365 Reflections

Jesus would rather have no church in a community than a dead church. That is what is made clear in the first three chapters of Revelation. With every encouragement, challenge or correction given to the 7 churches in Asia Minor Jesus promises to remove the lamp stands of those churches that do not heed His word and walk in His ways. But before there were churches in Asia Minor, there were seven lamps in the Holy Place of the tabernacle. Numbers 8:1–4 (ESV) Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand.” 3 And Aaron did so: he set up its lamps in front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses. 4 And this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was hammered work; according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand. The holy place of the tabernacle was to remain continually lit. W...

Paul was about to be killed by a mob scene in Jerusalem and asks for a chance to "reason" them out of it. He stands up before the crowd and shares his conversion experience. Acts 22:3 (ESV) “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. The first thing you do is find common ground with whoever you're talking to. Paul is talking to strict law-abiding Jews. He begins there.  He says  "I am a Jew… zealous for God as all of you aren't this day" . In other words I am just like one of you. We need to learn how to find common ground with people to whom we tell our story. Paul even finds deeper common ground sharing how he longed to kill Christians - just like they were doing to him at the moment! Acts 22:4 (ESV)   I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both m...

We all meet Jesus individually. Everyone of us has a different story and a different set of circumstances and even different scriptures that led us to Christ. I think one of my all time favorite stories is found in Acts 8. An Ethiopian Eunuch is riding home from Jerusalem. He had "come to worship and was returning" Luke makes sure to tell us. Why? Because Deuteronomy 23:1 tells us that emasculated men could not enter the temple. He came 800 miles and was rejected in Jerusalem. On the way back God sends Philip to seek him out. Philip comes off the massive success in Samaria where demons are fleeing and lives are being radically changed to minister to this one seemingly unimportant individual. Philip is a true evangelist, moving at the prompting of the spirit to share the good news. He could have reveled in his success in Samaria, but no... one small prompt sends him far away to far fewer people. Because to God, every one matters. The scripture he was reading is ve...

Peter and John are brought before one of the most prestigious Jewish families in the entire nation. Notice the details Luke gives us in their trial before the court convened about them after healing the lame man at the Beautiful Gate: Acts 4:5–6 (ESV) On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. These were the "movers and shakers" of Judea at this time. Annas was the most powerful political person in the Nation at this time. He was kind of the "Godfather" of this clan of very important people. John also served as high priest. Caiaphas (the current High Priest) will forever go down in history for being the High Priest that put into works to Crucify Christ and then to attack and threaten his church. He has been long dead but at the time he was the longest tenured High Priest in History. Then it records ...