The 260 Journey

Day 107 Today's Reading: Acts 18 I had a discussion with a friend who believed the gifts of the Spirit were only for the first century and not for today, that the gifts ceased. That is called “cessation” theology. He keyed in on one gift he said he had a hard time with, and that was what “you Pentecostals call the filling of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues. It’s the last and least of all the gifts and you make a big deal about it.” I responded, “Let’s assume that Paul’s list of the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 is written in order of importance.” (That’s why people say tongues is the least of the gifts, because it’s last in the list.) “Even the least gift of God is a great gift from God. Don’t ever minimize a gift that God gives because He chose to make it number 9 on your list. I’ll take God’s number nine over any man’s number one. A low gift from God is still a great gift. There is no one who can’t be better having a gift from God, even if it is speaking in tongues. Don’t minimize God’s gift.” This is precisely what happened in the city of Ephesus, which we read about in Acts 18. This is a powerful lesson that actually goes into tomorrow’s reading as well. Ephesus was the number-one city in Asia Minor. It was known for having the greatest marketplace in the world—it really was the world’s shopping capital. It was one of the locations for the ancient Olympic festivals, in which people from everywhere would come to see the best athletes in the world compete. It was also the home for some of the most notorious criminals. The temple of Artemis (Diana), which was one of the seven wonders of the world, was an asylum for any criminal. If you committed a crime and if you made it there, you were guaranteed safe haven and off limits to authorities. (So Ephesus had the richest shopping, the greatest athletes, and the most deplorable criminals all there.) The temple also was a seller of magic charms and superstition items. They had the famous “Ephesian letters.” If you carried these papers, you were guaranteed safety for you and your traveling companions. They would also be good luck for your business or believed to get someone to love you—like a love potion. People would come from all over the world to buy little magic charms of Diana. The Goddess Diana was ugly—she was half-animal and half-human. And that temple was full of prostitutes. Ephesus had all of this—and they had a new church. This church was so important that Timothy pastored it, John the apostle pastored it, and Paul stayed in Ephesus longer than in any other city. But for our purposes, I want you to meet their first pastor, Apollos: A Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. (Acts 18:24-26) Apollos had the resume for pastoring any church in America. Everyone would have wanted Pastor Apollos. Consider his resume: he was eloquent— people loved to listen to him; he was mighty in the Scriptures—there was no false doctrine; he was fervent in spirit—this is amazing to have an educated man who is fervent in spirit. Usually education dulls the passion. He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus. He was speaking out boldly in the synagogues. He was unafraid of popular opinion in that city. And finally, Apollos powerfully refuted the Jews in public showing them Jesus was the Christ through the Scriptures. Apollos was eloquent, mighty in the Scriptures, educated, fervent in spirit, taught the Bible accurately, and proclaimed boldly outside the church. Who wouldn’t want this man to be their pastor? That’s if you just wanted a church service or a church but not a change in the city. These are great things but not enough for where they were located. This was Ephesus and it needed more. It needed someone with a gift from God. It needed a leader filled with the Holy Spirit. How do we know that? When Paul left Ephesus, he left a husband-and-wife team, Aquila and Priscilla, there to attend the church services. They listened to an Apollos Sunday sermon, and “when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (verse 26). The “more accurately" goes along with verse 25—that he had been “acquainted only with the baptism of John.” The baptism of John is water baptism. So they explained another baptism, one without water but full of fire, a baptism of the Holy Spirit. A correctable educated man is very rare, but Apollos was. He listened to the visiting couple, and here’s the result of his encounter with Priscilla and Aquila: “When he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (verses 27-28). They encouraged Apollos to go Achaia, and he became a help to that city. But Ephesus needed help, big time help—and help was on the way. Same city, same church, but a different man—and this time, one filled with the fire of God, one filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 19, we’ll see that the apostle Paul came to Ephesus. And something happened not only in church but in the entire city. What difference can the infilling of the Holy Spirit really make? That’s Acts 19.

Day 106 Today's Reading: Acts 17 Quaker minister and advocate of religious freedom, who also founded Pennsylvania, wrote about the dangers of jealousy: Jealousy is a kind of civil war in the soul, where judgment and imagination are at perpetual jars [odds]. . . . Nothing stands safe in its way: nature, interest, religion, must yield to its fury. It violates contracts, dissolves society, breaks wedlock, betrays friends and neighbors. Nobody is good, and everyone is either doing or designing a mischief. It has a venom that . . . bites. On our 260 journey today we find Paul ensnared in the consequences of jealousy. Paul had just finished preaching in Thessalonica and he left to preach in Berea—and jealousy was about to enter the picture: The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. (Acts 17:10-12) His trip from Thessalonica to Berea was a sixty-mile journey. Sixty miles to walk and preach the gospel. While he was there, he was seeing success. It says that “many of them believed.” But then another group made the sixty-mile walk. Not only does love and mission make you walk sixty miles, hate, jealousy, and anger will make you walk that far too. The Jews of Thessalonica were walking after them to mess up Paul’s journey. They hated Paul in Thessalonica. They were so jealous of him that they wanted to make his life miserable sixty miles from their hometown: “When the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds” (verse 13). This all started in their hometown, which we read about in verses 5-7: The Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also.” Instead of letting it go and saying, “At least they are out of our city,” their jealousy made them walk sixty miles. It takes about forty-five minutes to walk three miles if you’re walking at a brisk pace (you do the math) . . . that’s at least fifteen hours of walking. They couldn’t let it go. They couldn’t be happy that Paul and Silas were out of their town. They had to go and wreak havoc in the other city for them. That is the power of jealousy. There is a distinction between jealousy and envy. To envy, or covet, is to want something that belongs to another person. The tenth commandment says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). In contrast, jealousy is the fear that something we possess will be taken away by another person. Although jealousy can apply to our jobs, our possessions, or our reputations, the word more often refers to anxiety that comes when we are afraid the affections of a loved one might be lost to a rival. We fear that our mates, or perhaps our children, will be lured away by some other person who, when compared to us, seems to be more attractive, capable, and successful. Jealousy is a form of hatred built upon insecurity and fear. What were they afraid of? They were losing their influence to the gospel and they projected it on Paul. It was really Jesus, but Paul was the spokesperson, so their insecurity and fear made them go after Paul. The story is told of a great English preacher, F. B. Meyer, and his struggle with jealousy when another great English preacher, G. Campbell Morgan, returned to England after being in America. Meyer admitted to some friends, “It was easy to pray for the success of Campbell Morgan when he was in America. But when he came back to England and took a church near mine, it was something different. The old Adam in me was inclined to jealousy, but I got my heel upon his head, and whether I felt right toward my friend, I determined to act right.” F. B. Meyer’s jealousy is that insecurity that said, You are close, now I don’t want you to do so well. Do well in America but not around the corner. As R. T. Kendall wrote in Jealousy, “It takes minimal grace to weep with those who weep; it takes a lot of grace to rejoice with those who rejoice.” That second part—rejoicing with those who rejoice—reveals the heart. Rejoicing with those who rejoice is saying they got blessed and you didn’t, and that you’re okay with that. Can you and I be joyful when other people are blessed by God? That is a sure sign of jealousy being defeated. Those sixty-mile walkers did not like all those people believing. Instead of rejoicing that lives were being changed, they saw it as Judaism no longer holding the leading voice in their lives because Jesus was. Let’s make it a point today to rejoice with someone. How do we rejoice someone? By loving them. The presence of jealousy means the absence of love. Paul reminds us in the love chapter: “Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else” (1 Corinthians 13:4, TPT). That’s love . . . when you refuse to be jealous.

Day 105 Today’s Reading: Acts 16 Welcome to one of the most important New Testament chapters, Acts 16. This chapter is the reason we meet for church, and it all started with God saying "no" to the apostle Paul. Let me tell you that my “no” story changed the direction of my life. In the summer of 1983, I had the opportunity to go on two mission trips. The first was to Jamaica and the other to Detroit. Without praying, I said yes to Jamaica. I thought the sun, beach, and sand was the best place to minister. Then I did something that changed everything—I prayed and asked God what He wanted me to do. God said no to Jamaica and yes to Detroit. If left to me, I was heading to the Caribbean; if left to God, I was heading to one of the most impoverished inner cities in the country. Didn’t make sense . . . yet. That summer mission’s trip changed my life. What I thought would be two months between semesters at university, ended up becoming thirty years of my life and a call to ministry. And it all started with hearing no to Jamaica. That is not only my story, that is Paul’s story in Acts 16. God was doing great things in Asia, and Paul was on his second missionary journey. While he was starting to make plans for his “Jamaica,” he heard God’s no twice: They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. (Acts 16:6-7) Two no’s, then the yes from God: Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:8-10) Two thoughts for us to remember: 1. God is a father and fathers say no. 2. No is not rejection but protection. Remember, Satan always says yes. Sometimes you have to hear some no’s before you get a yes. If you have never heard no from God, then your relationship with Him is suspect and you’re probably not talking to Him. When He does say no, it means He has something bigger and better for you. For Paul, that bigger and better was that God had a global strategy for the church, one He mapped out way back in Acts 1:8: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Jerusalem was covered in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. Acts 8 moved the gospel into Judea and Samaria through the great persecution: “On that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. . . . Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:1, 4). Part 3 of the Acts 1:8 strategy had yet to be fulfilled—until we hit chapter 16. This was the gospel going to Europe and eventually around the world. If Paul didn’t listen to God and did what was comfortable by staying in Asia, then your church and my church wouldn’t exist today. It was so much easier to stay in Asia, but God had something bigger in mind, and so God said no. Thank You, God, for saying no to us, and especially to the apostle Paul.

Day 104 Today’s Reading: Acts 15 I’ll always be thankful for my friend and mentor, Dr. R. T. Kendall, who during a critical time in my life quoted these words from an unknown source: “Always remember that the best of men are still men at best.” We all have our faults and flaws, even the greatest Christian leaders. In today’s reading, we will see how true these words are. First let me tell you a revival story from the First Great Awakening in the 1700s that shook two continents. The awakening was spreading from England to a nation soon to form (the United States of America). What God did during that time became the DNA for the language used in our foundational documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Though the revival was great, it was not without controversy. Two great preachers and close friends, John Wesley and George Whitefield, who played significant spiritual roles during that time often found themselves in sharp disagreement with each other. Both men led countless thousands to faith in Christ, but they were at odds theologically. Whitefield had traveled to the American colonies and when he returned to England, the men had a heated confrontation. Wesley wrote of the event: “He told me that he and I preached two different gospels; and therefore he would not only not join with or give me the right hand of fellowship, but was resolved publicly to preach against me and my brother [Charles], wheresoever he preached at all. The best of men are still men at best. Before Whitefield came to the end of his life, he asked Wesley to preach his funeral sermon. Wesley agreed, and while there, a woman approached and asked, “Dear Mr. Wesley, do you expect to see dear Mr. Whitefield in heaven?” After a lengthy pause, Wesley responded solemnly, “No, Madam.” “Ah, I was afraid you would say so,” she said. “But,” Wesley continued, “do not misunderstand me. . . . George Whitefield will stand so near the throne that one like me will never get a glimpse of him!” Just like the first Great Awakening, the first missionary journey of the church to take the gospel beyond Jerusalem had problems between its leaders: After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. (Acts 15:36-40) The greatest Christian of his time (Paul) and the greatest encourager of his time (Barnabas) had a sharp disagreement. The best of men are still men at best. I heard someone say it like this: “The church is like Noah’s ark. The stench on the inside would be unbearable if it weren’t for the storm on the outside.” Many times we stink, but the world is really stormy. Paul and Barnabas only traveled together on one of the three missionary journeys because of this fight. The sharp disagreement between them was based upon whether to take the young disciple John Mark with them. Earlier, the young man seemed to have gotten scared and deserted the dynamic duo. Paul thought John Mark’s actions should get him fired, but Barnabas wanted to give him a second chance. When things are emotional, people tend to become illogical. The disagreement over John Mark became emotional and illogical. Sharp disagreement implies the emotional; separating and going different ways is illogical. When we read how this disagreement ended, it’s good for us to consider some questions: Who do you have in your life who will tell you the truth? Who can disagree with you without the situation becoming disagreeable and defensive? Can your spouse, best friend, family member challenge your opinion—spiritually, politically, racially, socially—without it turning into a shouting match? Here’s the truth: when you are shouting over a differing opinion, it isn’t the opinion that is revealing, it’s the yeller being revealed. Two quick thoughts to use for the times someone disagrees with you: First, get the second side of everything. Job 11:6 says that “sound wisdom has two sides.” You are not able to see everything and you are not able to know everything. Go in trying to find the truth not trying to be right. Second, surround yourself with wise people, those who feed your soul, not your ego, those who won’t be afraid to disagree with you, who will force you to practice getting the second side. As Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (NLT). Prominent 1920s attorney Dudley Field Malone said it this way, “I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.” I am happy the Bible records the argument of the apostle and the encourager, but not so happy about their separation. In the end, God used Paul and Silas on the other two missionary journeys, however, I wish we would have seen a resolution instead of a separation between the two. But it really is true . . . the best of men are still men at best.

Day 103 Today’s Reading: Acts 14 C. S. Lewis wrote, “Miracles in fact are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” Lewis was saying that a miracle was retelling the big story that God exists and God is good. Seeing a miracle should help us to see the big letters. Unfortunately, as we find in today’s reading, Lystra missed it. Acts 14 is about a man being able to walk for the first time. It’s a miracle! But the chapter shows us more: it shows how the people who can walk are lame. They are crippled in their worldview. The people in Lystra saw a miracle and end up worshiping the guys who performed it: While they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked. He was sitting and listening as Paul preached. Looking straight at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed. So Paul called to him in a loud voice, “Stand up!” And the man jumped to his feet and started walking. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form!” They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and that Paul was Hermes. (Acts 14:8-12, NLT) A man walks who had never walked. God healed him. And when the town saw it, they responded with a wrong conclusion—that Paul and Barnabas must be gods. And they decided, “Let’s praise these guys.” So Paul had to speak to their false conclusion: Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings—just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. In the past he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, but he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness. For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.” (Acts 14:15-17, NLT) Verse 17 is so important. Paul was explaining the reason Lystra blew it when the man was healed: God had left them evidence of His existence and His goodness. When it rains, it’s because God is good. When they had good crops, that was from a good God. Émile Cammaerts was right in these profound words: “The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything.” Because the people of Lystra missed God’s evidence, they had to come up with their own gods—and this day it was Paul and Barnabas. Paul’s words are not just important for Lystra to know but for our world to know. This is so important: we see something amazing happen and we praise people and leave God out of the mix. People know how to blame God for the bad but they don’t know how to praise God for the good. That was Lystra, and that’s happening today. Some years ago, I was flying home only to have my flight canceled because of a weather-related issue. Huge thunderstorms grounded all the flights. The other passengers and I would have to wait until the storm passed, which looked to be the next morning. When I asked the gate agent if the airline would cover the expenses of my night in a hotel, her response was, “We only cover that when it’s mechanical. When it’s an act of God, you are on your own.” I laughed when I realized what she’d said. She was saying God exists! But He exists only when bad stuff happens, and the airline isn’t responsible for His storms. When the good stuff happens, though, the airline did it. When storms happen, passengers have to pay. Insurance companies and airlines call storm-related damages acts of God. But they forget that the sunshine is from God too. In 1970, the Apollo 13 mission was almost a catastrophe. Apollo 13 was the third mission NASA was sending to the moon, but after an oxygen tank explosion onboard en route, they had to abort the mission. This is where the famous “Houston, we’ve had a problem . . .” line occurred. Many people only know about the event from watching the iconic movie Tom Hanks starred in and Ron Howard directed. The part the movie did not show us was that the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, came on television and asked the nation to pray for the astronauts’ safe return. And this is what happened: the capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean and was put on an aircraft carrier. And when the astronauts were safely aboard the carrier . . . don’t miss this . . . the president praised American space technology for the return of our astronauts. He asked us to pray, and when God answered that prayer, he praised human skill and technology. He should have just called NASA Zeus and Hermes. It was just a few years later that Watergate occurred and that president resigned in disgrace. God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good.

Day 102 Today’s Reading: Acts 13 In her children’s novel, The Candymakers, Wendy Mass wrote, "If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.” Well, in today’s reading we see that the butterfly is about to come out, because a change is coming. Can you imagine having Sunday school teachers in your home church named Paul and Barnabas? I mean the Paul and Barnabas. The church in Antioch did. Acts 13 tells us this and then tells us what happened during their worship service. And it’s the butterfly moment: There were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit . . . .” (Acts 13:1-4) Paul had been saved in AD 34—Acts 9. In Acts 13, it was AD 48—fourteen years later. It had been fourteen years since Paul’s conversion. Antioch was a six-year-old church, which we saw had been started in Acts 11, where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. Paul was teaching there but had not been released into full-time ministry yet until the music started one Sunday in the service. Let’s read verse 2 again, this time in a different translation: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (NIV). You have to worship. It’s a command. Not only because God deserves it, but because it positions us for God to talk to us and even guide us. And on this day in Antioch, God tapped Paul and Barnabas on the shoulders and said that it was time for them to change locations and ministries. You may have thought you are just singing when the music starts at your church, but so much more can happen. When you worship you are positioning yourself to hear God’s voice. The songs were playing and God said it was time for a change in the Antioch staff team. Whatever their role was at the Antioch church, it would have been cool to go to Barnabas and Paul’s church. But their church was soon about to have a staff shake up. Just when it seems like you have the perfect leadership team, God may say, “Change.” That doesn’t seem too cool to do to your dream team, but in this case, we know the end of the story and we know it was the right move, because this was the beginning of Paul’s missionary journeys and the spread of the gospel around the world. Remember, God’s will is more important than any of our preferences. His Kingdom is more important than personalities and our comfort. When it’s a God thing, there may be sadness but there is never harm to God’s work. God will not change the landscape to harm one place and bless another. God will not change something to kill ministries, but will raise up others to do the work of the ministry that did not have a chance before. Abrupt vacancy sometimes means we got comfortable with the same people doing the same thing for a long time and God wants others developed. Don’t think any person is off limits to God. Don’t put any boundaries around a singer. A musician. A pastor. A leader or faithful worker. As Corrie ten Boom reminds us: “Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.” That’s exactly what was about to happen to Paul and the church at Antioch. They were both holding their hands lightly when God tapped them on the shoulder during the worship service. Next time you stand and sing at church and you feel a tap, it may not be the person behind you. I’m just saying.

Day 101 Today’s Reading: Acts 12 Today we come to a challenging passage of Scripture. We are about to see two men in prison, yet those same men’s lives have a different outcome. And it seems there is something that happened that changed one of these men’s future. Let’s read the story: About that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. (Acts 12:1-5) Herod arrested two key figures in the first church: James and Peter. Both were imprisoned. James was put to death by the sword, and Peter was about to face the same outcome . . . but Peter was miraculously delivered. Something seemed to change Peter’s meeting with the executioner: “Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God” (verse 5). Read that verse again: “But prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.” Could it be that God was showing us the power of prayer? James got a sword; Peter got an angel: On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. (Acts 12:6-7) I have to say this about the angelic visit in prison. Take a look this sentence: “He struck Peter’s side and woke him up.” Talk about the peace of God. If I knew I was going to die the next day, I would not be in such a deep sleep that an angel would need to strike me on the side and yell, “Get up." Why did Peter have the peace of God? Because he knew the promise of God. This is really important. Back in John 21, Jesus made Peter a promise about his death: “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.” Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!” (John 21:18-19) He was telling Peter that he would not die young but as an old man who can’t even dress himself. Peter knew a promise that Jesus made over him twelve years before. So Peter could go to sleep, because he believed God would get him out. And God did. Puritan writer Thomas Watson said that “the angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel.” Could the difference be that God is showing us that prayer is intercession? That prayer gets people out of a death sentence. One gets killed, the other gets delivered. And the thing separating their fates was a praying church. Peter was going to be killed, but prayer trumped Herod’s intentions. My prayer, our church’s prayer, can be a matter of life and death. If Peter’s life depended on your prayer life or on your church’s prayer life . . . would he have had a chance? Or would he have faced the same fate as his companion? A Christian lady lived next door to an atheist. Every day she prayed, and the atheist could hear her. Many times, he would harass her and say, “Why do you pray all the time? Don’t you know there is no God?” But still she kept on praying. One day she ran out of groceries. As usual, she was praying, and the atheist could hear her. As she prayed, she explained her situation to the Lord, thanking Him for what He was going to do. The atheist was so annoyed with her praying, that he decided to get her. He went to the store, bought groceries, dropped them off on her front porch, rang the doorbell, and hid in the bushes. When she opened the door and saw the groceries, she began to praise the Lord! The atheist jumped out of the bushes. “You old crazy lady. God didn’t buy you those groceries. I bought those groceries!” His announcement started her shouting and praising God all the more. “I knew the Lord would provide me with some groceries, but I didn’t know he was going make the devil pay for them!” Can your prayer life get someone out of jail?

Day 100 Today’s Reading: Acts 11 In today’s reading we see a word that we use all the time but it’s used for the first time in the entire Bible. In fact, the word is used only three times in the entire New Testament. It is the word Christian. That sounds impossible, but it’s true. Pastor Sam Pascoe once said, “Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise.” It’s time to see how the Bible uses the word Christian. The Bible is very careful with this word, and I think so we must be. Let’s build a description of a Christian with the three passages, starting with Acts 11: “He left for Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (verses 25-26). The “he” in this verse is Barnabas, Paul’s mentor. The two men went to Antioch for an entire year. And it was in that city where Christian was first used. Let’s build our description on this economy of words. First, a Christian is a reminder. I love that the church did not make up this word about themselves and get T-shirts made. The word, which means, “little Christ,” was a derogatory, slang word made up by unbelievers. They were in essence saying that the believers reminded them of the man with the thorns on the cross whom was crucified a year before. A real Christian looks like Jesus, not like a church, a religion, a denomination, or a culture. Hopefully when an unbeliever sees us, they see Him. The second time this word is used is in Acts 26:28. Paul was talking to a king who was not a Christian. Paul was not just dispensing knowledge and information but was trying to persuade and change: “Agrippa replied to Paul, ‘In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.’” The second thing we need to understand about a Christian is that a Christian is a persuader. Christianity is not just right for me and you; it’s right for the planet. We are not inviting people to a place but to a person. Finally, we leave the book of Acts to find the last use of the word. It’s in 1 Peter 4:16: “If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” A Christian is a reminder, a Christian is a persuader, and a Christian is a sufferer. What does that mean? It’s suffering for doing the right thing. There will be times when a Christian will not get an award for doing the right thing, will not get cheers for doing the right thing, and will not get a plaque for doing the right thing. Instead that Christian will get laughed at, mocked, reprimanded, fired, and even sued for living like Jesus. There will be moments when your only audience will be an audience of one—God Himself. But that is enough motivation for doing what’s right. Christians are considered by many to be crazy, and, as A. W. Tozer suggests, with good reason: “A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest. . . . He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible and knows that which passeth knowledge.” May that be true of you and me always.

Day 99 Today’s Reading: Acts 10 I’m excited about today’s chapter. Acts 10 is one of my favorite chapters in the New Testament. It gives the thirty-thousand-foot view of why we pray. And it does this by telling a story of two separate guys, an Italian and a Jew, and how their worlds intersected through prayer. It reminds me of something I’ve often heard said: “The more I pray, the more coincidences happen.” Coincidence is just another name for the providence of God and the activity of God in our daily lives, connecting and intersecting situations that had no way of being connected. Peter and Cornelius were about to have that intersection. They are more than thirty miles apart, and God was set to bring their two worlds together. There is also a wider gap between their ethnicity, Gentile and Jew, and God brought that together also. Let’s read first about the Italian: There was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.” (Acts 10:1-6) If Cornelius didn’t pray, then how would he know about Simon, also called Peter, in a city called Joppa, staying with another Simon, who has a leather business near the sea? Oh my goodness, what incredible instructions from prayer. This is why I pray. There are things you will never know if you don’t pray. I’ve heard it said, “When I work, I work. But when I pray, God works.” God was working in Acts 10. Listen closely: those who don’t pray are boring. You miss the exciting extras God adds to your life. Prayerlessness is a boring existence for a Christian. George Mueller, the nineteenth-century pastor who housed and cared for orphans in Bristol, England, believed that four hours’ worth of work and one hour of prayer could accomplish much more than five hours of work. Prayer is the work, which opens up and intersects worlds that never would have come together. Just as it did here in Acts 10. When I pray, three things happen: • I go places I never would have gone. • I meet people I never would have met. • And I go through doors I never would have gotten through. Prayer brought together an Italian and a Jew who had nothing in common in their own minds, but there was a bigger purpose in God’s mind. Prayer widens the boundaries beyond your zip code, geography, and relationships. Now here’s the intersection: while Cornelius prayed and sent his men to get Peter . . . “on the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray” (verse 9). While Peter was praying, men were coming to see him. Peter received a vision, and the voice of God as a knock on the door from these men happened: “While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are looking for you. But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them myself’” (verses 19-20). Those were Cornelius’s guys. Two men’s prayer lives brought an intersection that would never have happened. And God brought the Italian and the Jew together. That’s what prayer does, and that’s why we pray. Peter went with the men to Cornelius’s house and preached to them. And “while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message” (verse 44). This is off the charts! It was the Gentiles’ Pentecost, in which men and women were filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized in water. And a few verses later (verse 47), Peter said that this was just like what happened to them in Acts 2. All of this happened because two men prayed. This is why we pray. Who knows who we will meet today? Who knows what door we will see opened? Who knows where God will send us? Louis Lallemant, a seventeenth-century monk couldn’t have said better the importance of why we pray: “A man of prayer will do more in one year than another will do in his whole life.”

Day 98 Today’s Reading: Acts 9 Today we read about the incredible conversion story of the greatest Christian who ever lived, the apostle Paul. We find his story in Acts 9. Before his conversion, Paul was murdering and persecuting young Christians. But he was about to be changed forever: Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.” (Acts 9:1-11) I am amazed at how in one day a man goes from breathing threats and murder against the baby church in Acts and in ten verses we find him praying. How does this happen? It is nothing but the power of God’s voice and God’s Word. One word from God can change anyone. I am still amazed at the power of God’s Word. He does not speak much but enough. We are so wordy, and God is so precise. This man was such a tough case that even the disciples took some time to believe that a change happened. As a side note: I love the dialogue between Ananias and the Lord in verses 10 through 17. God wanted him to lay hands upon the new convert Saul, but Ananias was apprehensive because he was aware of Saul’s reputation. He dialogues with the Lord and tells him about Saul (verses 13-14), as though the omniscient God had never heard of him before. God responded to him with a “Go” in verse 15. God can change even the worst of sinners. As D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “A Christian is the result of the operation of God; nothing less, nothing else. No man can make himself a Christian. God alone makes Christians.” Someone once said, “God has no grandchildren.” Do you know what that means? You cannot be a Christian because of your parents. You must experience God for yourself. And Saul did. And now the murderer was on the path to being the key writer of the New Testament. The Damascus Road is the conversion site of the apostle Paul. It gives hope to people who want to see friends and family born again but they seem so far away. Paul’s conversion shows us that when people seem furthest from God, they may be closer than we think to being born again. Paul was hunting Christians in verse 2 and praying like the Christians he wanted to kill by verse 11. I am so thankful there is nothing we do that God can’t forgive. Paul was killing Christians. I wonder if that’s why no New Testament writer wrote more on God’s grace than the apostle Paul. He was that horrific person, yet he experienced God’s grace. Paul learned what Christian writer Jerry Bridges wrote: “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.” It’s not just any old grace. It’s amazing grace—how sweet the sound.

Day 97 Today’s Reading: Acts 8 All of us, as children, heard the warning about playing with fire. The combination of youth and fire can be destructive. This is true both naturally and spiritually. In today’s reading, we learn about a great revival that came to a city called Samaria. The city faced two kinds of fire, and thank God, the right one came: When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:14-17) Philip went to Samaria and preached. When those in the Jerusalem church heard how well the Good News was received there, they sent reinforcements— Peter and John—to help him. After Samaria received the Word of God, Peter and John prayed that the fire of heaven would come upon them, as it did them at Pentecost. They laid hands on the Samaritans, who received that Pentecostal fire, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is something special about this moment, but to understand it, we have to go back to Luke 9 and read about two disciples who were playing with fire: When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (Luke 9:51-56) The disciples were dealing with racist hearts. The Samaritans were halfbreeds to the Jews. They were part Assyrian and part Jewish—a result of the Jews’ Assyrian captivity. They were a mixed race whom the Jewish people considered impure. Jesus rebuked them and their racist spirits. He told them that the Son of Man did not come to destroy lives but to save them. Thank God for His rebukes and His corrections upon our lives. Can you imagine what would have happened if those disciples actually called fire down in Luke 9? We would not be reading Acts 8. There would be no Samaria. Wrong fire, boys! God was wanting to send another fire but not the one they wanted. This is very important—the two boys who wanted to call down judgment fire, or Elijah fire, as it says in the King James Version, were James and John. And when Jesus rebuked them, it set them back on course. Sometimes it takes encouragement to get us on the right path, sometimes teaching, sometimes rebuke—but always combined with patience. The Bible says it like this: “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Jesus’ patience paid off. Do you remember who was sent to the Samaria of Acts 8? Peter and here it is . . . John. The man who was playing with judgment fire. Jesus was patient with him, and two years after Jesus’ rebuke, John returned to the same city. This time he did get to call down fire, the right kind of fire— Pentecostal, Holy-Spirit-baptism fire. And instead of a people being judged, they were filled with God. Thank you, God, for your rebukes. Thank you, John, that you listened. And now the right fire came to Samaria.

Day 96 Today’s Reading: Acts 7 One of my favorite books by C. S. Lewis is called God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics. In it, he includes a chapter called “Cross Examination,” which is a question and answer time with Professor Lewis. One of the questions: "Do you think there will be widespread travel in space?" His response: “I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness. . . . I can’t bear to think of it.” Of alien life, George Bernard Shaw noted, “The longer I live, the more I am inclined to the belief that this earth is used by other planets as its lunatic asylum.” But my favorite is Rick Warren’s statement: “If UFO aliens are so smart, why do they kidnap the dumbest people on earth?” Today we’re talking about aliens, but let me tell you about the aliens I am referring to. They aren’t from Mars or Venus, they’re from right here in Acts 7. The word alien has become familiar today with all the debate surrounding our southern borders and the wall. But that’s the word I want us to see here in Acts 7. It is from a sermon that Stephen preached. This sermon is the second longest sermon in the New Testament, next to the Sermon on the Mount. Stephen will not end his sermon with music, an altar call, or a challenge. This sermon will end with his listeners being so angry that they stone him to death. The longest part of his sermon speaks about Moses and the alien issue. I want to show you how God’s man and God’s deliverer became an alien before he became a deliverer. Stephen recounted, “At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons” (Acts 7:29). Think of that: a remark changed Moses’ life. The remark was, “Are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?” (Acts 7:28, MSG). The back story is that Moses started to feel his calling rise up when he saw an Egyptian abuse a Jewish slave. He killed the Egyptian and expected his people to celebrate. Instead they criticized. And then someone made the remark, which made Moses flee and become an alien. Our words have life and death to them. As Proverbs 18:21 reminds us: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” The Message says it like this: “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.” What have you heard that has lodged in your soul? What word have you heard that changed what you are and where you are today? Who spoke those words to you? Has someone said something to you that has changed you into something you never wanted to be? Someone can be one crazy comment away from becoming an alien. It happened to Moses: “At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien.” Twenty-four words changed royalty into a fugitive and an alien at forty years old. A remark took him from the palace and put him in the desert. The words brought fear and put him on the run. Have you ever heard life-altering words? You will never be anything. You’re stupid. You aren’t even my real child. You were a mistake. You are just like your father. I hate you. I wish I never had you. People’s hearts are so fragile and people’s words are so careless. When fragile and careless intersect, you get aliens—people becoming something they never intended to become. The opposite happens when life words are spoken. I love you. I’m proud of you. I was thinking of you. I’m praying for you. Those are life words. Some of these words you have never heard, I have never heard, our youth have never heard, but we can change that today. When life words are spoken, huge life comes to them. There is a place in Sydney, Australia, c

Day 95 Today’s Reading: Acts 6 God sees beyond anything we can ever see. That’s why the Bible is quick to point out to us in Isaiah 55:8 that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways. That’s important for us to remember as we look at today’s reading in Acts 6, because this is where the early church starts to get organized. It’s all brand new for them, as there has never been a church before. I heard it said before: “If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t go anywhere.” Well, the church had obstacles . . . and they were going somewhere. They were on a path to change the world. Growth means life. But growth also means more people, and where there are more people, there are more problems. This is exactly what we find in Acts 6:1: “At this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.” I have heard people say that we need a church today like the early church. I know they don’t mean exactly what they are saying. They want the presence of the Holy Spirit but they forget that the early church had problems too. By Acts 5 and 6, the church already had people lying about the offering and dying and really upset widows who were not getting any food and being overlooked, and the implication was racism. The upset widows were Hellenistic and the widows who had food were Jewish. That’s the early church. They had their problems, but they also had leadership responsible to deal with it well. That is our focus in today’s reading—how they dealt with this issue. The disciples knew this problem was not simply telling the people to start feeding the Hellenistic widows, it was also a great lesson on leadership and delegation: do what only you can do and not what others can contribute. So in response to this issue, they decided to choose the first deacons of the church. And this point is key: remember that His ways are higher than our ways. People need to be fed and served: The twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2-4) Pick people who have a good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom. God has higher ways. It would have been easy to look for those who had been in the restaurant business, worked as a waiter or maître'd or a race relations person. I’m thinking of the issue at hand and trying to connect the issue with experience. But God’s ways are higher. God says we need to be Spirit-filled and we need wisdom and a good reputation. Why? Because God is higher and He sees further down the road and knows what we need. Because the requirements will be a weapon we can use later on. Why these requirements? It seems that the enemy knew that the Twelve were willing to die for their faith in God, so he had to attack the next level of leaders, which he did. It didn’t take long for these deacons to come under attack just as the twelve apostles had: The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. But they were unable to

Day 94 Today’s Reading: Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira are well known in church history. For those unfamiliar with their catastrophic ending, listen closely as we discuss Acts 5. They are a couple who sold some real estate, brought a portion of the money for the offering at church, and were called out by Peter and judged by God on the spot. Listen to the scariest offering section of a church service ever: But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. (Acts 5:1-6) After Ananias’s death, the same thing happened to his wife. We must guard against our services being fireplaces and fireworks and not fire from heaven. God is not a fireplace who simply warms you and makes you feel comfortable while at the same time you still stay a distance from the hearth. The fireplace is contained and controlled. Meeting Him in the church service is not fireworks either. It is not just a show with “oohs” and “aahs” and then everyone goes home in the same condition they came. Both of these create an illusion of fire but is not the real thing. We must have a place where fire from heaven falls. That was the early church, and this was definitely Acts 5 where the fire fell in the offering time. Why the harsh penalty for not giving the amount they were supposed to give in the offering? I think it’s connected to the word but, the first word of chapter 5. It connects it to chapter 4 and the last few verses. That day during the offering another person gave and was called out for good reasons, and his name was Barnabas. The story makes sense if we read the ending of Acts 4: Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. (Acts 4:36-37) Barnabas sold property and brought all the money to the offering that day. Then the contrast. I believe Ananias and Sapphira saw what Barnabas had done and decided to put on a show instead of being genuine. They acted like Barnabas but had hypocrisy in their hearts. God could not allow in this newborn church such craziness, and He exposed it. On the outside, Barnabas and Ananias looked the same: both sold property, both brought money, both laid it at the apostles’ feet. But both were not the same. God knew their hearts. Something may look exactly the same but be drastically different. And God gave Peter discernment to know that difference immediately. I have to tell you that to read this on paper is scary. What if you were an outsider and reading about this in the Jerusalem Times under a headline that read “People Who Lie Die?” I would be scared about that church. Yet here is what is amazing: people want the real thing. They don’t want the fireplace or the fireworks, they want the real fire of God. And when we read the Bible, God’s fire will lead us through a wilderness and baptize us just like in Acts 2. But that same fire will kill people, like Aaron’s sons in Leviticus and Ananias and Sapphira. Either way it’s real. So here is what happened after th

Day 93 Today's Reading: Acts 4 Today’s reading in Acts 4 is connected to a miracle story in Acts 3. In Acts 3, Peter and John prayed for a man they had seen every day at the temple, but this time with the fresh power from the Holy Spirit they received in Acts 2, they see this lame man walk and he's healed. Peter and John told the people that Jesus did this miracle. That’s where we pick up our story in Acts 4. The people who saw the miracle and heard their story became Christians—5,000 of them! But there was another group listening who did not believe: As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. (Acts 4:1-3) The miracle and the message landed Peter and John in jail. And after questioning them, this is what happened: When they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:18-20) The authorities told Peter and John not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Let me say this about the Christian and our government. Talking about Romans 13, pastor John R. W. Stott says that “we are to submit right up to the point where obedience to the state would entail disobedience to God.” At that point our Christian duty is to disobey the state in order to obey God. If the state misuses its God-given authority either to command what God forbids or to forbid what God commands, we have to say no to the state in order to say yes to Christ. As John Calvin said, “Obedience to man must not become disobedience to God.” And that is where this story lands us. The Jewish authorities told Peter and John they could no longer speak in the name of Jesus, which has to be a no to the state to say yes to Christ. And Peter says "that's impossible. We don't have the ability to not speak," Peter says, “We cannot stop.” Dr. E. V. Hill, one of the great Baptist preachers preached on this moment when Peter challenged the “no speaking” rule of the courts: Peter spoke up and said, “You’ll have to judge whether or not we should obey you or obey God. But as for us, we have a condition, and it’s contagious and it’s called ‘can’t-help-it.’ We couldn’t stop if we wanted to. We could not stop in spite of your threats. We are not spectators; we are participators. No matter how you have threatened us and forbidden us to preach by this name, we will continue to do it, because we can’t help it. This isn’t something we can cut on and off. . ." “We were with Jesus when He turned the water to wine. We were right there with Him when He hollered to Lazarus to come forth. . . . We were there when He gave sight to the blind. Don’t tell us to shut up; we’ve got evidence.” They said that on that basis they were going to keep on preaching Jesus. “We can’t help it.” You and I need that “can’t help it” condition too. We all do.

Day 92 Today's Reading: Acts 3 When a big event is over and life starts up again, how do we cope? How does that look? Or how do we look? After an inspiring Sunday church service, Monday will be there. Monday is always coming. There will be no lights, no band, no greeters at the door, no hugging . . . because it’s Monday and we have a job and a schedule to keep. The biggest event in church history after the cross and resurrection is the day the Holy Spirit fell upon the church—called the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church, which we read about in Acts 2. Fire touched them, the church was started, and people were changed. And what came after, which we read about in Acts 3, is monumental. It is a great guide for us on how to look at Mondays: Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. (Acts 3:1-8) Look at verse 1 again: “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.” After the most powerful move of God in the church, the church went back on schedule. The ninth hour is 3 p.m., the normal hour of prayer in the Jewish culture. God put them back on schedule. They started attending the normal prayer meeting. That is insightful. They became 3 p.m. Christians. What is a 3 p.m. Christian? It is a Christian who was touched by the Holy Spirit in a special setting but now takes that new touch and brings it into their everyday environment and schedule. They are new people in the same old place. A 3 p.m. Christian comes to the same places with a different heart and different perspective. God doesn’t change places, He changes the person. Acts 3 determines if Acts 2 is real. Real life determines if the experience and change are real. Monday behavior is a great test of Sunday inspiration. What happened to the disciples? One thing that was very noticeable was that the ordinary started to look extraordinary. They received new eyes. That lame man wasn’t new, he had been placed there every day from the time he was a kid. They passed that guy, but today he looked different. He looked like a candidate for a miracle. One of the best tests for us is that we will notice people: when God touches us, then we love people—not just God—better. It isn’t a true work of God if we don’t treat people better. The ordinary and the common should start looking different—from the people in Starbucks to our spouses and our kids to our bosses to our coworkers. God didn’t change you for church. God changed you for life—everyday life, Monday life. He changed you to be a 3 p.m. Christian.

Day 91 Today’s Reading: Acts 2 The church was entering a time that would prove to be the most difficult to be a Christian. Believers would die or be persecuted for following Jesus. The persecution started in the first century and continued for three centuries under the orders of Roman emperors Nero to Diocletian who ordered some of the most horrific things done to Christians. Jesus knew this difficult time lay ahead for His followers so He wanted to make sure they were prepared. One of the greatest movies is Gladiator. One of the deleted scenes on the DVD depicts Russell Crowe, a once-powerful Roman general who had been forced to become a common gladiator, in the bowels of the Colosseum viewing the Christians being fed to the lions. It was accurately portrayed that he would view the Christians’ persecution before the gladiators would go into the fight. Why? To fill the stomachs of the lions so they would be more playful with the gladiators during the games. Why did the Romans kill the early Christians? Not for worshiping Jesus but for not worshiping and acknowledging all the other gods in the Roman Empire, because they clung to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. The first-century government hated the Christians not because they were Christians but because they didn’t say all the other religions were legit. We call that pluralism—all religions are equal. So at the beginning of Acts, with the creation of the early church, Jesus was equipping them with something for the worst times Christianity would face. He was also equipping us. How does God get His people ready for this type of environment? He gives a gift—the gift of the Holy Spirit, as we read in today’s chapter: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4) This is not a denominational thing. This is not a Pentecostal thing. This is a Jesus thing. I have been fortunate that I was raised by great Christian parents and had godly grandparents. From a young age, I was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. When I was a pastor for thirty years in Detroit, someone once told me that they could do a better job on those streets because they have experienced that world, and I haven’t. They had a life of addiction that I did not have so they could speak to the people on the street better than I could. That did not seem right to me—the best way to be effective in ministering to the world is to experience the world? I don’t think so. This is the reason for Acts 2. The best way to face the world is not to experience it and see that sin is not fulfilling. God doesn’t say taste and see the world is no good; God goes the other way: taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus didn’t tell Peter to get high, Martha to experience sex outside of marriage, James to get drunk, John to go to prison and kill someone so they could all really minister to people. He said an experience with God is what we need to tell people about God’s kingdom and living a Holy-Spirit-filled life. Jesus knew that our power was in experiencing God, not in experiencing sin. Sin takes away, God fills and gives. So when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, He wants to give you a power to face what is ahead and equip you to share the Good News unafraid. If Jesus said that the best thing for us was for Him to leave so He could send the Holy Spirit, then it is best. And He will help us through the hardest times. We need another Pentecost. We

Day 90 Today's Reading: Acts 1 Dr. R.T. Kendall recalls words his mother told him once about an old saint who had great influence on his mother’s life—and consequently on his. She said, “I have served the Lord for so long now that I can hardly tell the difference between a blessing and a trial.” She understood something important: that what you call a problem can really be an answer to prayer. What you think is an interruption is a catapult to your calling and dream. Today in our 260 journey, we turn to the book of Acts. Acts 1 is about to give you a dream—and then I want you to see how it is accomplished. Jesus said in Acts 1:8: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Jesus said that He would release the disciples as witnesses first in Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria, and then to the outermost parts of the earth. Jerusalem happens immediately in Acts 2. Let’s cover how part 2 of the plan is accomplished. Always remember, God is creative. And in Acts 8, God uses a strange element to cooperate with His blueprint: Philip is in Samaria and a whole city is being turned upside down. How did they get there and how did it happen? Let’s take a look with the goal that you and I will get a whole new appreciation for the tough stuff we face, or as my friend tells me, to “dignify your trial:” Saul was in hearty agreement with putting [Stephen] to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. . . . Those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. (Acts 8:1, 4-5) How is the promise fulfilled? Through persecution—or more specifically, great persecution. Believers headed to Judea and Samaria. How does God get the ball rolling to these two places? He uses attack and persecution against the church to scatter them. What seems so bad? Scattering and persecution is literally God’s agent to fulfill the mission. Here is the end of the story: “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase” (Acts 9:31). So a promise (Acts 1:8) was fulfilled by trouble (Acts 8:1-6). This is similar to another biblical character who suffered trials in order to fulfill God’s plan. Joseph was closer to his dream in jail than he was in Potiphar’s home. He was closer as a slave to the dream he had than at home as daddy’s favorite boy. As William Secker said, “If Joseph had not been Egypt’s prisoner, he would have never been Egypt’s governor.” Call it what you want, but all the stuff you are going through—false accusations, betrayals, being fired for no reason—all that trouble may be the catalyst to God doing something great in your life. Or as some anonymous person reminds us, “Sometimes good things fall apart, so better things can fall together.”

Day 89 Today's Reading: John 21 We know that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879. Back then they didn’t have mass production, so each bulb had to be created separately. He and his colleagues worked twenty-four painstaking and meticulous hours straight to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with that light bulb, he gave it to a young boy to deliver up the stairs to another part of Edison’s workshop. The boy nervously carried it— step by step cautiously watching his hands, terrified of dropping this treasure. But when he got to the top of the stairs, the poor boy dropped it. It took the team of men another twenty-four hours to create the second light bulb. Tired and ready for a break, Edison needed it carried up the stairs. Guess who he asked to deliver it? He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. This time he made it to the top. Jesus had a light bulb and Jesus had a clumsy kid. The light bulb would be the church and the kid’s name was Peter. Peter’s stair drop? Peter denied Jesus three times at Jesus’ most critical moment of his life. And after the resurrection, Jesus found Peter to give him the light bulb—right after his failure. That’s where we land in today’s reading. God is amazing—not only because He forgives us after failure, but also because God trusts us after failure. As Psalm 130:3-4 (MSG) says, “If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.” In John 21, Peter and Jesus met the first time after Peter dropped the light bulb. And Jesus wanted to see where Peter was in his failure. In other words, He was looking at Peter with an eye toward what Abraham Lincoln said: “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” Jesus was making sure Peter was not content. Failure is part of life, everyone experiences it. Getting up from failure, though? Not everyone does. Yet failure isn’t final until you quit. Let’s look in on the scene: After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and He manifested Himself in this way. Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will also come with you.” They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing. (John 21:1-3) The craziest phrase is in the first verse: After these things. What things? The things in John 20. “After these things . . .” (verse 1) and “Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing . . .’” (verse 3). That’s your response, Peter, to the resurrection and to what you just saw? Remember what Peter saw: • An empty tomb, which he entered. • Mary overcome with emotion and clinging to Jesus. • Jesus walking through walls. • Being commissioned to tell the whole world. • Doubting Thomas becoming believing Thomas Shouldn’t the next phrase after 21:1’s “After these things” be something like: • Peter preached. • Peter went to church. • Peter worshiped. You would think, but nope. Peter saw the resurrected Jesus and got his tackle box. He was told he would be a “fisher of men,” but he went back to being a “fisher of fish.” Why? Because Peter forgot. The emotions, the feelings of God, fear, and excitement wore off. To Peter, the event of the resurrection was done and now it was Monday. He was thinking, It was a good run. We did the Jesus thing for three years and now it’s time to get back to normal life. After September 11, 2001, many churches were full, but soon the fear and the horror of it all wore off and life

Day 88 Today's Reading: John 20 What if Jesus showed up to your Sunday night service today? I know we talk about Resurrection morning, but not many talk about what happened that night. Resurrection night was a huge event for the disciples. I’m afraid if Jesus showed up to one of our twenty-first-century Sunday evening church services, He wouldn’t find many there. And Jesus had an important Sunday-night message for the church. Today we have landed in our 260 journey on John 20. It’s Resurrection day— but not the morning. It’s the evening. Let’s read the passage: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” (verse 19) The Sunday evening church service is slowly fading out of church life. I grew up in a time when Sunday night service was “the” service to go to. There would be less traditional hymns and more choruses. There were water baptisms, altar calls for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and as a child, the best was that there was always the possibility of an “after glow.” Us “old timers” know that to mean eating after church in the fellowship hall. Since I grew up in the church, I can tell you that I have been water baptized on a Sunday night, filled with the Holy Spirit on a Sunday night, seen great gospel bands and Christian movies on a Sunday night, and most importantly in my youth, eaten good cake and punch. Traditionally, Sunday night service was a little more casual for the members. But it was a night that allowed more freedom and had a greater expectation for “the spirit to move.” Unfortunately, today the Sunday night service is becoming an extinct species. Let me say, I am not saying there is something magical about Sunday night, I am just talking about what I experienced. And I’m also talking about the time Jesus chose to give really important directions to His disciples. Many of us pastors dread the Sunday night service when the morning service is a holiday service, such as Mother’s Day and Easter. Most people have no motivation to get back to church those nights, especially after eating a big meal and meeting with family. Thank God the resurrection of Jesus did not take place in our time . . . or Jesus would have had to accomplish everything in the morning service, because no one would have been at the night service. And yet Resurrection night was just as important as Resurrection morning. It’s in the evening that Jesus offered a three- point message, and every point was the same: Point 1: Peace be with you (verse 19) Point 2: Peace be with you (verse 21) Point 3: Peace be with you (verse 26) Jesus comes to the house of the disciples, closed doors and all. Looks a little like our churches on Sunday night. But this is Jesus, so He walks through the walls. The doors are shut, yet Jesus gets in. The risen Christ does not know the barricades of locked doors or locked hearts. The risen Christ is not limited by our closed windows or closed minds. I’ve always appreciated the suggestion of C. S. Lewis, that the risen Jesus could walk through walls because he is more real than them—in the same way that an airplane can move through the clouds that look so solid. What was so significant about Resurrection evening? Each of the three times He stated “Peace be with you” was important. The first “Peace be with you” was a challenge to bring Christianity outside the walls of our meeting places. The disciples were afraid, and Jesus told them, in essence, Don’t meet in your little clique. There is a whole world out there that needs to know I am alive, so go in peace. The second time Jesus says “Peace be with you” i