a work in progress.

1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!”5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God,10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

I’ve been reading through Acts lately and this passage really made an impression on me over the Christmas season this year.

You know those guys on the street corner holding the cardboard signs that say something like, “Will work for food,” and the strange “panhandlers,” who are usually asking for your extra change as you walk through the busy downtown streets?  I’m assuming the lame guy in this passage is somebody like those guys.  I would even go as far to say that this lame guy’s disability was being exploited for financial gain considering the text reads that he was being carried to the gate to beg everyday.  If you’re like me when you walk past those guys exploiting homelessness (in some circumstances, pseudo-homelsessness) on the street you think to yourself, “They’re just going to use the cash to feed their addiction.”

So, what if…

We paid enough attention to the Holy Spirit living inside of us and asked, “What is it that makes that person sit here day after day begging for money?  Do they have some sort of addiction that they’re feeding?  Are they disabled in some way?  Or have they truly fallen on hard times and need some basic needs like food and shelter?”  Then, if we actually believed and embodied the promise that we have the “same Spirit who rose Jesus from the dead living in us”– with full confidence we could say, “Get up!”  By stepping into God’s story, we could allow Him to demonstrate His glory and give more than a gift of cash but a gift of healing!  What better gift could be given to anyone?  After all, don’t we celebrate Christmas because of a gift who came to restore?

Can you imagine the types of stories we’d be reading in the newspaper or seeing on the six o’clock news?

I don’t to claim to know how or when God wants to heal somebody of their addiction, defect, or circumstance.  But what I do know is that He wants to showcase His glory!  And why shouldn’t He?  He is God!  I want to have the kind of relationship with God that He shares things like this with me.  I may never be the one who possesses the gift of healing–and I’m ok with that!  Actually, I can tell you that God has never used me to heal somebody physically!  But God has wired me in a way to do other things that glorify and build-up the Church.

What about you?  Do you have the kind of relationship with God that He shares with you what He wants to do through you?

“We’ll sing the news of all Your grace / We’ll help the broken hearted praise / You’ll put Your glory on display / King of Heaven” -Charlie Hall

I’ve heard it once said that the first sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.  I’m not sure where I heard this or if it’s even true in regards to diagnosing insanity.  But what I do know is that over time–we all do this.  You know what I’m talking about… It’s when you try to verbally reason with your one year old about the same thing, over and over, expecting their behavior to change because they understand the theories behind what your saying.  For us Browns fans, it’s when you fire your head coach every three years expecting the next one to take you “all the way!”  Or it’s when you get angry or hurt in a relationship and defaulting to that one thing that always makes your feel better…temporarily but it never seems to supply long lasting comfort.

We all do this.

Same thing–over and over again.

Expecting different results.

11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. ¹²But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God’, ¹³and since then has been waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ ¹⁴For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. ¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
¹⁶ ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds’,
¹⁷he also adds,
‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’
¹⁸Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.  (Hebrews 10:11-18, NRSV)

Something I’ve been learning lately is the reality of what Jesus has done on and through the cross.  For hundreds and hundreds of years, the Priest would make his way into the Holy of Holies to offer a pure animal in exchange for forgivenss.  This temporary, repeated sacrificial act of atonement only pointed to the Hope who was to come.  But what it didn’t accomplish was the forgiveness of sins.  It only caused the people of God to remember their sin daily–which is what we deserve.  So they constantly lived there, in that place of guilt and regret.  Because of this God-commanded, sacrificial act over and over again, they could not escape the shameful ransom over their heads.

Then, Jesus came.  The blameless Rescuer who had been eagerly waited upon for hundreds and hundreds of years.  Though He did not deserve it, He conquered death and and our well-deserved destiny, once for all.  Therefore freeing us from the guilt and shame of our sinful-nature.  He no longer wanted our hearts and minds to be focused on endless regret but on the hope of ‘The Way,’ the Kingdom of God.

This has made me think of the way we do Communion, Eucharist, whatever you want to call it.  Often, the way I’ve presented it is a dimly-lit, solemn exercise of reflecting on our sinful acts against God and asking for forgiveness because of what He has done on the cross.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing but I think what I’ve done is probably half right.  Participating in the consumption Christ’s blood and His body shouldn’t be a time of grief in the reflection of our sins but a celebration because of the hope of the empty grave!  Christ died for sins once for all so that we could live in freedom without that baggage, so we could be a different people–set apart.

It’s time we leave behind the old way of grieving over our sins and step into the new reality of Jesus’ empty grave.  Let’s quit spitting in the face of Jesus by only half believing what He’s done through the cross and start living like we’re a different kind of people who have Hope living inside of us.

Here are a few things that have been on my heart and mind that God has been speaking into me for the past couple of months and up through last night:

• Taking and being the Church in a non-church environment.  (Matthew 28:18-20 *note:  ”all nations” has no boundaries of social class, job environment, race, religion, nationality, etc.)
• Hearing ‘their’ cries.  (Exodus 3:7-9)
• Restoration.  (Romans 8:18-24, Revelation 21:3-5)

Funny, after writing these out, I realized how much they go hand in hand.