Plymothian

Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. ³³ There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralysed. ³⁴ And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. ³⁵ And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

Miracles and Evangelism

Peter heals Aeneas and people find God.  The announcement of the gospel was accompanied by great power.  Peter went to Joppa and saw the need of an individual and took care of them.  Of course, paralysis is nothing to be sneezed at.  Was it a psychological ailment that held the body in check?  Was it purely physical?  The text does not tell us, but God heals both kinds.  Why don’t we see it so much today?

One answer is that we presume upon God and want to dictate to him how his story will be written.  We often want miracles to satisfy our own curiosity, needs, or fears.  Illness is the natural consequence of our rebellion against God.  Left to run their course, sin has a terrible affect.  Sin can cause emotional, psychological and physical pain.  God will deal with sin through judgment and grace.  those who receive judgment live with the due punishment of sin in their bodies.  Those who receive grace are saved from consequences that they deserve.

Christians are called to be agents of grace.  We turn the world back to the way it was designed to be.  We can ask for miracles, but a lot of healing occurs in the way we treat each other.  What needs are there in your community?  How does your community flourish because you live there?

Prayer

Father, you have let your world decline into sin and its effects ravage our bodies and minds.  Show us the ways that you want us to speak and to heal.  Let us ultimately show people the way back to you through our actions.

Questions

1. What was the problem Peter encountered in Joppa?
2. How did Peter respond?
3. How do miracles pave the way for the gospel message in Acts?
4. What are the needs in your community?
5. How do you respond?

When Rehoboam became king his destiny was set.  God had said that because of Solomon the Kingdom of Israel would be divided.  However, it was the son of the wisest man the world has ever seen who made the fateful wrong decision that divided the nation.  He wanted personal power, he wanted to prove himself, he wanted to outperform his father.  He sounds like many young men and women today who are trying to establish themselves and prove themselves.  To whom should they turn?  Rehoboam must have had an absent father.  His father was trying to run a country and keep 700 wives happy.  Rehoboam was not raised in the kind of family unit that God wanted.  Solomon’s words may have steered his son well, but it seems that Rehoboam was more interested in impressing his peers than listening to those who had gone before him.  In recent history young people have been told not to trust anyone over thirty.  In so doing they eliminate drawing from the wisdom of experience.  Of course Grandma and Granddad may not know how to operate an iPad, but maybe they have managed to stay in a successful marriage or managed to stay out of debt.  Obtaining a mentor is a wise move.  Those who are older tend to have a more reasoned faith and belief in God is more prevalent among older generations.  It is not necessarily a sign that we have become smarter, in many cases we have just succumbed to the loudest voices in our culture that are given more air time.

There are some younger people who listen to me because of my status as a professor, but in general what I say will wash away.  What lasts is the conversations that we have with those who are close to us.  If we surround ourselves with people who are walking away from God, we will wake up one day without our faith.  If we speak with those who have grey hair but sharp minds, honed by their years.

It is easy to drift with our peers into the folly of youth.  It is hard to choose to spend time learning from the older people in our churches.  However, if we take the time we may find they have something to offer.

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. ²⁰ And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” ²¹ And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” ²² But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

²³ When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, ²⁴ but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, ²⁵ but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

²⁶ And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.²⁷ But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to themhow on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸ So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹ And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. ³⁰ And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

³¹ So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Preaching Boldly

Paul, who previously went by Saul, obviously had some passion.  His persecution of Christians was passionate.  However, after his conversion his zeal was turned toward good.  Passion can be a good thing, but only if we are passionate for the good.  It’s a double edged sword.  I am a person who can have passion, but it sometimes leads me into trouble.  The key is to let the will be directed by God and the emotions, or passions, to be directed by the will.  When the will is a slave to our passions we become unstable and make big mistakes.

Paul also had great intellect.  He had a great mind before his conversion, but his great learning was used for God after his conversion.  I have heard stories of those who are suspicious of Christians with Ph.D’s or years in seminary.  They say that God’s Holy Spirit is all that we need and that formal education is secular, or even worse – worldly.  This suspicion of thinking seems to elevate ignorance to a virtue.  However, I agree with C.S. Lewis when he said that God wants a child’s heart but a grown up’s head.

Finally, there is much in this passage about God preserving his people to complete the work that he wants to do.  I have felt run down and unable to really throw myself into God’s work recently.  maybe it is the result of working with Kelli to write our book.  However, God seems to be working through me and giving me just enough energy to do what he wants.  I have to discern if I am just being a ‘yes’ man, but when we follow God and wish for his work to be done, he will protect us and sustain us in order to complete that work.

Prayer

Father, let us have passion to use the gifts that you have given us for your glory.  Let us discern what you would have us do and then let us trust that you will preserve us.

Questions

1. How are Paul’s gifts used by the church?
2. Why would people want to kill him?
3. Why would God preserve him?
4. How have you grown intellectually, physically and spiritually?
5. How does God use the gifts that he has given you?

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³ Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.⁴ And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ⁵ And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. ⁸ Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰ Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.¹⁴ And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.¹⁶ For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ¹⁷ SoAnanias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; ¹⁹ and taking food, he was strengthened.

Faith for the Terrorist

We often think that the world, and Christians in particular, has never seen a time like ours.  If we can get over ourselves for a moment, we see that Saul was dragging people out of their houses and having them arrested because of their faith.  That is the backdrop of the miraculous conversion that gave the world one of its most fervent evangelists.  If Osama bin Laden had been converted and not killed, what kind of evangelist would he have made?  How would people have felt about his conversion?  Those who mistreat Christians often feel that they are doing good in the world.  Saul did not drag Christians from their homes because he thought he was doing evil.  He chose a fervent discipleship of his perceived truth, but God stepped in miraculously and revealed that he was wrong.  He lived in a pluralistic world.  many religions and gods were tolerated in Saul’s time.  Even the Jewish faith had special exemptions under Roman law so that it could exist with other faiths.

It is strange to me that those who demand tolerance are not tolerant of Christian belief.  That is people who don’t believe are not tolerant of those whose Christian faith affects all of life.  Jesus demands exclusive and total allegiance and that is offensive and wrong if a person wishes to believe that all ways lead to God.  Saul understood the exclusive claims of Jesus’ followers and he opposed them.  He then proposed the same exclusive faith that he opposed without compromise.

When we are opposed by a postmodern culture or Islamic terror, we need to remember that this kind of opposition is nothing new.  The church in the West must pray for Saul-Paul-like conversions of key opposition figures.  May those who seek to kill us not be killed in graceless actions of justice.  We must wish for their conversion to new life rather than death.

Prayer

Father, please save those who decapitate my brothers and sisters.  If they must receive your justice, then let it be so.  However, let us love our enemies rather than wish for their destruction.

Questions

1. How has Saul previously been described?
2. How is he converted?
3. Why do you think others didn’t experience Jesus in the same way although they were right there?
4. How should we pray for our enemies?
5. Is there anyone that you have given up on?

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said,“How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.³⁶ And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”³⁸ And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Ethiopian Eunuch

Philip has started moving about the countryside beyond Jerusalem as the Spirit leads.  He has gone to Caesarea, the city that was hated by the Jewish population because it was so overrun by Gentile influence.  Now he goes to a dignitary from Ethiopia.  The details point out that Philip is talking with a man on influence and wealth.  The gospel does not reject those who are privileged.  It can use their position to help others.  It can use their power to gain traction for the gospel.

The immediacy of the action of both Philip and the Ethiopian are lessons for us.  When the Spirit prompts we must act.  We must not think too highly of ourselves and we must not think too little of ourselves.  God can use anyone.  It is not that the person must be perfect, God will use any heart that is submitted to him to bring about his will.  Rather than ask “Why me?”  we might ask, “Why not me?”  We do not have to have great qualifications and there is only one real disqualification, a heart that is not inclined toward God’s will.  A lot of people miss out on the prompting of the Spirit because they think that change must take time.  Sometimes, of course, God works changes over a long time.  Sometimes he works them in an instant.  We can not dictate that God’s working be fast or slow, we just surrender to the direction of the Spirit and we let him move us.

I am speaking up quite a lot at Moody in situations where I think I am surrounded by people who are more qualified or more godly than me.  However, I know that when I talk I could choose not to talk.  If someone else was moved to say the same things, I would not be in competition and I would not feel slighted.  I speak up because I feel a prompting of the Holy Spirit.  The school I work for needs to pray and seek God fervently.  That starts with all of us kneeling before God and aligning ourselves with him.  Then, if he prompts us to act, we act.  Like Philip we may be surprised at who we find God wants to talk to through us.

Prayer

I am amazed at your grace.  I am grateful for times when you have used me despite my emotional weakness and my physical condition.  However, I am surrendering more to you because I want nothing more than to see your will be done.  It is a minute by minute choice, but I pray that you would keep my heart focused on you.

Questions

1. Where was Philip when he was prompted to act?
2. How swift was the obedience or response of both Philip and the Ethiopian?
3. What do you think happened in Ethiopia?
4. How swift do we react to the Lord’s prompting?
5. What is the Lord prompting you to do?

Note:  For answers to questions like #3 above, I am interested in reading After Acts by Bryan Litfin. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41829&pid=143090

 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. ¹⁰ They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” ¹¹ And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

¹⁴ Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, ¹⁵ who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.¹⁷ Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹ saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰ But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³ For I see that you are in the gall^[c] of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” ²⁴ And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”

²⁵ Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Prepare To Be Amazed

The last chapter in our book, 20 Things … , is called Prepare To Be Amazed.  Simon the Sorcerer and the people of Samaria were amazed at the work of the Spirit in Philip.  Philip was performing miracles and preaching with power.  Samaria knew about God, but they were guilty of religious syncretism.  Syncretism is when one doesn’t replace false belief with true belief but one creates a new set of beliefs that holds on to the precious beliefs of the past and adds onto the belief the new teaching.  Simon the Sorcerer illustrates this principle.  He has a belief in God that wishes to add the teaching of Philip.  However, his motives are impure.  He desires the Spirit for his own ends.

We do not know whether the apostles prayed for Simon, I assume they did, but we do know that Simon was an example of no compromise.  We can not have a heart that enlists God to affirm our own agenda.  We need contrition, compassion, and a longing for God.  If we allow ourselves these three things we will be amazed.  The Holy Spirit will take new ground and we will be victorious.

Prayer

Dear God, I am discouraged by the way the world is turning against faithful people.  I am saddened when people of the faith disagree and bicker.  I want people to put themselves aside and follow you.  However, I start with my own heart.  I want to be undivided and clearly focused.  I do not want to try and add the faith to my own agenda.  Oh God, we need you.  May we be amazed at all you are going to do.

Questions

1. Why is Samaria significant as a detail in this story?
2. How does Simon represent religious syncretism?
3. Why do the apostles reject Simon’s request so vehemently?
4. How do people today add Jesus to their lives without letting go of false belief?
5. How are we to address the tendency to add Jesus to our lives rather than make Jesus our whole life?

Read Tozer on the 3 wounds http://www.studylight.org/devotionals/toz/print.cgi?d=0122

And Saul approved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. ² Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. ³ But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

⁴ Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. ⁵ Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. ⁶ And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. ⁷ For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was much joy in that city.

The Power of a Dark Past

The execution of Stephen was the marker of the beginning of intense persecution.  Saul was a key figure in hunting down and exposing Christians for their new found faith.  These were not mature Christians who had walked in the faith for years.  The faith was in its infancy.  The work of the Holy Spirit was so powerful that those who barely understood it were willing to be persecuted for it.  This does not mean that only initiates are foolish enough to suffer.  Persecution is an equal opportunity hardship.  Those outside the faith do not really differentiate according to how well-versed a Christian is in their faith.

Saul is particularly singled out for his poor behavior because his conversion will be all the more remarkable.  If Saul’s poor behavior were watered down, the story in the next chapter would seem less.  Saul was passionate in his persecution of the church.  Dragging men and women from their homes is similar to the acts of Isis in Syria and Iraq at the moment.  The fact that Saul didn’t kill as many people as Isis may only be because he was in a country occupied by Rome which wouldn’t allow him to vent his rage to the fullest.

My mother and I have struggled over how my father is represented in the book that Kelli and I have just finished for Moody Publishers.  Early in their marriage my father’s behavior (and my mothers) was tainted by their immaturity.  Living in the house, their story affected my story.  My mother still loves my father passionately and can easily accept the writing about her own actions, but her love for my father causes her to want to protect him from negative exposure.  Kelli and I also write a lot about our own failings and how God is still working on them.  My Dad, though, found faith in God in the end.  If you knew my Dad you would see how strong a testimony that is to God’s grace.  I love my Dad, too.  But I see the strength of his testimony, like Saul, represented in the magnitude of the change God wrought in his life.  I grew up in a church where the sin and struggle of the older generation was constantly hidden.  “We don’t air our dirty laundry in public” was one of the phrases used to justify this position.  This means that in times of failure my generation felt they were imperfect and that imperfection could not be tolerated.  No-one older than us had imperfections.  In their care to protect each other and themselves from pain, they did not provide us with living examples of what God could do.  Most of my friends left the church for something more accepting or authentic.

My mother reluctantly gave us permission to print the darker side of their struggle in their early twenties.  It is only a paragraph.  However, I believe it will help those who struggle in ways similar to my parents to see how much God has done in their lives.

Anyone who knows my twenties knows that I made very poor choices and did somethings that still push me toward shame and self-condemnation.  I was told by some people that I really respected that I should never be involved in ministry.  I was traveling the world as a kind of escape from many things.  God used that time in spite of my foolishness.  God also has shown the magnitude of his grace in allowing me to teach ministers for ten years, raise a couple of beautiful children, and work on a a book with a talented wife.  God shows his own glory in this, too.

How do you tell your tale?  Do you hide the sin that was once your master?  Do you hide the sin that entangles?  God is glorified most by authenticity.  Even when I was in my darkest struggles with the faith, friends became Christians because they saw the authenticity of the God that we struggle with.  People open up to open people.  People become vulnerable with the vulnerable, broken with the broken.

Prayer

Oh God, I am grateful for your grace that has taken my foolishness and worked to correct it.  I am grateful for the ministry that you do through our broken lives.  Saul is an example of a man who was far from you and he came to you in a miraculous encounter.  My father is the most powerful example of that in my own life.  May his testimony be used in our upcoming book to honour his memory, but more importantly may your name be glorified.

Questions

1. Whose death had Saul just observed?
2. Why is Saul so negatively and graphically represented?
3. What was the consequence of his negative actions, and the actions of those like him?
4. Who have you observed going through the most transformation?
5. What is the advantage of ministers communicating their own weakness and struggle as well as victory?

⁵⁴ Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” ⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. ⁵⁸ Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

The Stoning of Stephen

A death can be a victory.  Jesus’ death is presented as his glorification or enthronement in the Bible.  Here, one of Jesus’ disciples dies in a way that is just like him.  He faithfully stands for what is true and is released through death into the arms of his saviour who waits for him.  The Holy Spirit fills disciples in Acts and gives them their strength and insight.  Those who oppose the gospel are infuriated with such a passion that we are left with a clear insight that they are corrupted by evil.  As Jesus put it, they have the devil as their father, not Abraham.

Saul (Paul) is listed among the opposition to the gospel.  He is aligned with evil.  This shows that even the cruelest heart can be captured by God.  Maybe the stoning of Stephen left some affect on Saul, but if it did he suppressed it.  God answered Stephen’s prayer at his death and did not hold this great sin against him.

The last line of the stoning is one of peace. Stephen is not burdened and driven in the way that Saul was.  He lacks the fury and disquiet of spirit of his opponents.  He ends his life eloquently, powerfully and peacefully.

We are encouraged to be filled continuously with the Holy Spirit.  We, too, can have eloquence, power, and peace in the face of great trials.  This is beyond our natural powers because evil affects us and works against us from within and without.  Isis is killing Christians in Syria and Iraq at the moment.  The beheadings of adults and children are horrifying.  I inadvertantly came across pictures on line and was shaken to think that many of these people were killed for believing the same things as me.  I hope that God was powerfully revealed in them at their ending.

Those who oppose Christianity with such passion show by their passion that God really exists.  Their anger and fury does not make sense if God just doesn’t exist.  Of course, some ideas about God are really harmful.  Isis kills in the name of God.  However, many atheists oppose the idea of a peaceful and kind God with much the same fervour as they do an angry and vengeful God.

In the face of rejection and suffering the Holy Spirit can empower us and bring Jesus near.  We have to redouble our commitment to live close to him.

Prayer

Holy Spirit, as Kelli and I write our book I feel less organised and structured.  I let these feelings become reality and I walk less powerfully in the principles that I hold as true.  Let me stick to the core of my beliefs in thick and thin like Stephen did.

Questions

1. What had Stephen told the Sanhedrin that made them mad?
2. Why is Saul mentioned?
3. How is Stephen an example to follow?
4. How are Christians persecuted in the west?  How can they stand?
5. How are we to support Christians killed by radical Islam and other haters?

I am preaching tomorrow on Solomon’s choice of wisdom.  I was interested to see in the text that the two women whose baby he threatened to cut in half were hookers.  They left that detail out in Sunday School.  I preach on 1 Kings 3 tomorrow at Grace Fellowship, but here are some initial thoughts.

The twenties are overwhelming for some because the training of education is over and the ‘real life’ is about to begin.  In days gone by a child often walked into the pathways laid out by their parents.  If mommy was a homemaker, that would be the aspiration of the daughter.  If daddy was a lawyer, the firm would add “& son” to the offices after his offspring passed the bar.  For many, setting a course for life was simple and predetermined.  After walking within the confined hallways of schooling for many years, the twenties open up into broad vistas of possibilities.  For some, like me, the twenties are a playground in which to experiment and explore.  However, the choices that we make in our twenties are significant and the responsibilities of being an adult who has to pay their own bills, make enough money to pay them, and establish relationships that will stand the test of time can be overwhelming.

It is also surprising to many older people that those in their twenties are experiencing a lot of anxiety and uncertainty.  However, as we have sat in our office we see more students who lack certainty about whether they are making wise choices for life.  They are afraid of choosing the wrong career, the wrong partner, or the wrong faith.  Some prefer not to choose, but not choosing is a choice in itself.  Some choose to drift.  However, as Alexander MacLaren powerfully suggests, “For one man who goes wrong by deliberate choice, with open eyes, there are twenty who simply drift. Unfortunately, there is more evil than good in the world; and if a lad takes his colour from his surroundings, the chances are terribly against his coming to anything high, noble, or pure. This world is no place for a man who cannot say ‘No.’ If we are like the weeds in a stream, and let it decide which way we shall point, we shall be sure to point downwards. It would do much to secure the choice of the Good, if there were a clear recognition by all young persons of the fact that they have the choice to make, and are really making it unconsciously.”

At the start of his reign, Solomon had a choice to make.  Would he set his heart on God or on some other life objective?  He set it, mostly, after God.  At about age 20, he decided that he would pursue wisdom.  Wisdom was a tool for him to use in his highest goal – to know what God wanted for his people and for him personally.  What have you set your heart on?  Is God a tool in your tool box that enables you to achieve that goal?  Is God the goal himself?

Jesus’ first talk to his fresh disciples on a Galilean hillside called them to a commitment.  The young men and women on that hill were hearing what life is all about.  They had committed to a person when they agreed to follow Jesus, but they weren’t really clear who he was or where he was going to take them.  It would take them a lifetime to find out.  They worried about how they would pay their bills, what they might eat for diner, or what clothes they could afford to buy.  But Jesus told them that life was more than the details that wrap us up and pin us down in our twenties.  Life was about a single focus, “Seek first the Kingdom of God … Store up treasure in heaven … choose the narrow gate … build your house on the rock …”  All these ideas point back to starting life with a singular focus.  We can’t drift into what is significant and right.

Kelli and I chose God.  And then we didn’t.  And then we chose God again.  And then we got sidetracked.  And then we did ministry for God without being sold out for God.  And then we did dating.  And then God slapped us alongside the head.  Then God splashed our faces with cold water.  God reminds us daily that life is all about him.  We forget.  Everything in the world is created by God and for God.  That includes us.  This is what this book is about.  It’s about the constant choosing that God gives us in our twenties.  We leave home and we leave school and God asks us to choose him.  It took Kelli and me a while to start to get it right.  We just want to share what we have learned on the way.

 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

² To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of gloryappeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. ³ ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’^[a]

⁴ “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land,even though at that time Abraham had no child. ⁶ God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. ⁷ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’^{[b] 8} Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

¹¹ “Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. ¹² When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. ¹³ On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. ¹⁴ After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family,seventy-five in all. ¹⁵ Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. ¹⁶ Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.

¹⁷ “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. ¹⁸ Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’^{[c] 19} He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.

²⁰ “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.^[d] For three months he was cared for by his family. ²¹ When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. ²² Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

²³ “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴ He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. ²⁶ The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

²⁷ “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[e] 29} When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

³⁰ “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: ³² ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’^[f]Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’^[g]

³⁵ “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.

³⁷ “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’^{[h] 38} He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. ⁴⁰ They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’^{[i] 41} That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. ⁴² But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. ⁴⁵ After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, ⁴⁶ who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[k] 47} But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

⁴⁸ “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! ⁵² Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— ⁵³ you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

Meta-narrative

A metanarrative is a story of reality.  It explains why things are as they are.  It explains how we should live.  It explains why we are alive.  Stephen starts with the common metanarraitve of Jews and Muslims, but then he comes to Christ.  The way Stephen tells the story of the Bible points to Jesus.  However, those who have guarded the ancient story have missed its point and they will kill Stephen.

Today people try to live as if they are players in many different stories.  They play out roles they have learned from movies, songs, family and friends.  However, if the biblical story describes the great story of which we are all a part, are we living the life we were meant to live?