Acts 3

The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston, was one of my favorite movies growing up. You can chalk that up to being home schooled till 5th grade, or being a pastor's kid if you want, but I think we can all agree that really, it was an AWESOME MOVIE! Sure, it's three hours long, but how could you get tired of Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner? Vincent Price as Baka the Master butcher, I mean builder. The epic musical score? The thrilling fake scenery? Not to mention John Derek as Joshua. Ah... be still my heart.

Another weird thing about my upbringing is that my mom played Vineyard worship music non-stop. That in and of itself wasn't bad or weird. What IS weird is that now, I really don't like playing worship music in our house during the day. Issues you say? Oh yes. I say that too.

My worship pastor keeps telling me to check out the Prayer Room Live Feed through the International House of Prayer. I'm sort of resisting for no good reason.

What is the correlation between these seemingly disjointed topics? Well...

As I have been reading Acts, I notice the early church sort of going about it's human daily business. Makes sense I think. They still had to eat. They still had to have clean clothes and feed their animals and they still did sabbath stuff. I guess I envisioned them doing nothing but...waiting. And after the Holy Spirit appeared, life didn't really stop for them then either. Life changed, but it didn't stop.

There is a scene in the Ten Commandments where Moses is gathered in a home with other Hebrews on the night the last plague is released on Egypt. They are sitting around, prepping food, talking and sadly, listening to the screams from the houses of the Egyptians around them that are being visited by the angel of death. (Gotta' love light-weight children's viewing) On a night of such incredible significance to the Jewish and Christian faith, they were just doin' their thing.

I went ahead and checked out the IHOP prayer room. To my surprise, it was not a concert by any stretch. Groups of musicians rotate through in 2 hour increments, all day and all night, all the time. And the people in the "audience" were seeming to be hanging out. There wasn't conversation going on, but it seemed to all be part of daily life. No big show or applause. More... normal.

Amazing things are happening in the life of the early church. Crazy miracles, signs and wonders. Thousands of people are added to the Kingdom of Christ daily, and yet most of it occurs while the apostles are walking down the street or on their way to the synagogue. Abnormalities in normal life.

I get so frustrated with my normal and boring life. Yet my schedule has very little to do with God using me. Most of the super duper stuff I have experienced has in fact come out of reading my Bible and doing normal life. Huh.

Jesus, forgive me for my discontented heart. I'm really saying that I don't trust You and I know better when I am giving in to discontent. That's a wrong attitude. Forgive me for that. Thank-you for your forgiveness. I know that I know that I know, that you want to use me in my normal life. Use me today.

Acts 3

¹NOW PETER and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon),

²[When] a certain man crippled from his birth was being carried along, who was laid each day at that gate of the temple [which is] called Beautiful, so that he might beg for charitable gifts from those who entered the temple.

³So when he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them to give him a gift.

⁴And Peter directed his gaze intently at him, and so did John, and said, Look at us!

⁵And [the man] paid attention to them, expecting that he was going to get something from them.

⁶But Peter said, Silver and gold (money) I do not have; but what I do have, that I give to you: in [the ^[a]use of] the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!

⁷Then he took hold of the man's right hand with a firm grip and raised him up. And at once his feet and ankle bones became strong and steady,

⁸And leaping forth he stood and ^[b]began to walk, and he went into the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

⁹And all the people saw him walking about and praising God,

¹⁰And they recognized him as the man who usually sat [begging] for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement (bewilderment, consternation) over what had occurred to him.

¹¹Now while he [still] firmly clung to Peter and John, all the people in utmost amazement ran together and crowded around them in the covered porch (walk) called Solomon's.

¹²And Peter, seeing it, answered the people, You men of Israel, why are you so surprised and wondering at this? Why do you keep staring at us, as though by our [own individual] power or [active] piety we had made this man [able] to walk?

¹³The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has glorified His Servant and ^[c]Son Jesus [doing Him this honor], Whom you indeed delivered up and denied and rejected and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to let Him go.^(A)

¹⁴But you denied and rejected and disowned the Pure and Holy, the Just and Blameless One, and demanded [the pardon of] a murderer to be granted to you.

¹⁵But you killed the very Source (the Author) of life, Whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

¹⁶And His name, through and by faith in His name, has made this man whom you see and recognize well and strong. [Yes] the faith which is through and by Him [Jesus] has given the man this perfect soundness [of body] before all of you.

¹⁷And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance [not aware of what you were doing], as did your rulers also.

¹⁸Thus has God fulfilled what He foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ (the Messiah) should undergo ill treatment and be afflicted and suffer.

¹⁹So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of ^[d]reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord;

²⁰And that He may send [to you] the Christ (the Messiah), Who before was designated and appointed for you--even Jesus,

²¹Whom heaven must receive [and retain] until the time for the complete restoration of all that God spoke by the mouth of all His holy prophets for ages past [from the most ancient time in the memory of man].

²²Thus Moses said to the forefathers, The Lord God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brethren as [He raised up] me; Him you shall listen to and understand by hearing and heed in all things whatever He tells you.

²³And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to and understand by hearing and heed that Prophet shall be utterly ^[e]exterminated from among the people.^(B)

²⁴Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel and those who came afterwards, as many as have spoken, also promised and foretold and proclaimed these days.

²⁵You are the descendants (sons) of the prophets and the heirs of the covenant which God made and gave to your forefathers, saying to Abraham, And in your Seed (Heir) shall all the families of the earth be blessed and benefited.^(C)

²⁶It was to you first that God sent His Servant and Son Jesus, when He raised Him up [^[f]provided and gave Him for us], to bless you in turning every one of you from your wickedness and evil ways.^(D)