Last night I started a 6 week study on the book of Acts with some friends at church. Fitting 28 chapters into 6 weeks is pretty close to being impossible. So, for the next several weeks I’m going to continue some of my thoughts on Acts in this blog. I’m really attempting to reflect a little more devotionally on the study from the night before. I love the history of the book of Acts and studying all that went on during this time period, but the story of scripture isn’t just a story. It’s my understanding that it’s the God-breathed encounter that humanity is having with an ever revealing God. So, that means that Scripture continues to speak to us even today – knowing it’s original context is the best but taking it and applying it now is kinda the whole point.
I’m amazed at all the “events” that occurred at the time of the book of Acts. It’s as if, God used a lot of crazy opportunities to release the fullness of God’s glory at the exact right time. Of course, that’s exactly what the followers of Jesus realized shortly after the church began growing. In the fullness of time, Christ was revealed so that humanity would encounter this God and then redeem eden together. 
Of course it was the cross and the empty tomb that were the great initiating events, but what happened 50 days later was the launch of this movement. Pentecost is the day that we now celebrate the “birth of the church” but it’s not the birth of an institution that changes the world. What does change the world is the outpouring of the active, energizing, encompassing, changing power of the Holy Spirit! It’s the Holy Spirit that launches the rag tag followers of Jesus into a body and community that shifted the course of history. The church is the body of Spirit-filled individuals who are working and living together to pray and live into existence His “kingdom on earth as it is in heaven”.
The Church celebrates it’s birth each year on Pentecost, but more than that we are reminded that each day, each moment, is an opportunity to commune with the Holy – no intermediary, no go-between, no barriers other than the ones we make. I think it’s “funny” that this promise was the longed-for hope of the Old Testament. Certain people were gifted with special unique encounters with the Holy Spirit for certain times, but they weren’t routine and they weren’t for everyone. Prophets and regular folk alike longed for that kind of daily interaction and connection with God. They ached for it! They dreamed and wrote poetry about it.
Fast forward a couple thousand years and we still have a humanity that is longing for this connection to God – universally! Yet, for the past 2000 years, we’ve had complete and total access to this connection – to this God. It’s telling to me that, I can go all day with out engaging or even considering the presence of God in my life. I can rely totally on my own power, or my attributes, or my gifts, or my technology, or whatever else to get through my day. I can drown out the noise of my life with TV or with my iPod. I can even brush my teeth at the end of the day with a toothbrush that makes noise. I can go all day and not skip a beat, but our predecessors longed for an ability to converse with God. I’m busy and I run around so I neglect it – they longed for what I ignore.
I wonder what would happen if we remembered their longing – actually honored it – and took intentional time each day to be aware the the God of the universe chooses to reside in us? I wonder if we intentionally thought about this Holy Spirit that can give us life and energy and equip us to do things that are beyond our imagination; I wonder what would happen? Each person who claims to follow Jesus has access to a divine connection through the person of the Holy Spirit. Could it be that for such a time as this, we have been gathered together so that God once again could reveal God’s glory and a little more of that Kingdom could be released through us? I hope so and it’s my prayer for you today and this week! May we be filled fresh and anew with God’s Spirit and may we be aware of that presence in such a way that the world experiences some new ACTS.
grace and peace!!!
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Thanks for the study and the post on your blog. It is interesting to consider how the Holy Spirit would move today. Thinking about the "universal" church, I wonder if the "Mega-Churches" which are so popular today are the Holy Spirit's way of working; is it small groups; or some other way? Mainline Churches are shrinking as they become "institutions." The qwestion at the end of your study could have been: Where is the Holy Spirit leading your heart?Looking forward to next Wednesday….