Postponed! All decisions postponed!

Scripture

They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Acts 15:39-41

Observation

The church is a family and not a business. Bonds are close so when decisions are made in church life we tip toe through exposed nerves. We should be considerate.

When the tough calls come here’s the question: should we go with the heart or the head?

Barnabas went heart first. He thought of his home state and his cousin first before the mission of the church. In time Barnabas’ choice proved to be right. Cyprus was won to Christ. Johnny Mark matured into Mark the author of a Bible book. Heart decisions work.

Paul went head first. He thought of the corporate mission left by Jesus to go into all the world. He was not willing to jeopardize that for one immature young man or to stay cooped up on an island in the ocean. So he chose a seasoned veteran to journey with him and went where no apostle had gone before. In time Paul was proven to be correct. Before his life was over the gospel had made it to Gibraltar and back. Head decisions work too.

The accent of this story is on Paul and his bold decision to move ahead head first. There are times when the family bonds of church life must be bruised as we move forward with the gospel.

Paul’s home church didn’t criticize him for it, they prayed for him. What a healthy response!

When we sit on the outside of a business meeting or on the edge of a large organization, leaders can make choices that cause tongues to wag. Often it is because we who live on the edges are thinking emotionally and personally rather than strategically.

Leaders, like the captain of a ship, sit in the helm where all things are visible from the boiler room to the horizon. There are many things to be considered. When leaders make choices they cannot afford to be enslaved by one particular need. All things must be considered. So the church prayed, as we should as well.

Application

Are the decisions that I make about life direction based on serving a small, narrow view of life attached to deep feelings of love or am I sitting in the control tower with the Lord seeing life from his point of view? Sometimes we must navigate misunderstanding to move forward into what the Lord has for us.

Prayer

Father, I like to make people happy, but I need even more today to please you. Help me to see your direction.

Scripture

The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered. Acts 12:7-8

Observation

Your life is not a closed system. Doors can open. Things can change. Though you are trapped on the inside God is bounding on the outside. Nothing can stop him from bursting in.

Rusty words are strewn through Peter’s prison story: “chains”, “cell”, and “gate”. Each is a cast iron weight suffocating hope. The jail door of disappointment can slam on our expectations. We think life is a closed system. We can’t get out of prison because prison has crept into us.

It took awhile for Christians in this story to wake up to what God was doing. Peter had to be poked by an angel. A minimum-wage housemaid didn’t even recognize a miracle standing at her front door. I’m sure glad that Peter and Rhoda are in this story. They make me feel more at ease with a God who can pop up in the most unlikely places. If Peter and Rhoda were startled and sluggish then I will not be disappointed by my own drowsy response when the Lord slips through locked doors to save me.

The comforting picture in this story is the split second before the miracle. CEO Peter was snuggled up with his pillow snoozing away. There is something profound in this picture of Peter getting a good 40 winks before his court trial. His slumber proved his faith in Jesus’ promise given just a few months before that Peter would not die until he was an old man. Peter slept because he knew that he had many days yet to live.

Application:

We need to learn to rest in our confinement, not always looking for a way out, and instead to go to sleep knowing that nothing can lock God out. Sure we can stand on God’s promises but it doesn’t hurt to sleep on them too.

What was the promise God made last to you? Is that your comfort? Do you think of your life like a terrarium, all sealed with no way in? Do you hear the footsteps of God outside your door? These are questions I ask myself. I think I hear someone knocking. Excuse me while I answer my door.

Prayer

Father, I know you are out there. I’m listening for your knock. Amen.

Scripture

“You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.” Acts 7:51-53

Observation

Stephen’s sermon is so eloquent that it’s hard to remember the guy is on death row approaching the electric chair, in a manner of speaking. The last words Stephen spoke on the courtroom floor are the most remarkable. Around Stephen is a swirling chaos of fists, spit and stones, but at the center is a man having an epiphany. It’s like a melodramatic scene from 1950′s Bible flick. Stephen is gazing toward heaven, a spotlight warms his face, a beatific smile illumines his visage and he swoons at the sight of Jesus.

Stop, stop, stop! This is the sort of thing that should happen in a sanctuary and not in the witness stand. How did Stephen manage to see such a remarkable sight in the midst of chaos?

Here’s the secret: Stephen had learned to worship in extreme conditions. He had learned to be comfortable with adrenaline, push it aside and to see the Saviour’s face. His story would not be told if it were not a model for us as well.

Do you know the taste of adrenaline? Have you felt the dizziness of a surge of blood pressure? Can you hear the ringing in your ears as the blood vessels swell? Have you sensed the out-of-body experience as you stand before those you fear to hear a voice speaking and wake up mid paragraph to discover it is you? We’ve all been in pressure points. Stephen’s is an extreme. But here’s the point: have we learned to live as Stephen learned to die? Have we learned how to look up in pressured circumstances and to worship the God of heaven?

Application

Stephen’s poise under pressure is not an ideal but a possibility. There are pressured moments in life when we too are placed on the spot. It is then that choices we make can open up our relationship with Christ. I remember reading about the Christian leader Polycarp (his name does not mean ‘many fish’ but that’s another story). Polycarp was on his way to be burnt at the stake, but he asked the arresting officer if he could have time to pray. He asked for a meal to be brought to his executioners and he went to an upstairs room where he methodically prayed for each of the churches he oversaw. It’s no wonder that at the stake, when Polycarp was asked to turn his back on Jesus, that he had the presence of mind to say, “I’ve served him 86 years and he’s never failed me, how can I be unfaithful to the one who has loved me so?” (That’s my paraphrase.)

Worship can happen anywhere, even under pressure. It requires me to become comfortable with uncomfortable emotions, to walk through stress rather than trying to neutralize it, and to look for Jesus in the most unlikely places.

Prayer

Father, I can’t say that I’m there yet with this one, but I’m certainly learning. I’ve had several lessons this last year. I expect there will be more. Help me to look up rather than looking down in these pressure points and help me to break through emotions that I fear into an experience of you too great for words so that I can say what must be said even in the most difficult times. Amen.

Amaze yourself with these Nathan Sawaya’s Lego sculptures on CNN and his blog.

Scripture

For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,

‘The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’ Acts 4:11

Observation

Back in April of ’79 I was a senior in high school saving for college. My summer job was working construction. The boss had just finished laying rows of cinder blocks 27 feet tall. My job was to pull down the scaffolding. I ate my McDonalds lunch from that sky perch and did two historic things. First I made a time capsule of junk food as I put the McDonalds packaging into the holes in the wall. And then I did what no one can resist: I wrote my name and the date in the wet concrete in the top course of blocks.

No one can resist making their mark in stone. There is graffiti etched in sandstone along the Oregon Trail from the 1850′s. There are tags in Roman catacombs and even the Egyptian tombs. I once asked a graffiti artist what it was that drove him to spray paint his tag on blank walls around town. He said, “It’s the desire to be noticed.”

Every human longs for significance and wants to make their mark. Deep down, somehow, in some way, for some moment of time no matter how brief we want to be important. Otherwise Gold Class, First Class, Platinum would not exist. We want to end up on top of the heap of humanity and be treated special.

We are each special to God, but he has designed it such that none of us can claim to be superior. That’s why this little phrase is repeated over and over in the Bible:

The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.

The “cornerstone” is not a shinny granite block at the bottom of the wall, it is a huge monolith at the top of all the courses of stone. The cornerstone in the temple was the largest building stone on earth. It was a rectangular block of rock nearly the size of a house. The walls of the Temple were built with man-sized blocks of granite. The rows and rows of huge stones were held in place by the top capstone. It was pure genius as it withstood earthquakes for centuries.

Application

Here’s the point for us: we are definitely not the capstone, that’s Jesus. Nor are we dirt because the stones were built without mortar. Instead each of us is a living stone with a part to play in the wall, high or low, visible or invisible wherever the Stone Mason wants it to rest. Once each of us is in position, Jesus takes his place on the highest level and holds us in place.

It is a secure feeling being locked into Christ submission. Like a row of Lego blocks, he puts me where I belong and holds me secure. And submitting to his Lordship is a joy because he did not take this exalted position for himself. The stone was rejected and God the Father himself hoisted him into the highest place. Jesus’ authority over me is submission and that is a joy.

All comes together when Jesus is in the right place over our lives. Jesus will only be in the right place when I confess that Jesus is the cornerstone, I am not.

Prayer

Father today I want to stumble on Jesus so I find just the place I am to be. Amen.