Does the book of Acts make you feel guilty? How did those common men astonish the intellectual elites of the day? Acts 4 tells us that it was their boldness in the spirit! Where is ours?
Yesterday Francis Chan closed out Exponential09 with a challenge
that drew 500 or more to the stage for prayer. It was one of the more inspirational moments of my life. Francis began with the question,
How can we be so educated and yet so afraid?
Try laying the “parable of the talents” on top of that thought and giving them some soak time together. It will change you.
Chan then asked, “If all we knew was the Bible, what would we believe? What would we expect to see if we walked into a church for the first time?” Wouldn’t we expect to see:
- Radical love
- People honoring and preferring one another
- Boldness in the spirit
Where are the modern day Elijahs? Could the Holy Spirit simply be too worn to engage with us? Elijah boldly stood down all 450 profits of Baal. What has happened to us and the church? James 5:17 teaches that, “Elijah was a man just like us.” And we’d all agree that the Holy Spirit is still the Holy Spirit.
Is it time we pray for repentance, a boldness in the spirit, and for radical love for our neighbor? And if we boldly gave away our life could we find the abundant one we’ve so long searched for?
Here’s a past clip of Francis challenging us to this boldness in Christ:
hi ed,
i’m enjoying reading your thoughts. i have just been thinking about this exact thing. i’m reading through acts and also a book called fresh wind, fresh fire. sort of ironic to read at the same time, but anyway… this thought has just been striking me the last couple of days as well.
Sharlin,
Thanks for sharing. I sense as well there is this growing interest through out the country to rediscover a passionate life in Christ. A life boldly sacrificed for a noble cause far bigger than any of us. The conference this week was filled with that spirit with over 3000 people searching for understanding and opportunity to do just that.
Let’s learn and grow together to that end. Please stay in touch.
Standing on the promises,
Ed
The pill most North American Christians struggle to swallow is the on of self denial-living. The whole daily taking up my cross thing freaks us out. Pastor Chan’s life is matching his message. That is key to being like Jesus in our present day.
Dale,
Thanks for the clarifying thought. As you say Christ came to free the captives and we read all through the new testament stuff like:
- To gain your life you must lose it.
- The last shall be first.
- To live you must die.
I like this line my dad often said:
No man is free who is a slave to his own body.
When we begin to display real power in our lives more will ask of the spirit that lies within us.
Hey…thanks for sharing Dale.
Hey Ed,
Great challenging stuff as always. This post made me thing about a song from Susan Ashton from years ago. Here’s some of the lyrics…
‘Cause we are comfortable here in our slumber
Lullabyed by the heartbeat of God
But we can’t be alive in His number
While living in the land of Nod.
So we lie down by the light of the lamp
Unaware that there’s evil in our camp
And we snooze and we snore
And sometimes it’s so loud that we can’t hear the lion roar.
Shake it up, wake it up, turn on the light
We’ve been asleep for too long
Souls have been rusted and hearts have been turning to stone
Oh, where did we go wrong?
Thanks for the exhortation.
Don Reed
Don,
Thanks for joining in and sharing these provoking lyrics. We have work to for sure.
Blessings to your day!
just had to chime in again, that from what i’ve read on here, your dad is full of wonderfully wise quotes. i think i’m going to start writing them down.
Sharlin,
Hey…thanks for coming by!
I have included several of dad’s quotes from time to time. He left us with a lot of them and they still frame much of our world view.
Proverbs teaches the blessings of a father are passed to the third and fourth generations. I pray I can be a healthy part of that process for my kids and grand kids.
Appreciate you,
Ed
Hi Ed,
Wow…that video really struck a chord with me. I could hardly believe the loss this man has suffered in his young life. His visual example of the Christian trying to live the safe life was so convicting to me. I have found that in my life, I have often been in a posture of bracing myself for another blow from God…waiting for the next bad thing to happen. I spend nights in bed thinking about what I will do if something horrible happens to a family member. This causes me to try to do exactly what he said, live as safely as possible.
But he’s so right…I don’t want to end this life and say, “boy, I got by and nothing significant happened in my life and I didn’t get hurt because I never tried to do anything for God….now, where’s my crown?!”
I can walk away from a video like this and begin imagining that the bold life will involve huge events and major work…but I am reminded that it involves just saying “yes” to the Holy Spirit as he nudges me to call someone…to walk up to someone and show them His love…to do the things nobody but God will know about. To work for the praise of One.
Thanks for always sharpening me.
-Rebekah
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