Acts 3:11-26

A great reminder of how God should be given glory. Peter is quickly learning that what is his is not really his. It's a good reminder that what is ours is not really ours to begin with. How foolish of us to think we have the ability to do everything on our own. How foolish of us to think we are the ones that make ourselves succeed. We are but flesh and bones. No way could we design something so intricate as a human body or nature or life's happenings. When we create things, we get things like stick figures and Mr. Potato Head. Pretty sad. So why is it so natural for us to think we do what we do. Oh hubris, hubris..why are you so tantalizing.

I'm glad Peter had a straight head when he preached to the crowd. It's a great encouragement to see people give God the glory, whether it's the big things or the littlest of things. In the end, all things should glorify God. And when that day comes, there will be great joy and great celebration in Christ's return. Peter not only gives God glory, but he spurs us into action. To turn away and to be refreshed by the presence of the Lord. I could definitely go for a refreshment of God. It'd be like a spa treatment..times holiness and awesomeness. I'm pretty sure it'd be amazing. I'm in need of a detox. God, please detox away.

Acts 3:1-10

The lame beggar at the gate of the temple. Everyday he would be carried to the steps of the temple so he could beg for alms. Most likely, people carried him out of pity. Most likely, people gave him things out of pity. Maybe even so that they might be seen as being loving and generous if others say. Makes me think of all the times I feed my pride when I try to love others. It's pretty pathetic the more I think about it as I sit here. I love the times when God challenges me to do things without thinking. The situations that happen out of nowhere so I might see where my heart is it. At times, I do things with a good heart. At other times, I just ignore things and have to reflect on how indifferent my heart was. Dealing with the poor has definitely been something that has tugged on my heart these last years. Being in a college city filled with the impoverish, you have to deal with it. It has to affect you. You'd be a fool to just walk by the homeless, ignore the homeless, not even consider the homeless. I don't care if they were crazy looking, crazy talking, crazy acting. There is definitely a brokenness in the homeless and lame. There's a void. There's a gap. There's a need. And you read in Acts 3 where this man who has been lame his whole life. He only knows how to do one thing in life...beg infront of the temple. Nothing more. Nothing less. His joy is other people's pity. As sad as that is...that's something more than nothing, right? And I love what Peter and John have to offer. "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you." The lame man is anticipating their pity of silver or gold, but they offer something even greater. Something that's life changing. What a greater joy than all the joys the man has ever gotten. His reaction is priceless too. He leaped up and joined them in the temple, leaping and praising God. That's someone who knows how to celebrate something life-changing. So how then do we respond to life-changing joy? Because..let's be real with it..we are just like the lame begger. We might not be physically lame, but there's definitely voids we have in our hearts and minds. There's definitely gaps that we try to fill with material things, temporary happiness, mindless work, etc. When will be satisfied by more than these things? But more importantly, how will we respond when we find that overwhelming joy? I'd like to think im a leaper and praiser. But maybe it's more like a little hop and skip. I want to be that crazy guy leaping all about it. But the Bible is pretty clear..if you aren't leaping and praising God from this life-changing joy, then you haven't experienced it yet.

Acts 2:42-47

The church model at its finest. Acts 2:42 is a verse used a lot to describe what fellowship and community looks like. It paints a great picture of what a body of believers can achieve when their hearts are set for things above. They come together everyday, day after day. They don't care for their possessions or money or really themselves. They live for God and they live for their fellow brothers and sister. They receive what they get with "glad and generous" hearts. Something that modern-day society lacks. We are selfish in what we have and we are greedy in what we don't have. We believe everything is deserved and we are never satisfied. But the Acts community is glad. They are more than content. And even more, they are generous. That means they give freely and willingly. This pleases God. How could it not. Harmonious living done the right way. "And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." It's a beautiful thing. Who wouldn't want to live in a community like that? Modern day Americans. Let's not conform to that culture. Let's be a revolution of Acts 2:42.

Acts 2:14-41

This passage is Peter's sermon at Pentecost. It's his encouragement to his fellow apostle brothers to have hope and be steadfast to the faith of knowing who Jesus is because everything that was prophesied before their time has been true. So he speaks of the past, present, and future and invites the Spirit to be with them as they journey forth.

Man, I think it'd be cool to meet Peter and just listen to his testimony. A man that once denied Jesus on many occasions, yet a brother who was amped for the Gospel. How opposite of stances to have, yet he was a man just like many men today. I see myself denying Christ so many times. Stubborn to my own ways. Stubborn in succumbing to life's tempting pleasures. To think of it...I'm probably consistently denying Christ in my walk. Yet, I call myself a firm believer. I think one of the scariest things is the fraud in me. When I read in verse 19-21 where it talks about Jesus returning and how they'll be blood, fire, and vapor of smoke...or how the sun will be turned into darkness and only those who call on the Lord shall be saved....I wonder how my heart will be. Will I be so foolish in denial or will I be charged to follow?

This journey has been tough. This journey will continue to be tough. But what if we got a better glimpse like King David? It says in verse 26-28 "therefore my heart was glad (when he saw the Lord), and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence." I'm desperately wanting that to be my psalm. May my heart be glad and may my tongue rejoice. May God's presence be my full gladness.

Acts 2:1-13

The Holy Spirit has arrived! The Trinity has been fulfilled, and the Church is born. I love verse 5 where it says "now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven." One day, every tongue will confess He is God. One day, every knee shall bow. One day, all of the nations will be united. What great hope it is that when the Spirit came down, each one of them heard of the mighty works of God in their own tongue. They were in tune with the same Spirit. They all recognized the mighty works of God. That paints a great picture of hope. I know it seems far from it now. The world is a broken world. The people are a broken people. But if there are stories of the near impossible each and every day, what makes this hope so farfetched? The Apostles prayed and patiently waited for the Spirit. And God delivered. Maybe it's time we took a page out of their playbook.

Acts 1:12-26

"And when they entered, they went up to the upper room...All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer..." How fitting that the passage of the early church starts with something that resonates so close to my life right now. With all the trials and struggles of this life, community has never ceased to encourage and sharpen my life towards walking obediently with God. In this passage the Apostles are gathered together in the "upper room" to pray for the Spirit to lead them in filling Judas' once apostleship role. They stayed there fervently praying for God to reveal Himself so that they might start building the church. What would that look like in my community at church? We call ourselves "Upper Room" for reasons I never knew til now. Maybe it's the "upper room" of Jesus' Last Supper. Most likely..yeah, that's what the idea might have been geared towards initially. But when I read these verses, I clearly fixated on how they all gathered in hopes of the Holy Spirit to reveal itself. Too many times we just ask for the Spirit in a rush of hope. But how many times will we be obedient and patiently wait for the Spirit to come? I hope that's what my community will look one day. May it be a community where we would gather and just pray for the Spirit to lead and that God would reveal his guidance to us. We're all in different spiritual places right now. Shoot...there's almost a decade in gap between some of our members. But as we grow together, I hope we can really see that our gathering is more than a gathering. It's for an anticipation. An anticipation of direction and a charge to move forth and to build a church, just like what happened to the 12 Apostles in Acts. May that be our prayer and hope.

Acts 1:1-11

I've decided to start the book of Acts. It's about the early Church after Jesus ascends up to Heaven. I think right now God has been starting to move in the community of believers to take hold the opportunity to further the kingdom in His church. So it'd definitely be fitting to see how the Apostles really engage this task of building the Church.

This passage deals with the affirmation of the Holy Trinity. Throughout most of the Gospels, the writers explicitly speak of the Father and the Son and their relationship. How the Father knows the Son completely and how to know the Father was through the Son. Now comes the last musketeer, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes me think of a closer, someone who comes and seals the deal. A closer is someone will an effective punch to reinforce everything that was done before him. I think many times people forget about the Holy Spirit when it comes to our faith and supreme power of God. Maybe it's hard to imagine a "spirit?" Maybe it's because the accounts of the Spirit aren't wham-blam-in-your-face like Jesus? Or simply...maybe people just don't recognize the Trinity has 3-in-1? I think as this year has progressed, I've definitely seen myself asking for the Spirit to lead. Do I know what that really looks like...well...no. But does that mean I don't yearn and long for it everyday? Well, course it doesn't. Jesus reinforces that we will "receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you..." I've definitely neglected what that power could look like. It could be something simple like a 1-on-1 conversation to something moving within me of a conviction or a prayer. But just as I believe in the all-knowing, powerful Creator, God, and His Son, Jesus, I do know that the Holy Spirit impacts and moves me in a way where I'm left speechless. When I recount powerful moments of thoughts and actions where I just end up shaking my head and wondering..."where did that come from?" How I'm starting to realize that it was not me who moved, but it was something supernatural. Skeptics will always be skeptics, but one who lives by faith will always have a hope to pursue.

it's hard to write words of encouragement to those you love when deep down inside there is a lot of pain that doubts those very words.

im praying for hope.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Mark 16

I think chapter 16 epitomizes how Jesus transforms us into God's calling. Now when you start to read it, you're like..oh yeah I've read this before...this is Jesus resurrecting from the dead. And do not get me wrong. There is much beauty and amazement in my mind about Jesus' resurrection. It defines what salvation stands for...that the dead will rise and have new life in Jesus Christ. Without the resurrection, there would be no atonement for our sins. The sins that were nailed to the cross must be washed cleaned and given new breathe and Jesus did that for us. But as I read some of the details from Mark, I noticed things that never really stuck on my mind about the whole resurrection story.

All throughout the Gospels when Jesus performs miracles, He will tell the healed and saved to go about their ways and not tell anyone. Well of course the people cannot contain their joy and excitement and do quite the opposite, right? But in this case, Mary (x2) are just stunned..."afraid" as the passage says...about Jesus not being there and being risen again. Now this whole time where Jesus is like 'I must die. I must rise', people are like okay..? cool Jesus..? But when it actually happens as He foretells, Mary (x2) are just like..stoned faced. There isn't a rejoicing effect. Maybe they were rejoicing in the inside, I don't know. And when Jesus comes across the His very own disciples, he has to rebuke them because they too don't believe the rumors that Jesus had risen. His very own disciples of all people, who followed and learned from Him. How is that possible?! The scripture says it very clearly. Their hearts were hardened (v14). Their hearts were too wrapped up in themselves, they couldn't respond clearly. It wasn't until Jesus commands them to go out with a little direction and encouragement do the people respond in a way that pleases the Lord.

We are those people. We are those who try and follow, who try and learn, who try and replicate. However, we often find ourselves wrapped up in ourselves, wrapped up in the world, wrapped up in idols. This hardens our heart. It hinders our walk and connection with God. We need to invite the Spirit to be like Christ to His disciples. We need to invite the Spirit to give us direction and encouragement. I need to invite the Spirit to give me direction and encouragement. I am lost without the Spirit. I am lost when I put these idols before the Spirit. May my heart be soften by this beauty of this resurrection, by the beauty of new life, by the beauty of God's love for me.

Mark 15

Death has been a subject that I've always had a hard time relating with. I've never really had a death hit home to me (knock on wood), but that doesn't necessarily mean I count myself lucky. I think I've just been indifferent to it all because I've been blessed with life day after day. I read tragic stories everyday about death and know people who've been through the toughest days bc of deaths in their families. I can feel the brokenness in those situations, but when I think of my life, I rarely feel the need to cherish the lives around me. That's a sad story.

Chapter 15 is all about Jesus' death. From the time is taken away, to being sentenced to crucifixion by the people, to the mocking and lashing brutality, to his last breath here on Earth. A death that seems so over the top, extreme, cruel, and unjustified...but a death that was necessary for God's plan. It's sad to realize that the parallel to it all is that we (you and I) were those people taking him away, yelling for his crucifixion, spitting on him, mocking him, lashing him. We put Him on that cross because we knew nothing, but to accuse someone who was just trying to speak truth. And two centuries later, we still struggle with these issues as a mankind. Christian or not, we are men and women who fail to see past our own thinking. We rationalize, investigate, and dictate what is "truth" and what is "good" bc we are man. We rule this world, right? Well..of course not. Our own thinking is that in itself...just thinking. When we are captivated by other people, circumstances, and supernatural wonders, we commonly just sit and think about it. And leave it at that. Verse 39 paints an image that is so far removed from our thinking, we would almost laugh at someone if it happened next to you. "And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said 'Truly this man was the Son of God!' " Not much thinking going on there. Just conviction and proclamation. He saw and he believed. He was so captivated by what he believed to be truth and he let himself go from rationalizing and second-guessing bc it was THAT convicting.

I hope the world can be captivated like the centurion. Granted the world is so broken right now (in all aspects of life) that hope is very tough to materialize. But if we truly believe that God's plan is uncontainable, then one day all the nations will proclaim and all the nations will bow with conviction that the truth of Christ Jesus reigns supreme.

Mark 13-14

The weekends are always so busy with ministry that I forget to crack the Bible. Praise the Lord for a restful Saturday in the Scripture. Chapters 13 and 14 are leading to Jesus' death on the cross. Once again I am amazed at how the Scriptures show the character of Jesus then and now and the people then and now. Through this whole time, Jesus is instructing and steadfast in God's will. Even when he's under the pressure and wants to alleviate the inevitable, He remembers that God is in control of the situation. And then you have the people around him...his disciples and the accusers. These characters just show me how flawed our hearts are and that even when we try the hardest to be faithful to God, we cannot stay firm to our faith by ourselves. The story of Peter is always a good example. I don't doubt that this guy loved Jesus. He was ready to fight for Jesus when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane. And if they fought him, he would have certainly died. So he definitely was going to die for his belief in Jesus. But then on the flipside after Jesus is arrested, he quickly lets the fear of it change his heart. Jesus even told him that he would deny Jesus three times. And well...of course Peter denies knowning Jesus. And well..that's just human. That's me on a constant basis. I want to fight for Jesus and alongside him. Sword in hand, ready to take on the world. But then there's times where the Spirit is tugging on my heart and yet I just brush it off and keep doing what I'm doing. And well...before you know it, I'm at Ch 14 verse 72 where Peter reminds everything that Jesus said about him and just sits down and wepts. We are too often wepters of our inabilities to be faithful in Christ. But I hope that I remember that Christ loves to wept with me. That Christ holds nothing against me and my inadequacies. But rather He fills those voids and raises me up to be a child of God. Lest me now forget that.

Mark 12:35-44

What makes us so different from the scribes, and Pharisees, and high priests, etc etc? How are we not frauds to it all? Everytime I read about them...yeah I can see how the heart is deceitful and powerful of great lies to their faith. Then I look at my life and see the same thing. So what makes me any worse than them? I wish my intentions were pure all the time. I wish I had a gentleness that reflects Christ love. But...at times I really don't. I am a fool for the normalities of this world where it's okay to do this or feel that. I read passages like loving God and loving people and yet I think about God and hate people (especially yesterday). So when I read how the scribes walk around with long robes and have the best seats in the synagogues, I see myself with the robe and sitting in the pew. Christ makes it clear that those people will receive "greater condemnation." If normal condemnation wasn't bad enough...it'll be greater. I do not want to be apart of that. But Christ gives hope. There is hope in Christ and to God's plan. He goes on to talk about the widow's offering and how she gives everything she had, all she had to live on. And maybe Jesus doesn't directly say it here, there are passages that allude that this widow will receive even greater riches in Heaven. Hundredfolds! I want to invest in that. I don't want to invest in greater condemnation...no way. I can only pray that God will give me a heart to steward my possessions better and to live a life that is more fruitful with a pure faith. The world is so fleeting, but it is attractive. I hope I can fixate my eyes to something more grand.

Mark 12:12-34

Lot of things going on in this passage. I wanted to touch on Jesus responding to someone asking Him what the greatest commandment is. The funny thing about man is that we want absolute answers. We don't want the nonsense inbetween...we just want the answer straight. So of course someone would ask Jesus what is the greatest (aka most important one I should follow if anything) commandment of all time. Well Jesus is pretty frank and says you gotta love the Lord with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Wow..that's pretty much any intangible spirit you have as a person. He goes on to say then love your neighbor as yourself. I definitely can nod my head to that. I've heard that before..love God, love people (LGLP). But what I never heard was the guy's response to it. He goes, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" (v33). Much more than ALL whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Man...to think of all the great riches and purest things we could possible imagine to sacrifice...is still not as great as loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. That takes LGLP to a higher level. And after a day where I felt frustrated and cursed the people I work with...makes me feel like trash when I attempt to call myself a lover of God. Because you cannot love God if you cannot love your neighbor. Hm...food for thought.