Skip to main content

Celebration

“…praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47

Today would have been my grandmother’s 117th birthday. She was a very sweet lady. My one cousin had a hard time keeping her Grandma Smith and Grandma Jones straight so she called her Grandma Jones “Sweetie”, and the nickname stuck. I enjoyed celebrating her long life with her. She lived across the street from us and daily shared life with us. She died at the age of 97.

As the early church shared life together and saw the Lord do many marvelous miracles, it brought two important traits into their lives: praise and favor. Their hearts were filled with praise to the Lord for all He was doing among them. But the outcome of God’s working was also a sense of favor from others. God’s workings brought celebration on a regular basis.

What are you celebrating today? Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Prayer Focus: Father, we celebrate You today. Thank You for those who are in the process of being saved. Thank You for Your generosity to us. Thank You for the ways You are working in our lives and the life of our community.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Storyteller

“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 Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” Acts 1:8-9 These are the last words Jesus speaks to his Apostles just before ascending into heaven. Not what they were expecting. They were wondering when Jesus was going to set up His Kingdom on earth. As He was ascending into heaven He reveals we are the ones to accomplish the task. Jesus’ departure is not desertion; it is a commission to be the storytellers of truth to the rest of the world. Frequently, we look at this scripture in relationship to our life. We perceive Jerusalem as our own community, Judea as our city, Samaria as our country and the ends of the earth as the world. Christ informed the apostles they will have the power of the Holy Spirit to reach these people. Notice the word “and...” Jesus didn’t say

Baffled

“The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’” Genesis 11:6-7 I will confess I’ve been baffled by this passage. It appears that as men rejected God’s command to spread out and replenish the earth after the flood and began to build a tower for their own glory, that God gets scared of them. He seems to say that it will be impossible to stop what men want to do. As I’ve studied it more, I don’t believe God was scared at all. I believe He had loving concern that men would quickly return right back to the depth of sin that precipitated God’s judgement through the flood. When men and women work in a common cause, it is powerful. If that is true with human effort, how much more can we do if we seek and wait on the power that comes from God’s Spirit? We tend to rely so much on ourselves, and God gets

No Matter Who’s Speaking

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” Galatians 1:8 We seem to be a culture that is swayed by personality. Through the years, I have had the privilege of meeting some very prominent people. There is a picture in my office of Pam and me standing beside Billy Graham. We felt very blessed. Even though Dr. Graham is in ill health now, it is amazing to think of how the Lord has used him. Like others, I have talked to a few famous golfers and got their autographs, and even met a few politicians. Even though each of these are people, human beings not significantly different than us, we feel different in their presence as if they are something more. And when they speak, we tend to listen. I have watched people who get caught up listening to people that inspire them, move their emotions, or get them excited, and they seem drawn into their wake. It is easy to do. But if they listened closely to