BibleScribbler

Coffee, a Bible, and a Napkin to Scribble On

ACTS Church? Really.

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When someone tells you they go to an ACTS church, I’d like you to ask them if they are these four things, one at a time.

Stained Glass Inside Mission San Francisco de Asís

  • Attractional
  • Corporate
  • Titanic
  • Stable

Attractional

Does your church draw people in? What about it draws people in? What about it has magnetism? Are those good things that Jesus used to draw people to Himself? What if people never came to where you are waiting? If an Urban church opens, do the lost in the suburbs know about it?

Corporate

This word means something connotatively as well as historically.

1. Does it work like a business? Is it run like a business? Does it feel like a business? Are the leaders of the church leading like it’s a business—like they are the leader? Is Jesus the head of it or is He CEO Emeritus?

2. Are the members of the church linked as if they are a single body with Christ as her head? Is there unity and togetherness at supernatural levels? Does it feel like a non-dysfunctional family?

Titanic

Is it big? Is it huge? I mean, like 3,000 added in a single day huge?! (You didn’t think I was going to say that big was good, did you?) Are the poor riding with the rich? Is the worship band playing even though passengers are dying? What about life boats? Can people leave safely and survive on their own?

Stable

People like McDonald’s because it is consistently mediocre. People like the corner tavern burger because it’s unpredictable and likely to be astounding and delicious. Is your church stable? How so? What features are restful and certain and faithfully stable? What features are lulling people into thinking McDonald’s meat is real meat? Is your stability rooted in God or in the status quo and devotion to keeping things the way you liked them in 1972?

None of these are meant as a direct attack, but they are meant as a loose root on the trail to trip you up. It’s all too easy to take the easy and deadly way out when it comes to our ecclesiology. There is a lot that we do, not realizing we are eloquently reading the wrong directions. Check out the last chapter of each of the gospels and then read Acts.

It’s a beautiful thing. It’s attractive and corporate and titanic and stable in all the right ways, and I’m still looking for it.

Jesus, The Example Set

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1 Peter 2:21 ESV

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

Whatever we celebrate about Christ’s doing today, whatever joy we have in His resurrection and defeat of death, we can hold on to not only as a great work for our sake, but also as an example to follow.It was His relationship and submission to the Father that brought it all about. Let that one thing be our focus, our desire, and our imitation of Him. Any other activity, motive, or movement must take second place.

1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Revelation 2:4-5 ESV

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2:4-5, ESV)

I could go on. There are numerous places where Jesus emphasizes Himself as the point of it all and where the Apostle Paul, the Apostle John, and others state that whatever teaching they passed on, whatever other advice they gave, JESUS is the point and the fulcrum of all of it.

Celebrate the focussed Christ-Centered life today! Happy Easter!

Bible Study Method

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I asked a mentor-friend of mine about learning to study the Bible better. Specifically my question was “What’s the big deal about learning Greek if you have a dozen different Bible translations at your fingertips?” He said that learning Greek was really good, but not everyone is wired for that. Here is what he said is good for just about everyone…

bible study method

Poor in the World, Rich in God, in Isaiah 56

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Isaiah 56:3

imageLet not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

 

Even back in Isaiah, it was never God’s intent that your birth or your circumstances would affect your salvation. It is all about how you respond to God. Respond to Him and He’ll deliver. Don’t let any restriction in your life hold you back.