Explorers Wanted
Acts 1:7-8-- [Jesus] said to [his disciples], "It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and the ends of the earth."
Something my good friend Jeff said to me yesterday has posed a challenge to my heart. He said that he was not that familiar with the book of Acts and intended to make it part of his Lenten study plan. I'm beating him to the punch and focusing on Acts for my devotional times now. That being said, here's today's thoughts:
In the verses above, Jesus tells us that there are things about the Father and His will that we are not to know, namely the dates and the times of Jesus' return. And with good reason! There are so many out there, like myself, who are great procrastinators. If I were to know the exact date and time of Jesus' return, I would be greatly tempted to live the way the world tells me to live now and repent at the 11th hour. I, like many, would show up staggering to judgement day with an empty Champaign bottle in one hand, a noisemaker in the other, a paper crown on my head, saying mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Sure, there have been tons of people who have come to faith on their deathbed after leading less than stellar lives. That's not my point. My point is that if ALL of us lived out lives this way, armed with the knowledge of when Jesus was going to come again, who would focus on telling people about Jesus and the fact that He is indeed coming again?
The question of the disciples is one of waiting. In essence, they want to know how long they can hide in the upper room before Jesus comes back to establish his Kingdom. This is the wrong question, and Jesus' answer shows that.
Instead of telling the disciples the date, time, and location of His second coming, Jesus gives them a mission to perform while they wait. They are to be his witnesses, people who tell what they have seen and experienced first-hand.
This leads me to my soul-shaking question of the day: Does the Father's limitation of what we can know and not know about His will and the emphasis that Jesus places on being "witnesses" mean that God wants us to focus more on our personal knowledge of Him and less on our institutional knowledge of Him? That is to ask, is it more important to live, move, walk, breathe, eat, sleep, and wake with Christ than it is to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Christ? I think Jesus makes it clear here in Acts 1 that there is a line drawn where our institutional knowledge of God ends; God has said we may know this much and no more. But, our personal knowledge of Christ is limited only by "the ends of the earth." Time to do a little exploring.
Something my good friend Jeff said to me yesterday has posed a challenge to my heart. He said that he was not that familiar with the book of Acts and intended to make it part of his Lenten study plan. I'm beating him to the punch and focusing on Acts for my devotional times now. That being said, here's today's thoughts:
In the verses above, Jesus tells us that there are things about the Father and His will that we are not to know, namely the dates and the times of Jesus' return. And with good reason! There are so many out there, like myself, who are great procrastinators. If I were to know the exact date and time of Jesus' return, I would be greatly tempted to live the way the world tells me to live now and repent at the 11th hour. I, like many, would show up staggering to judgement day with an empty Champaign bottle in one hand, a noisemaker in the other, a paper crown on my head, saying mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Sure, there have been tons of people who have come to faith on their deathbed after leading less than stellar lives. That's not my point. My point is that if ALL of us lived out lives this way, armed with the knowledge of when Jesus was going to come again, who would focus on telling people about Jesus and the fact that He is indeed coming again?
The question of the disciples is one of waiting. In essence, they want to know how long they can hide in the upper room before Jesus comes back to establish his Kingdom. This is the wrong question, and Jesus' answer shows that.
Instead of telling the disciples the date, time, and location of His second coming, Jesus gives them a mission to perform while they wait. They are to be his witnesses, people who tell what they have seen and experienced first-hand.
This leads me to my soul-shaking question of the day: Does the Father's limitation of what we can know and not know about His will and the emphasis that Jesus places on being "witnesses" mean that God wants us to focus more on our personal knowledge of Him and less on our institutional knowledge of Him? That is to ask, is it more important to live, move, walk, breathe, eat, sleep, and wake with Christ than it is to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Christ? I think Jesus makes it clear here in Acts 1 that there is a line drawn where our institutional knowledge of God ends; God has said we may know this much and no more. But, our personal knowledge of Christ is limited only by "the ends of the earth." Time to do a little exploring.
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