follow the Mosaic Law like they did. But was that what God wanted?



The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem got together and had a meeting which was one of the first church counsels. They needed the Holy Spirit’s guidance. They all prayed and fasted together and asked God what to do. Should the church continue keeping the laws of Moses and insist that the new Gentile Christians follow them too? Or should they change to make room for these new Gentile believers? There were strong willed church leaders in this meeting who disagreed with one another on the issue. But they loved each other and all wanted to be united in whatever they did. So after prayer, fasting and discussion they all decided together that the Holy Spirit was leading them to bend and change and not teach the new believers to follow the laws of Moses. The Law had given way to Grace. Instead they drew up a few simple rules for new Gentile Christians to live by. Keeping the church together was more important than having their own way.



Since Jews and Gentiles would be worshiping together, the leaders of the Jerusalem church (and the Holy Spirit) wanted all the new Jewish and Gentile believers to feel comfortable together and get along. The eating of bloody meat was offensive to the sensitive Jewish consciences. So the leaders ask the new Gentile Christians not to eat meat with blood in it. I think the rules were passed down to the new Christians to help them be considerate of their Jewish brother’s eating habits and to keep the peace. Each group had to change their ways a bit in order to accommodate the other.



Some Christians today are poor and some are rich, some are liberal and some conservative, some are vegans and some meat eaters – we modern day Christians have our differences too. But if we all believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are family. And if we are going to have fellowship with our family in Christ we need to be sensitive to one another and make room for our differences. Over and over in Scripture we are told to be peacemakers. Our love for one another and our unity is so important to the Lord. Perhaps the Holy Spirit might be telling us the same thing He told the early Church back then – to bend and change our ways a bit in order to accommodate one another.



When Paul left on his second missionary journey he was thrilled to be able to tell the new Gentile believers that they didn’t have to obey all of the laws of Moses in order to follow Christ. Jesus had fulfilled the law and had made them (and us) free from the law of sin and death.



Paul took Silas with him on this second missionary trip and they picked up Timothy on the way. Paul and Barnabas had disagreed on whether to take John Mark with them so Barnabas had not gone with Paul on the second trip. (Paul later admitted he had been wrong about John Mark)



Paul and Silas took off and were planning to go into Asia and preach on this second trip. Let’s listen to Scripture to find out why they didn’t go into Asia like they wanted to. “Now they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, but they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.” (Acts 16:6-7)



We don’t know how God (through the Holy Spirit) “forbade” Paul and Silas to go into Asia. The Bible doesn’t say. Scripture says that, “the steps of a good person are ordered by the Lord” (Psalm 37:23) So God has His own mysterious ways of leading us where we should go. God can speak to us through inner promptings or circumstances or through the Bible, or through the advice of other Christians. He can put the desire to do His will in our heart or His thoughts and ideas in our mind. The early Church made a practice of constantly praying, fasting and waiting on the Lord to discern His Will. We need to do the same – wait on the Lord and take time to listen for His Voice and seek His guidance.



Since God “forbade” Paul and Silas to preach in Asia, the two men kept on going and waited for more instructions from God. And of course God came through. “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia (northern Greece) stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia (Greece) and help us.’” (Acts 16:9) So God was telling Paul where they were to go next with the gospel through his dream.



Paul and Silas believed that God had spoken to them through the dream and they turned and headed towards Macedonia (Greece). The cities of Philippi and Thessalonica were in Greece and as we know, several large Christian churches were to spring up when Paul preached there. There were people there just waiting and ready to accept and believe the gospel. God was preparing the hearts of many Macedonians (Greeks) to believe in Jesus. And Paul and Silas were being used by God to tell them about Jesus. They were living the great adventure- letting God use them to bring salvation to the Gentiles.



Paul could have had many excuses not to go where God was leading him. He faced opposition and threats everywhere he went, but he kept going. The early Christians along with Paul were “on fire” for the Lord and they would do anything God asked them to do. They would change their ways of doing things, open their church to strange new people. They would take up their cross and follow. They would love each other and love the unlovable Gentiles (aren’t we glad they did) because that’s what God wanted. They would wait on the Lord and listen for His direction in their lives. They were living a great adventure with God and they left a great legacy. All of Southern Europe became Christian because Paul, Silas and Timothy gladly followed the leading of the Holy Spirit and preached the gospel there. We can live the great adventure today and let God use us to make a difference in our world like they did in theirs. All we need to do is to be willing.

Ayn Rand Christians

AYN RAND CHRISTIANS

One of the problems of being a follower of Jesus in today’s culture is trying to ascertain which of our ideas are from God and which are from various elements of society. This has always been a problem for the Christian, but it has gotten more difficult in an age of instant media bombardment. All too often Believers accept ideas as “Christian,” when in fact they are not. This is not only unfortunate, but it is also slothful, because we haven’t used the mind that God gave us to ascertain the truth.

The Bible teaches that we are to have “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor.2:16). Likewise, we are to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor.10:5b). It would seem to be really important for believers in Christ to test their thoughts and worldviews against Scripture. To do this, it is necessary to filter the world through “spiritual spectacles,” a term coined in the 15th century by one of the early Swiss reformers. This means to view all of our thoughts through the lens of God’s Word. Consider the fact that most of us run our e-mail through a spam filter to get rid of junk and malware; we ought to do the same with our thoughts. This, of course, means studying the Word of God, in order to become, “a workman that need not be ashamed” (2 Tim.2:15). For instance, in 2000, the Christian pollster, George Barna found that 70% of U.S. adults believed the aphorism “God helps those who help themselves,” is found in the Bible. Naturally, if you don’t know the Bible, you won’t be able to ascertain the truth from “cleverly contrived stories.”

I say this, because a while ago my husband and I attended a “Christian” writer’s conference. During a break, we had an opportunity to talk to one of the conference leaders. At some stage in our discussion, my husband casually mentioned the influence that Ayn Rand’s ideas were having upon our culture and especially among Christian authors’. He wanted to hear this “Christian” author’s thoughts about Ms. Rand. The woman’s reaction astonished us. Responding in a very intense manner, she informed us that Ayn Rand was a wonderful inspiration to all writers. I retorted by asking her, “How can you, an Evangelical Christian, support a writer who is – by her own admission – a militant atheist, a shameless public adulterer, an advocate for selfishness and thinks that being altruistic is a crime against humanity? To which she replied, “Those things don’t matter, she was a great writer and had wonderful ideas!” They don’t matter? Indeed!

Ayn Rand has had a profound influence upon U.S. culture and upon American Christians. Over 13 million copies of her books have been sold – and they are still being sold. Additionally, the Ayn Rand Institute gives away hundreds of thousands of Rand’s books to students in High School Advanced Placement classes. Her ideas are cherished by many contemporary political and Christian leaders.



What are some of these ideas? To begin, Rand has definite ideas about the nature of society. In it there are “creator” types who allow society to exist. They are plagued by parasitic “second raters” (bureaucrats and middle-management people) who interfere with the work of the creative people. Below the second raters are the masses and they are below contempt. In her book, We the Living, her protagonist proclaims; “What are your masses…but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?” Rand calls the non –creative people, “parasites,” “looters,” “moochers” and other derogatory terms. This lesson has been well learned by many of her disciples, as our nation shows increasing contempt for those who are not the “creative” demi-gods she has championed. On the other hand, the Bible teaches followers of Christ to “not be respecters of persons” (Acts 10:34. Indeed, James 2:13, makes it clear that believers should not show favoritism toward the upper-classes.

Perhaps her most troubling thought centers on her insistence on selfish, radical individualism. In Journals of Ayn Rand, she says, “This point – no man exists for the sake of another man – must be established very early in my system. It is one of the main cornerstones – perhaps even the basic axiom” (p.266)





. In Atlas Shrugged, the hero, John Galt, is prone to make statements such as, “I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor will I ask another man to live for me.” Likewise, in The Fountainhead, the hero, Howard Roark, says, “I have come here to say That I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life….”

Rand truly hates altruism (unselfish sacrificial love): “Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of altruism, the basic absolute, is self-sacrifice—which means; self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-destruction—which means: the self as a standard of evil, the selfless as a standard of the good. Do not hide behind such superficialities as whether you should or should not give a dime to a beggar. That is not the issue. The issue is whether you do or do not have the right to exist without giving him that dime. The issue is whether you must keep buying your life, dime by dime, from any beggar who might choose to approach you. The issue is whether the need of others is the first mortgage on your life and the moral purpose of your existence. The issue is whether man is to be regarded as a sacrificial animal. Any man of self-esteem will answer: “No.” Altruism says: “Yes” (Ayn Rand, Philosophy, who needs it? p.61).

Thus in Ms. Rand’s scheme of life, every man is an (selfish) island! Christians should recognize the heresy involved in this. First of all, Jesus calls us to His Body, the Church: we are not radical individuals. Secondly, Jesus calls us to help our neighbor; broadly meaning those in need. We are our bother’s keeper. Recall, that God was not pleased by Cain – the first murderer’s – arrogant reply to God about his missing brother (Gen 4:9). Of course, we also have the very strong warning in Matt.25:31-46; where King Jesus comes as Judge and sends those who didn’t care about “the least of these,” to Hell. This passage ought to make Christians at least pause as they consider their response to the needy.

Thirdly, altruistic love, in the form of agape love is the basis of the relationship of God to us. Jesus commands us to love – he says;” Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). Altruistic love is the basis of our faith! To act as Rand desires us to, would be antithetical to what that the Bible teaches and is an affront to Jesus Christ! Our thoughts determine our actions, and we will be held accountable for what we have done. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Gal.6:7-10).





On This Rock I Will Build My Church

On This Rock I Will Build My Church

Matthew 16:13-19

One day as the disciples were traveling near Caesarea Philippi with Jesus, He stopped and asked them what people were saying about Him and who they thought He was. “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Jesus asked them. (Matthew 16:13b) Several of the disciples answered back; “Some say You are John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say that You are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16:14) So the crowds who had watched Jesus heal the sick and listened to Him preach, still thought Jesus was just a prophet, (a superstar), and they still didn’t understand that He is Savior and Lord.



And then Jesus asked His disciples for their personal opinion about who He is. It is always important to Jesus that His own know who He is. “But who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked. (Matthew 16:15) And then Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)



Jesus smiled and joyfully nodded his head. He was very pleased with Peters’ answer and He turned to Peter enthusiastically and pronounced: “Blessed are you, Peter, son of Jonah, for this truth was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:17-18)



Jesus has just said that His church would be built on the rock. And down through the last few centuries this statement that Jesus made has been the center of a controversy. The problem is, just what is the meaning of the rock that Jesus spoke of? Did Jesus mean that the rock refers to Peter himself or to Peter’s confession? Peter had just confessed that Jesus is “the Christ and the Son of the living God.”



Isn’t Peter’s powerful confession – that Jesus is Lord and Savior - the center (or rock) of our Christian faith? Isn’t it a supernatural (Holy Spirit) confession, since when we confess that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior we receive eternal life? Isn’t Jesus the Rock, the Cornerstone (rock) that we build upon?



In Hebrew there are three words for rock – sela, tsur, and keph. Each appears throughout the Hebrew Bible and each is used to refer to God. So Protestants believe that Peter’s confession of faith that Jesus is Son of God and Savior is the solid rock that the church is built on. And Protestants believe that Jesus (who is God the Son) is the rock the church is built on.



But the Catholic Church believes that Peter is the rock and they take this scripture (Matthew 16:16) and use it in part to justify papal authority. Catholics believe that after Jesus ascended to heaven that Peter was the first leader of the first church, and thus Peter was the first pope. Scripture does tell us that the early church was run by apostles and elders and that Peter was one of them. When you listen to what Jesus said: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church…” it does sound like the rock could be Peter. So Catholics believe that the Catholic church is built on Peter, the first pope whose apostolic power has been passed down the line to each pope that has followed after him.



It is interesting to notice that Jesus said; “On this rock I will build My church.” Jesus didn’t say “On this rock you will build My church,” or “On this rock I will build your church.” We may think we are the builder and it is our church. But Jesus is the builder and it is His Church!



Jesus also tells Peter that he didn’t believe and confess this truth- that Jesus is Lord- on his own or by his own intellect or by human knowledge. (Matthew 16:17) But the truth that Jesus is Son of God and Savior is a spiritual truth that was supernaturally given to Peter (and to us) by God. We can not believe in Jesus on our own. Salvation (believing in Jesus) is a gift from God. We can only believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior when our hearts are open to allowing God to give us this faith.



When Jesus told Peter that He would build His church on the rock, He also added that the “gates of hell will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18) The “gates of hell” may mean “the powers of death” and perhaps Jesus was saying that His Church would not be at the mercy of physical death because the Lord’s resurrection would insure the resurrection of all believers. And also Scripture says that the Church (that’s us) at the end of the age will overcome every trouble through Jesus. (1 John 5:4-5) So Jesus will make His church victorious and the gates of hell will not overcome it. (1 Corinthians 15:57)



And Jesus said one more thing to Peter at this time. He said; “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19) I don’t know the full meaning of this verse, but I think that Jesus is giving power to Peter here, and to the disciples and to us as believers. Spiritual power to carry on His work. We have Holy Spirit power through intercessory prayer to bind evil and to loose healing and love and God’s will on others. We have been told that through Jesus whatever we ask in prayer believing, if it is God’s will, we shall receive. (Matt. 18:15-20)



Since we are given the keys of the kingdom I believe that they can be used in spiritual warfare. We can lock (bind) and unlock (loose) with a key. I think that the keys of the kingdom are to be used to spiritually bind and loose. These aren’t just any keys but they are powerful Holy Spirit keys. What a responsibility and a privilege to be given this spiritual gift.



We can pray that a family member be reconciled to the family – bind the spirits that keep the loved one angry and apart and loose on that one a freedom and love and forgiveness in the Holy Spirit. If we don’t know how to pray, or what is holding the family member back, we can pray in tongues – and count on the Holy Spirit to use the right words. “The Spirit also helps us, for we know not what we should pray for, but the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:25-26)



If we are praying for a sick person we can bind the spirit of sickness and loose on them a healing and a loosening of the disease. If we are bound up and can’t pray in the Spirit we can pray for more faith and more freedom and pray to be loosed from the many things that bind us up and keep us from being free to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we can continue praying in the Spirit and believing until we see the answer come to fruition.



Jesus is still building His church and He comes to each of us and asks the same question He asked Peter: “Who do say that I am?” It is the most important question that you will ever have to answer. What will you say? Who do you believe Jesus is? Is He your Savior and the Son of God? Or do you know? Are you asking the hard questions? Have you taken a moral inventory of yourself? Wrestled with your own faith? Or are you just repeating what other people are saying about Jesus?



If we say that Jesus is just another prophet or just a superstar we make Him a liar. Jesus said that He is the Son of God. He admitted that He is eternal – “before Abraham was, I Am”. (John 8:58) That is why the religious leaders crucified Him. They accused Jesus of blasphemy for saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6) We can never say that Jesus is just a special teacher. Jesus is either who He said He is or He is a liar.



Maybe you don’t want to know who Jesus is. You sense that He will change you if you know Him. A Door will open up in your heart when you confess that He is Lord. You don’t want to be changed,- to give up control. But you will never know who you are until you know who Jesus is.







Questions: What do you think Jesus meant by the “rock”?

What do you think the “keys of the kingdom” mean?

We Must Go Through Many Hardships to Enter the Kingdom

`We Must Go Through Many Hardships to Enter the Kingdom

Paul’s First Missionary Journey

The date was A.D. 46-48, about thirteen years after the resurrection of Christ, and a group of believers in Antioch felt that they should obey the Great Commission and go into the whole world making disciples for Jesus. Until now the church in Jerusalem had been the center for all of the early believers. But by now some believers had traveled to Antioch and a strong church had been formed there. It was in Antioch that believers in Jesus were first called “Christians”.



There were prophets and teachers in the Antioch church and they were praying about how they should go about spreading the gospel. One day while they were all together worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke to them, probably through one of the prophets in the group. “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them,” the Holy Spirit instructed. (Acts 13:2b) The group had waited for God to speak and give them direction. Now they were thankful for this word. They laid hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them off to the known world to spread the news that Jesus is Lord and Savior.



Barnabas and Saul left Antioch and walked to Seleucia, a seaport town on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. John, Barnabas’ cousin, tagged along as their helper on the trip. The three men boarded a sailboat going to the island of Cypress and settled in. When their boat landed on the island, the first thing they did was to go to the nearest synagogue in the town of Salamis and preach. Because many Jews lived all over Asia and Southern Europe, there were synagogues in nearly every town. Saul felt that they should give the good news to the Jews first, so he wanted to preach about Jesus in the synagogues first.



Afterwards Saul and Barnabas and John walked all over Cypress preaching. Everywhere they went preaching the good news the people were believing in Jesus and being baptized. A man named Sergius Paulus heard about them and sent word asking them to come and tell him their message. Sergius Paulus was proconsul or governor of Cypress and his palace was in Paphos, a city at the other end of the island.



When Saul and Barnabas arrived at the governor’s palace and tried to tell Sergius Paulus about Jesus they were met with an obstacle. One of the palace staff was a man named Elymas, whose name means “false prophet” or “sorcerer”. Sergius Paulus listened to the Word and was beginning to believe in Jesus as Savior when Elymas rushed in and tried to persuade him against believing.



Saul (who was also called Paul) got angry and with Holy Spirit’s power looked straight at Elymas and said: “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are filled with all kinds of deceit and trickery….You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see …” (Acts 13:10-11a)“Immediately mist and darkness came over Elymas and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him …” (Acts 13:11b) When Sergius Paulus saw what had happened to Elymas he stopped doubting and he believed in Jesus as his Savior. As you can see, Paul and Barnabas not only preached, but signs and wonders often attended their preaching. You might call this “power evangelism.”



`From Paphos Paul, Barnabas and John Mark boarded a ship and sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to Perga. For some reason John left Paul and Barnabas at this point and returned home. I think Paul was a bit irritated with him for this.



Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to the town of Pisidian Antioch and visited the synagogue there on the Sabbath. As part of the religious service it was customary to invite any visitor to stand and discuss the Scriptures. So since Paul was visiting he was invited to speak. And of course he showed them how the Old Testament scriptures foretold the coming of Jesus as Savior. This topic raised a lot of interest and Paul and Barnabas were invited back to speak again the following Sabbath.



Word got around that Paul had an exciting message to share and “on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.” (Acts 13:44) Many Gentiles crowded into the synagogue to hear about Jesus but then something went gravely wrong. “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.” (Acts 13:45)



Many Gentiles accepted Jesus as their Savior. “The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.” (Acts 13:49) But the Jews became even more angry as so many were turning to Christ. “The Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.” (Acts 13:50) Paul and Barnabas shook the dust from their feet and trudged on to the town of Iconium. And they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 13:51-52)



They did their usual thing and first went to the synagogue in Iconium to teach about the Savior. And the people of Iconium were divided when they heard about Jesus. Many Jews and Gentiles listened and believed in Jesus but many more were angry and even tried to kill Paul and Barnabas. Listen as Scripture tells the story. “The people of the city were divided: some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. But they found out about it and fled to the cities of Lystra and Derbe…” (Acts 14:4-7)



How many towns are Paul and Barnabas going to be thrown out of? This seemed to be happening too often. When they walked into the town of Lystra they saw a lame man sitting out on the street who was interested in hearing about Jesus. Paul through the power of the Holy Spirit realized that this lame man had faith to be healed so he told the lame man to stand up in Jesus’ Name. The lame man stood up and began walking and the crowds went wild. The people of Lystra had known the lame man and they knew that he couldn’t walk.



Paul tried to tell the crowds that this man had been healed through Jesus but they wouldn’t listen to him. In frenzy the people began shouting: “The gods have come down in human form.” (Acts 14:11b) They tried to worship Paul and Barnabas, calling Paul “Hermes” and Barnabas “Zeus”. The priests brought bulls and wreaths to the city gate so that the crowds could offer sacrifices to them. Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes and finally were barely able to stop the people from worshiping them.



Paul stayed and preached to these idol worshipers telling them to worship the living God and not their useless idols. But some of the Jews from Iconium and Antioch who had thrown Paul and Barnabas out of their towns earlier came to Lystra and worked the crowds into a rage. This time the crowds that had tried to worship Paul now grabbed him and in a rage stoned him. How dare he preach about Jesus and try to take them away from their idols! When they thought he was dead they drug his limp bloody body outside the city and dumped it in the dirt.



But some of the believers snuck outside the city in the dark and found Paul broken body. They all circled around him and prayed over him and miraculously he recovered. He crept back into the city that night and the next day he and Barnabas left. They went on to the nearby city of Derbe and preached and many believed in Jesus there.



And then Paul and Barnabas turned around and retraced their steps back through the towns where they had just been, Lystra, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch. They were on their way home now but as they arrived in each town along the way they stayed awhile and tried to strengthen the new believers there and encourage them to be true to the faith. There were so many Gentiles who had believed in Jesus when Paul and Barnabas had preached in each town and now they needed help in growing in the faith. With prayer and fasting Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for each of the new churches in each of the towns they had traveled through.



And then they finally took a ship back to Antioch and back to the church group that had sent them out in the beginning. They had been gone maybe two years and now their first missionary journey was completed. They joyfully reported to the church in Antioch that God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. And when Paul told the Antioch believers about all of the persecutions and troubles they had had along the way, he added, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom.” (Acts 14:22b)



What can we learn from this story from the Bible? Perhaps first we see that the believers of the church in Antioch arrived at decisions only after fasting and worship and prayer. While they all worshiped and waited on God, the Holy Spirit came and told them to set Barnabas and Paul apart to go on a missionary journey to the Gentiles. Do we need to learn to fast and pray and listen for God’s direction in our lives too?



Another lesson we take away from this story is that in every town where Paul and Barnabas preached about Jesus, they were either met with interested listeners and joyful converts or with angry threats, violence and persecution. And the same thing happens to Christians today who spread the gospel. Persecution is part of the territory. Jesus said that a person is either for Him or against Him. When we meet Jesus we can’t stay on the fence. We can either accept Him or deny Him.



Paul and Barnabas were rejected and thrown out of nearly every town they visited. And Paul was stoned and left for dead in Lystra after the lame man there had been healed. This was Paul’s very first missionary journey but he was already learning something. He was learning that a believer must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom.

An Angel Arranges for Cornelius to Hear About Jesus (Acts 10)

An Angel Arranges for Cornelius to Hear About Jesus

(Acts 10)

Cornelius was a Roman military officer, a Centurion, who was stationed in Israel around the same time the early Christians in Jerusalem were forming their first church. Roman centurions were usually disliked by the Jews. Cornelius and his family lived in Caesarea, a wealthy costal town on the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Herod had built a fancy palace on the beaches of Caesarea along with elegant gardens and an outdoor swimming pool.



Scripture says that Cornelius was a good man. “He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.” (Acts 10:2) Cornelius was kneeling in prayer one afternoon when suddenly a bright angel appeared in front of him and spoke his name. “Cornelius!” “What is it Lord?” Cornelius answered trembling in fear. The angel told Cornelius that his prayers and his gifts to the poor had pleased God. But he needed something more.



The angel told Cornelius that God had a special message for him that he needed to hear. A man named Peter was preaching nearby in Joppa and God wanted Cornelius to bring Peter to his house and listen to his message. Then the angel told Cornelius to send his men to Joppa (a town 30 miles away) and invite Peter to come back with them. The angel told him that his men would find Peter in Joppa at Simon the tanner’s house which was by the sea.



Cornelius was still trembling as he called three of his soldiers in and told them about the angels’ visit. He told them to go to Joppa and bring Peter back so they could hear what God had to say. His men set out the next morning for Joppa to find Peter.



The next day around noon in Joppa Peter stopped working and went up on the house roof top to pray. Houses back then had flat roofs and often families used the roof tops as an outdoor living area. While Peter was praying the Scriptures say that he went into a trance. “He saw heaven open and something like a large sheet was let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.



Then a voice told him, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’ ‘Surely not, Lord!’ Peter replied. ‘I have never eaten anything impure or unclean..’ The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean.’ This happened three times, and the sheet was taken back to heaven.” (Acts 10:11-16)



Peter woke up and lay there on the roof top wondering what in the world this vision could possibly mean. Why had God given it to him? But he didn’t have to wait long to find out! A minute later there was a knock at the gate downstairs and Peter could hear several men asking Simon if a man named Peter was there. Peter jumped up and ran downstairs and asked the men what they wanted. And of course Cornelius’ soldiers told Peter the whole story of how an angel had come to Cornelius and told him to invite Peter to come to his house and preach Gods’ message.



Slowly it began to dawn on Peter why God had just shown him the vision of the sheet of unclean animals! In the vision God had instructed Peter not to call anything unclean that God had made clean! Was God trying to teach him that no person was to be thought of as unclean any more? Did God actually want him to go to Cornelius’s house even though he was a Gentile?



Peter would never have gone back with the soldiers to Cornelius’s house if he hadn’t had the vision. Cornelius was an Roman; not a Jew, but an unclean Gentile! As a good Jew, Peter had never associated with a non-Jewish person. Peter had never eaten food that wasn’t kosher and he had never eaten a meal with a Gentile! Jewish religious laws forbid him to ever go inside the home of a non-Jew. Peter had never questioned his Jewish religion.



But times they were a changing! The vision with the sheet of unclean animals and reptiles and birds seemed to be God’s way of telling Peter that Jesus’ death and resurrection had changed everything. The old ways were gone and the new Way was here. With Jesus even those unclean Gentiles could be made clean. It was almost more than Peter could take in.



Peter invited the Roman soldiers in to rest from their travels and he agreed to go back to Cornelius’ house with them the next day. Peter asked several believers to join him on the trip and the next morning they all started back to Caesarea.



In the meantime, back in Caesarea, Cornelius had been running around telling his family and friends that a shining angel had just appeared to him and had commanded him to bring Peter to his house to preach a message. What could this special message be - just from God? They all wanted to know! A large excited group of family and friends and friends of friends all rushed over to Cornelius’ house and gathered in anxiously waiting for Peter to show up and tell them what God wanted them to know!



Cornelius’ noisy house was buzzing with anticipation when Peter finally arrived. Cornelius met Peter at the door and fell down at his feet to worship him. “Stand up,” Peter told him, “I am only a man myself.” (Acts 10:26)



Peter walked inside and the first thing he told the crowd that had gathered was that it was against the Jewish law for him to be there talking with them since they were the un-clean Gentiles. But then Peter told them that God had just taught him a new lesson. – That he should not be prejudiced or call any person un-clean. That through Jesus people are put together that wouldn’t have been together otherwise.



Then Peter began preaching to the group in Cornelius’s house. This was the first time that Peter had ever preached to Gentiles. He told them how he had been a disciple of Jesus’ and had watched Him heal the sick. He told them about Jesus’ death and resurrection and how God had appointed Him to be judge of the living and the dead. But when Peter told them that those who believe in Jesus receive forgiveness of sins and everlasting life, everyone in the house was listening intently and every person there believed in Jesus as their Savior all at the very same time! Scripture says that “faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17) And when this group heard God’s Word about Jesus, they all had faith!



Right then the Holy Spirit fell on all the people in the house who believed, and immediately they all began speaking in tongues together and praising God. (Acts 10:46) It must have been something to see! The Jewish believers that had come along with Peter were astonished that the Holy Spirit had been given to this group of Gentiles. The Holy Spirit had fallen on them and their fellow Jewish believers the same way with tongues when they had believed so they knew that God was accepting these Gentiles too! They had thought that God’s salvation was only reserved for the Jews. God was breaking down the barriers and prejudices between Jew and Gentile. It was almost more than they could take in!



“Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water?” Peter asked. “They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” (Acts 10:47) So Cornelius and his family and friends were all baptized in the name of Jesus by Peter. And they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days and give them more teachings. What an electric party it must have been!



The word got back to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem that Peter had visited in a Gentile house and preached to non-Jews. The apostles and believers were angry and called him in for questioning. “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them!” (Acts 11:2b) So Peter explained to them how God had sent him the vision of the unclean animals and how the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Gentiles when they first opened their hearts to Jesus. The Jewish believers were amazed at this and tried to be open to where God was leading them. “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life,” they said. (Acts 11:18b) Until now all of the believers in Jesus had been Jewish. But the Jews were learning that God wanted everyone to have eternal life!



What can we learn from this story from the Bible? First we learn that when we are Christians the Holy Spirit teaches us to live differently. The Jewish believers learned that God didn’t want them to call any person “un-clean” or leave anyone out. The Holy Spirit opens us up to love other people who aren’t like ourselves. Are we open to follow where God is leading us?



We also learn that believing in Jesus is all important. Those in Cornelius’ house received the Holy Spirit the moment they believed in Jesus. We receive the Holy Spirit when we believe in Jesus too. Do we wonder why the Holy Spirit doesn’t fall on us and set us aflame with tongues like He did for those at Cornelius’ house? We do receive the Holy Spirit when we believe and He does guide us and change us even if we don’t have tongues. Just as God makes us all different, He gives the Holy Spirit to us in different ways. To some the Holy Spirit comes quietly as a Dove and to others the Holy Spirit comes as wind and fire and with fanfare.



Perhaps Peter and the other Jews would never have believed that these un-clean Gentiles were really believers in Jesus if they hadn’t had this evidence of tongues! The Jewish believers knew that Jesus’ death and resurrection brought salvation, but perhaps they needed a sign to fully understand that this salvation was for everyone and not just for the Jews. And these tongues might have been that sign to help them accept these “un-clean” Gentiles who weren’t like themselves.



Also Cornelius and Peter would never have gotten together if an angel hadn’t visited Cornelius and Peter hadn’t had a vision from God. Do we feel left out if we haven’t had visions or visits by angels? Perhaps God works in other ways to lead us where He wants us to go. Sometimes He puts ideas in our minds and perhaps we have seen angels unawares.



Scripture says that God sent an angel to Cornelius because he “prayed and gave to the poor.” (Acts 10:4b) Do we care about the poor? Are we open to hear God’s will in our lives? Are we trying to listen? If we hear God’s voice or read His Word are we willing to obey?



The angel came to arrange for Cornelius to hear about Jesus. Even with his good deeds and open heart, Cornelius needed something more. He wasn’t good enough without Jesus. And neither are we.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses

A Great Cloud of Witnesses (Heb. 12:1)

The Bible tells us that we are surrounded by a large group of onlookers as we live out our lives as Christians. Scripture also says that we are running a race, the race of faith, and that those who have gotten to the finish line ahead of us are watching our race, waiting for us to finish and perhaps even cheering us on. “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that slows us down and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1)



A long list of saints – Noah, Abraham, Job, and others- who had already lived out their lives faithfully for God, had just been named in Scripture (Heb.11) before we read this passage about being surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses.(Heb12:1) Did this mean that Noah, Abraham and Job along with others were among the witnesses? This passage, I believe, was a reminder to those early Christians – and to us too- that many others have gone before us on this faith journey. That we are not alone in our joys and sorrows but we are part of a bigger story!



Can you think of a person, maybe several people, who have deeply influenced your life? People who have helped make you the person that you are today? Maybe your parents, a grandparent, or a teacher? People who are no longer with you – who have finished their race. You see, those people who cared about you, who passed their values on to you and loved you, they have a stake in how you live your life – how you run the race. You aren’t in this alone. You aren’t a self made person. You are part of much larger family.



The Christian life is often likened to a race. (1 Cor. 9:24, 2 Tim. 4:7) And in our race (our Christian life) we are instructed to “throw off everything that slows us down and the sin that so easily entangles us,” (Heb.12:1) so that we can run faster. Right now I can think of several sins that I allow myself to become entangled in: petty resentments, anxieties and fears. And those sins mess up my race and slow me down. I must throw them off so I won’t be sidelined. Can you think of things that impede your running too? Do you need to do housecleaning along with me? We are told to “throw off” these weights and concentrate on running. The saints who have already finished the race had the same kinds of problems we are having now and they ran their race and finished well. So we can do it too.



This verse, Hebrews 12:1, tells us many things. But it ends with, “let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us.” Do you notice that this isn’t just any race we personally choose to make it? That this faith race of ours has been “marked out for us!” We aren’t in charge of the twists and turns in the path, just in how we maneuver those twists and turns. Scripture says, “The steps of a Godly person are ordered by the Lord.” (Psalms 37:23) Our path has been personally set up and “ordered” for us to run! So how can we lose?



Also we are told to run with perseverance. To not become discouraged and give up. To keep on keeping on. It’s easy to be a Christian in the short run. But what about the long run? Faith is all about endurance. What good is loyalty if it doesn’t last? God hates quitters. (Zechariah 7:11-12) We are to finish the race. And it matters how we finish it. Having done all to stand, we are to stand. (Ephesians 6:13) Remember these balcony people are watching.



While we are running we are commanded to keep our eyes on Jesus. Let’s listen: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:2-3) As we run, Jesus is the supreme or ultimate example of running a good race. Jesus endured more persecution and suffering than we ever will. He is with us now and praying for us during our race.



So if you are discouraged with the way other Christians act, or you’re suffering and feel out of control, or you wonder why God allows the world to be so messed up, just put your head down and keep on running. Just always keep your eyes on Jesus. He lived with all of your sorrows and many more. And all the witnesses who ran the race before you had similar problems as you have, but they kept on running anyway. They have all crossed the finish line now and have passed the baton on to you. So now it’s your turn.

Prayer Changes Things - How an Angel Sprung Peter from Prison

Prayer Changes Things

How an Angel Sprung Peter from Prison (Acts 12)

Herod was on a rampage. He hated the early church and attacked its’ members whenever he could. James, the brother of John had been the leader of the church in Jerusalem and Herod arrested him and had him killed with the sword. James, who wrote the Epistle of James in the Bible, was probably the first of Jesus’ disciples to be martyred. Jesus had warned his disciples of their coming persecutions, (Mt. 20:23) but it still came as a shock. The Jewish religious leaders were pleased with Herod for killing James, so Herod was encouraged to go ahead and kill more disciples. (Acts 12:2-3) He had his soldiers seize Peter with plans to have him killed as well.



But Peter just happened to be arrested during the Days of Unleavened Bread (the seven days after the Passover), which was an awkward time to perform an execution. It would not have been correct procedure for a prisoner to be tried and executed on a religious holy day. Herod figured he would make a better impression on his religious friends if he waited until after the holidays to bring Peter out. So Peter was thrown into prison under a heavy guard consisting of four squads, (sixteen soldiers) to await his execution. Herod didn’t want to take any chances that his valuable prisoner might get away.



The night before Peter was to die, he was sleeping on the dirty prison floor between two guards and chained to both. There were also several sentries guarding the locked gates inside the dark prison. (Acts 12:6) Things were looking pretty bleak for Peter. As Scripture records these details, just one little passage stands out as a glimmer of hope! It reads: “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” (Acts 12:5) Could a house full of believers holding a prayer meeting all week really make any difference in this grim situation?



But back at the prison in the darkness of night while Peter was chained and asleep, everything changed! Let’s read what happened. “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. The angel struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes and sandals.’ And Peter did so. ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,’ the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening: he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the Iron Gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left Peter.” (Acts 12:7-10)



All the while Peter had been chained in the dungeon waiting to die, the believers had been together on their knees before God begging for his release. And God had heard their prayers. He had sent an angel to Peter in prison who had anesthetized the guards and removed Peters’ chains. The Iron Gate had opened by itself and no one could stop them as Peter escaped. It was so miraculous that at first Peter couldn’t believe that the angel was real. And when the angel left, Peter finally came to himself and the true significance of what had happened came home to him. God had delivered him from death.

Peter quickly walked away from the jail and through the dark streets of Jerusalem to Mary’s house. Even though it was the middle of the night Peter knew that the believers would be there praying. Let’s listen to what happens next. “Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’ ‘You’re out of your mind,’ they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, ‘It must be his angel.’ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.” (Acts 12:13-16) Peter told the excited believers all about how the angel had sprung him out of prison and how their prayers had been answered. And then he left and went into hiding so that Herod’s soldiers wouldn’t find him again.



This story of Peter’s dramatic deliverance from prison by a bright angel occurred about ten years after Jesus ascended back to heaven. The early believers at that time were extremely enthusiastic in their love for God. You might say that they were all “hot” or “on fire” for the Lord. They took care of one another, believed the Word of God, gave to the poor and spent much time together in prayer. Their hearts were right before God. I believe that this is why the Holy Spirit moved so powerfully among them. Why their prayers brought down angels to shake things up. I also believe this is why the early believers experienced so many miracles and healings in their gatherings. And why so many thousands were converted to Christ through their ministry.



Everywhere in Scripture we are told to pray often and to pray in groups. Prayer changes things. Here are just a couple of the many Bible passages instructing us to pray. “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16) And: “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)



Prayer is not a formula for getting things out of God. I think prayer is a heart thing-our hearts need to be humble and open to God when we pray. The passage in James says that the prayer of a RIGHTEOUS man is powerful and effective. To be righteous doesn’t mean to be perfect. It means that we are confessing our sins and trying to obey His will. We will be imperfect and sinful but we need to be willing to be willing. We need to open the door enough so God can move us. He won’t bash down the door of our heart. God sees our hearts – whether they are right or not. If we come to pray and haven’t forgiven someone, we need to first go and forgive that person. Our hearts are not right as long as we refuse to forgive another person. We have to be willing to be willing to let God help us forgive, even if we aren’t there yet.



This short Bible story of Peter and the angel leaves us with some important lessons, doesn’t it? For one, we should pray often and prayer should have a central place in our church life. If it doesn’t, could we start a prayer group or prayer meeting at our church? Perhaps we could pray that our fellow church members love God and one another the way those early believers loved God and each other. And we need to learn to pray the way that early church prayed. Maybe our prayers, like theirs, can bring down an angel to open up the prison doors in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones.

Noah and the Flood

Noah and the Great Flood

God is brokenhearted. Grieved and discouraged, He continues on in pain. He had loved His children so much but now He is sorry that He ever created them. The Bible tells it this way: “The Lord was grieved that He had made humans on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said …I am grieved and sorry that I made human beings.” (Genesis 6:6,7b) As any good parent grieves over a son or daughter who rebels and chooses evil, so God also grieves when His children rebel and chose evil. And God is grieving over His rebellious children at the time our story takes place – the story about Noah and the great flood.



The date of our story is back near the dawn of history. The flood occurred approximately 1,675 years after God created Adam and Eve in the Garden. All of the people on earth back then were the descendents of Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve’s descendents weren’t doing well at all.



Scripture tells us that in those prehistoric times there were giants on the earth. “There were giants on the earth in those days, …There were mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:4) And the lifespan of Adam and his offspring seemed to be much longer back at the dawn of history than our lifespan is now. We can only guess what this means but perhaps the earth was different in some ways back then than it is now.



Let’s listen to how the Bible describes the people who lived on earth during Noah’s lifetime. “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5) And, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.” (Genesis 6:11) This is one of the Bible’s most vivid descriptions of total depravity. It says that ALL of the people on the earth had corrupted their ways and that ALL the thoughts of their hearts were evil continually! No wonder God was brokenhearted.



Scripture first says that all the people on earth were corrupt. But then Scripture corrects that statement and says that all the people on earth were corrupt except one. There was just one person in the whole earth before the flood that wasn’t corrupt, and that person was Noah. The Bible says it this way: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Genesis 6:8-9) Noah’s Godly life was a powerful contrast to the wicked lives of his contemporaries. This description of Noah doesn’t mean that he was sinless or perfect. I believe that Noah was called “righteous” in Scripture because he trusted God and tried to obey Him.



So God came to Noah and told him that He was thinking about ending the lives of everyone on earth by bringing a flood. “So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” (Genesis 6:13)



God continued by instructing Noah to build an ark, - an ark made of cypress wood and coated inside and out with pitch. And God didn’t leave Noah on his own to figure out how to build this ark. But God, the Master Planner, gave Noah detailed plans for building the ark, from the exact measurements of the ark and a pattern of a three deck configuration with just one door, to instructions as to what supplies and food to pack, and even how many animals and birds should be gathered into the ark.



God promised Noah that He would establish His covenant with him- the first mention of a covenant between God and humans in the Bible. I believe that God was promising to protect Noah and his family through the impending flood.



And Scripture says: “Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” (Genesis 6:22) Noah built the ark exactly the way he had been told, with every detail exactly as God had specified. God was looking for a person who would work with Him to establishing His purposes on earth. And God had found that person in Noah.



It might have been difficult sometimes for Noah to follow God. Remember that he was the ONLY person on earth who trusted God. All of Noah’s friends and relatives had rebelled against Gods’ ways. So Noah didn’t get any support from anyone when he tried to do the right thing. He must have warned his relatives and friends about the flood that was coming. But no one listened to him. It might have been lonely following God when the rest of the world was going in the opposite direction. And don’t you imagine that he was laughed at by his neighbors and relatives when he spent years building his enormous ship in a location that probably wasn’t even near any body of water? Can’t you just hear the jokes that were being passed around?



Finally the ark was finished and the time was drawing near. The Bible tells it like this: “And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds an of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.” (Genesis 7:7-9) I had always pictured Noah and his family running through the woods catching animals. But it sounds like God caused the animals and birds and reptiles to come on their own to Noah and to the ark.



The Bible tells us that when Noah and his family and all the animals and birds and creatures that crawl on the ground had finally gone inside the ark, that God closed the door of the ark. Noah didn’t shut the door, God did. “Then the Lord shut them in.” (Genesis 7:16b) There was only one door to the ark and Bible scholars have suggested that this door could be a picture of Jesus Christ. One of the names for Jesus is the “door” (John 10:7) because He is the Door to Everlasting Life. And there is only one door to eternal life – Jesus. God’s judgment was coming on the earth in the form of the flood, but God was shutting Noah’s family in and keeping them safe from death. And when God’s final judgment comes, all those who have gone through the one Door (Jesus) will be safely shut in by God and protected from death.



When the flood finally came, the Bible describes it this way: “…on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:11b) “as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth” (Genesis 7:18) “…all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the tops of the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. Every living thing that moved on the earth perished…” (Genesis 7:19-20a) “Only Noah was left and those with him in the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:23b-24) It was a terrible time.



“Finally the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed and the rains stopped falling from the sky.” (Genesis 8:2) God sent a wind over the earth to dry things out and the waters slowly receded. The flood began during the second month of the year and it was during the tenth month of that same year that the waters from the flood had receded enough that the tops of the mountains became visible. (Genesis 8:5)



Forty days after the mountain tops became visible; Noah opened the window of the ark and sent a raven out. But the raven just flew back and forth. Then he let a dove out of the window of the ark. But the dove couldn’t find any place to land so it flew back to Noah. Then he waited seven days and let another dove out the window and this time the dove came back with an olive leaf in its’ beak.



Noah and his family and the animals and birds were inside the ark for a year before the earth dried enough for them to come out. God told them when it was time. The ark had landed on Mt. Ararat (in Armenia or Turkey) and the first thing that Noah did when he came out of the ark was to build an altar and make a sacrifice to God. Noah and his family worshiped God and thanked Him for saving their lives. And God blessed them.



Then God came to Noah and made a covenant or a promise to him and to us too that He would never again destroy the whole earth with a flood. Let’s listen: “Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood: never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” Thus I establish My covenant with you: (Genesis 9:11) “And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I will set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” (Genesis 9:12-130 So when we see a rainbow in the sky we can remember that it is a sign of God’s promise to us that He will never again destroy the whole earth with a flood.



I have heard that anthropologists have discovered stories of the flood in the histories of almost every culture and tribe. Such a sad story – sad that except for Noah’s family, every man woman and child on earth perished. God was able to save Noah and use him because he trusted God, but no one else did. In a world that had broken His heart, God found joy in this one man who believed in Him. God still cares about His children and He is still looking for people today who will trust Him. Like Noah, let’s put our trust in God and bring joy to His heart.