acts 2&3...and the personal aspect of life.

so i have been having some rough days. there is a lot going on, i never slow down, and a crash seems immanent. i know that sounds rough, and i am sure many have it rougher, but i was really hoping that everything would not be so darn complex. there is so much that i could say about this... however, i will digress to acts 2 and 3, only to return to the personal deal that i am referring to.

Acts 2 & 3 

Let me just begin with saying this, i am not a huge fan of the book of acts, it seems to be a big place of contention with christians as to how to do "church." the crazy thing is that as i read these chapters, i didn't think about "church," i thought about life. it seems that our lives pattern the situations that are going on in this picture. the ability to reconcile these things seems uncanny. i live in a state of cognitive dissonance. 

well the first thing that i note that supports this picture i am constructing of life and not church is the concept that things happen when people come together. whether it was in the upper room waiting in prayer for the Spirit to come, or if it was breaking bread daily with one another. there was always a connection to the people that surround your life. without it, you don't live. you merely exist for your own selfish ways and patterns. however, there is another way to experience life and that is with one another. i am a huge proponent of this, however, i rarely feel people get it. 

life together, way better. i don't know what we think we can accomplish solo, but inevitably we cannot overwhelm the power of others. the church started like this. together. they ate together, stayed together, talked together, prayed together, etc. together, etc. together. why is it that in our Christian lives that we believe that we can experience life in Christ by ourselves. this is not what i see in acts in the slightest. shoot in acts 1, they had to find another to take the fallen brothers place. why do we ostracize ourselves from the fullness of life that we could have. 

funny that "fullness" in greek is pleroma. this word basically connotes something overwhelming to the nth degree. we want to have life, but we don't want the overwhelming part. just the life. that is one of the reasons why American Christianity ceases to live the abundant life. in the midst of this amazing life, full life, i am drawn to the next part of acts 2 & 3. 

everywhere in the passages i keep finding the concept of wonder or amazement. some of the words that riddled my heart as i read the pages were: bewildered, amazed, astonished, in awe, perplexed, wonder, signs, mighty acts. everything that these people were living and breathing was full of something that overwhelmed them because they didn't understand everything that was happening. 

i love that they were definitely willing to enjoy their amazement and accepted it as part of the life and experience that they repented to. it is a great thing to not understand your God, for if you understand him, how can he be God and you not he. there is a power in contemplation of these things, and i watched these people become enthralled with the journey to learn more. Whether it was through prayer, fasting, meal-sharing, discussing Scripture, they completely acknowledged that they were able to come to a great understanding through the things God has given us, whether that means the Word, his Spirit, or his people. 

Thus fullness of life comes when amazement meets togetherness leading them to understanding. 

This concept is the next thing I would lend to learn. If you watch anytime these things occurred, whether it was amazement of tongues being spoken, or lame men healed, that there was always some understanding that would be bequeathed to them. this mostly occurred through the preaching of the Word, however the Spirit moved in like fashion to bring them to a place of learning aptly what was occurring. 

I guess to sum all of these things up, i lend towards Acts 3:19-21, 26 (peaks paraphrase) - Change the way you have been living for your entire life, acknowledge it as less than the best, decide that God's original way of life was perfect, and come back into alignment to that purpose. When you are able to remove your old ways of living, you will be refreshed by the very experience of living life God's way only to find that God's means to this occurrence was the most redemptive process ever, to sacrifice the greatest thing he ever had, his Son Jesus, and utilize his Son's perfect walk as a way to reconnect us to the life that we always have longed for, through his death which was spoken by the Word since the beginning. If it wasn't through Jesus, we would never come to know the fullness of life that God intended for us, and we would be stuck in our own way of living on a far less fulfilling course of life.

back to the personal stuff: i take a lot of stuff personally. it isn't because i don't know that doing it is hard to deal with in ministry, but i take it personally because i recall that if people are treating me rough, then i wonder what their relationship with God is like. whether you like it our not, your relationships with God and people are indicative of each other. they are like a scale of you ability to relate. if you are failing in your relationship with people, you are probably failing in your relationship with the Lord. and vice versa. so every time people treat me poorly or say harsh things or neglect my friendship, i realize that there is a lot more going on with them spiritually and it breaks my heart to see people not where God wants them to be. that state of fullness, amazement, and togetherness. 

- peaks out