Read today’s texts first: Nehemiah 13; Malachi 1,2; Acts 4
MAXIMize YOUR DAY
It’s a good mission(ary) statement for the church: to boldly go, maybe even where no man has gone before!
Though not an ardent Trekkie, I do like the opening narrative of the original series, “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” We see such bold pioneer leadership in our readings in Nehemiah and Malachi, but we see it even more so in the accounts of the disciples turned apostles in the book of Acts.
That Star Trek motto could easily be a church mission statement! The emphasis should be on “boldly.” While some emphasize the gift of speaking in tongues as the primary evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit (I would agree that it is most often the initial physical evidence), I would suggest boldness is another clear evidence of the outpouring of the Spirit.
Something other-worldly happened to those discouraged disciples on the Day of Pentecost. At first they were afraid for their lives, hiding themselves away from the authorities who had just crucified their Master. But now they were taking their power encounter with the Spirit of Jesus to the streets, facing ridicule (2:13) and even arrest (4:1-3). But their boldness made them unstoppable (4:13) - they could not be dissuaded from openly preaching about Jesus.
After being released from their arrest on the condition they no longer speak about Jesus, they gathered for prayer. What did they pray for - tongues, power gifts, miracles? No, they prayed for greater boldness, and they got what they asked for: house-shaking, world-changing bold unstoppable faith (4:23-31)!
Another journal entry on this day a few years ago included an incredible report from two of our church members who followed the leading of Jesus all the way to Belize. Many heard the gospel and prayed to receive Jesus in a public high school and university and across the nation through repeated news broadcasts, all because one young lady and her father prayed for boldness. “Lord, that is my prayer today, that I may boldly go, maybe even where no man has gone before!”
No comments:
Post a Comment