So Peter spoke up to set the record straight. They weren’t drunk, they were just receiving the beginnings of a gift God had been planning for a long time. The gift was God’s Spirit/breath, God’s life inside them, and the call to the adventure of sharing that Spirit life all over the world. But this was only possible because of another great thing that God did, that he’d also been planning for a long time.

In Acts we’re focusing on the idea that Jesus’ disciples, as they go out into the world as his messengers, as his Spirit-bearers, are accused of “turning the world upside down.” Peter’s speech to this skeptical crowd in Acts 2 focuses on the fact that God has already turned the world upside down by raising Jesus from the dead.

A lot of Christians don’t seem like they’re living with the bold, adventurous Spirit that the disciples carry through the book of Acts. A lot of people these days are just plodding along, trying to live as safely and securely as possible. But if we really believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then that’s way more interesting than living only for safety and security. That’s so interesting in fact, that if you really believed it you just might turn the world upside down.

John Mark McMillan, “Death In His Grave”

Though the Earth Cried out for blood
Satisfied her hunger was
Her billows calmed on raging seas
for the souls on men she craved

Sun and moon from balcony
Turned their head in disbelief
Their precious Love would taste the sting
disfigured and disdained

On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke with keys
Of Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave

So three days in darkness slept
The Morning Sun of righteousness
But rose to shame the throes of death
And over turn his rule

Now daughters and the sons of men
Would pay not their dues again
The debt of blood they owed was rent
When the day rolled a new

He has cheated
Hell and seated
Us above the fall
In desperate places
He paid our wages
One time once and for all

February is here the month of Love.  Who do you love the most, your spouse, kids, dog, cat, golf game, job, country, etc?  The question is asked all the time but we tend to leave our one item.  God. God loved you first, before you were ever conceived, before your parents even knew you, before the beginning of time.  How can we have a God that loves us that much and not recognize and acknowledge their presence in our lives?  It’s easy because we are absorbed in a world of technology that shows us all the reasons that God does not exist.  I was reading a demographic study for the area and I was amazed at the results.  It gave a topic of Religious Practices and it was eye opening.

1^st: 19.8% of people enjoy watching religious programs on TV.

2^nd: 49.4% consider themselves to be a spiritual person.

3^rd: 18.9% Important to attend religious services.

4^th: 36.9% Conservative Evangelical Christian.

5^th: 15% My faith is important to me.

The most glaring demographic is number 5.  Why does 85% of the population feel that their faith is not important?  Your faith is your entrance exam into the heavenly kingdom.  Faith is the foothold on the climb to heaven.  Faith is the very essence of our belief system.  I hope and pray that we can overcome this statistic and begin to increase our faith, increase our understanding, and increase our FAITH!

Where are you in the scale?  What are you doing to increase your faith?

Just a thought,

Danny B

The next big Lenten Study will be Three Simple Questions by Bishop Reuben Job.  I have perused the work and it seems to go with our present status.  Here is what will happen.  We will meet at 5: 30 PM for dinner, then adjourn to the Sanctuary for our study.  It promises to be rewarding and inspiring.  Don’t miss out.

The question Are:  Who am I?  Who is God?  Who are we together?  thought provoking I think.  Give some thought to those questions and see if it changes who you hope to become.

Be Blessed

Danny B

But this good news is not always received peacefully. At several points Jesus’ ambassadors are arrested, interrogated, run out of town, and even killed. People found these people to be offensive, even treacherous – a danger to society. For instance, at one point some people get upset at a few travelling Jesus followers, and so they start a riot mob and attack the house where they were staying:

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” (Acts 17:6-7 ESV)

In a way, these people were absolutely right. The book of Acts records stories of ways that the church answering God’s calling ends up turning the world upside down. Some receive the Good News and the Holy Spirit with open arms, while others react to it by trying to snuff it out. The point of Acts is to put the question to you: How will you respond to this new thing God is doing?

Enough Stewardship Campaign Introduction

Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity

Stress. Anxiety. Fear. These words capture well the state of mind of many of us in America today. We have witnessed dramatic market losses, the collapse of the world’s largest insurance company, and many bankruptcies and mergers. Every day seems to bring another piece of economic uncertainty.

A recent survey found that over three in four Americans are stressed about the economy and their personal finances. Half were worried about providing for their family’s basic needs. Over half of respondents reported feeling angry and irritable, and reported lying awake at night worried about this. The report concludes that, “The declining state of the nation’s economy is taking a physical and emotional toll on people nationwide.”¹

Join us in worship the next 3 weeks for a sermon series entitled Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity. Our nation is experiencing what many have described as the “American Nightmare.” Increasing consumer debt, declines in savings, lower income growth, and a volatile stock market are all a part of our economic insecurity. We have lived in a society that tells us “you deserve it now,” whether or not we can afford it or really even need it.

All of us have struggled with these issues at one time or another. They are important issues that we cannot ignore. This is why, over the next 3 weeks, we will be having a churchwide study and worship emphasis called Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity. During this time we will explore what the Bible teaches us about financial management through corporate worship. We’ll hear expert advice and stories about what others have learned by working through financial challenges. Each week we will provide you with some practical tools you can use to assess your financial situation and develop a financial plan with a biblical foundation.

At the conclusion of the emphasis, we will have the opportunity to make personal commitments of our offerings to God through our church in the coming year. We will consecrate these commitments in the worship service on two consecutive Sundays (see the schedule that follows).

I hope you will join us in the coming weeks as we look at how we can manage our financial resources and truly experience simplicity, generosity, and joy.

Schedule of Events:

01/15/2012      When Dreams Become Nightmares

01/22/2012                  Wisdom and Finance

01/29/2012                  Consecration Sunday 1

1 “Eight Out of Ten Americans Stressed Because of Economy,” by Madison Park, from CNN.com, October 7, 2008; http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/10/07/economic.stress/index.html.

Be Blessed

Danny B

The Whole Sweep Of Scripture from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

I love the image of the Bible as a symphony. We don’t read the Bible for understanding, though that enters into it. We read the Bible to get drawn into the drama and the beauty of what God has done for us, and to get swept up into a life of participating in what God is doing for the world.

Don’t forget to keep reading! This week you should be in Mark 6-10.

A gospel is not exactly history, and it’s not just Jesus’ biography. In the Bible, a gospel is a story of the life of Jesus, but it’s a story whose main point is to tell us something about God, to direct us toward the good news that in Jesus God brings his kingdom near to us, and to invite us to take up God’s call to follow this Jesus.

So when you read one of the four Biblical gospels, you aren’t just reading a story about something that happened a few thousand years ago. You are engaging with a point in the past that is the key to everything that comes after it, as well as everything that came before. And, more than that, when you read one of these gospels, the stories it has to tell aren’t separate from your life, but by their very nature draw you into them and invite you along for the ride. God, Jesus, his disciples, various religious and political leaders and regular folks from that time are all characters in these stories, but you are a character in these stories too. You are called to follow, called to open your eyes to see and open your ears to hear the good news, called to faithfulness and obedience to God’s Reign on the earth, called to take up your cross, called to serve right where you’re at. The gospels become the story of your life, the way you understand your life and how you live it.

The fact that the Biblical gospels place these demands and invitations on us and convey God’s calling and his love for us is what makes them some of the most exciting things ever written.

The New Testament is the last twenty seven books of your Bible, starting with Matthew and ending in Revelation. While the Old Testament tells the story of God’s people, the bearers of God’s promised blessing for all people and for all of Creation, the New Testament tells the story of this promise’s fulfillment in Jesus. In the New Testament we meet Jesus, and we learn that he is the starting point; he’s at the center of everything – seen and unseen. In Jesus we see the true story of the whole universe, we hear the good news that God’s arms are open to us, and we receive a beautiful script to shape our churches and our lives.

To explore this together for the next year we will take a journey through the entire New Testament. Throughout this experience we will focus on what we’ve been reading and asking the question: What does it mean to be involved with this God, to be entangled with the person of Jesus Christ? We will see how the early Christian communities attempted to grasp this enormous news and how these communities developed as well as spread throughout the world. Our hope is that by the end of this year we all will be more drawn into the message of the whole Bible: the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ that radically turns the whole world upside down.

Come along for the ride, and ReDiscover your Bible!

…to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 25 – a tiny book you will probably never read unless you join us!)