The results of true awe

 

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, Acts 2:46 ESV

            Give your attention to the phrase, “day by day.” This indicates each and every day. The community of the earliest church gathered not just consistently, but constantly. Why? Hadn’t these people other places to go, and other people to see? Didn’t they need to work? It seems to us they hadn’t, that they lived in some fairytale time without jobs and outside obligations. But the text of scripture suggests no such thing. The text of scripture suggests something else entirely.

            The truth appears that these saints of yore did indeed have something we now lack, but it wasn’t more time, or easier lives, or any such thing as we like to think. What they had was an appreciation of God and a hunger for the things of God we lack. Go back to verse 43 and you will see these saints were in awe for they had seen something awesome. This compelling vision shifted their priorities and reordered their lives. They gathered daily because they could not stay away from each other or from God.

            This has been the case elsewhere and at other times when God has revealed Himself in the demonstration of power through the Holy Spirit. In revivals believers have demanded preaching each day, raising early or staying late. They have rearranged their days, and gone well out of their ways to get more of God. An honest assessment is wanted here. God has not changed; He is no less awesome now than He has been before. Perhaps it is not our schedules that are problematic but the eyes of hearts. Perhaps it is not that we can’t, but that we find no reason to. Perhaps, perhaps we have not seen God so clearly as we think...

Prayer

            Father have mercy on us, and grant us to know You and to see Your glory. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Conversation with Grandad

  The Last Conversation with Granddad; A Eulogy for Marshall Helms             There is so much that needs to be done, and so precious little time. There are some here who need comfort, and some who need assurance, and some who need encouragement, and some who need to be admonished. Yes, there is much to do, and precious little time. So, let us pray. Father, the task before me is overwhelming, and I have no strength for it. Abide with me please that in my weakness Your strength might be perfectly evidence, and Your word might go forth today to accomplish all Your good and perfect will. I ask it for the sake of Your glory, In the name of Jesus. Amen.             It has been rightly said that it is not wrong to mourn. Indeed, in Matthew 5 our Lord says those who mourn are blessed for they will be comforted. We mourn death because it is unnatural. It discomforts us bec...
Read more

Against work addiction

  It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Psalm 127:2 ESV             When work becomes anxious toil, something has gone wrong. Something has gone wrong in our society when it comes to work. Several decades ago, Wayne Oats coined a new word, “Workaholic” to describe addiction to work.   The description Oats came up resonates with the psalmist describes. Anxious toiling, long hours, and little if any enjoyment of the work itself or the fruits of the toil. Addiction is another word for slavery, and it is easy to be enslaved by the anxiety over our work for it drives to work more, and that increases our anxiety while also burning through psychological energies.             Not only is workaholism addiction/slavery, it is idolatry for if we stop to think about it the workaholic ...
Read more

Up and ahead

              Sometimes we are blindsided by a sudden shift in life. We thought we were on stable ground, and then someone starts shouting at us in a routine meeting, or tells us we don’t have a job anymore on a Monday morning, or a loved one leaves on Friday evening with no plans to return. We are left with broken piece of something that once made a kind of sense to us. We knew, and now we do not know.             Where is God? We can’t see Him anymore. We cannot understand where He went to, or what he was thinking. We trusted Him, didn’t we? Now look where we are… It is the better part of wisdom to be quiet when these calamities come to visit and to wait. It is the one wise thing Job’s friend did, when first they saw the plight of the miserable man, they only wept with him.             When later they decided to...
Read more