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Day 1. Acts 1:6-11 - the pattern is wait - receive - share.
one of the questions we asked how this pattern might change our life pattern, our church ? Probably like most I had a busy day. It is not easy to have such a pattern in your life in the face of all that is thrown at you, bombardments and all. It is especially hard for churches to exhibit this in the experience of decline and its atached crises. In this Acts instance a question is asked, but Jesus reply says 'it is not for you to know..." In other words some things are just not in our control and we needen't get worried or try and manage/control them. Rather, Jesus speaks of giving the Spirit; it is wisdom therefore to have a relationship, for this relationship will take us beyond ourselves and further than we could manage.
Left staring at the sky, fixated... their first task now was to wait. Many assume waiting means doing nothing and empty headed, no brain or energy life. that is not so. Waiting is a discipline that sets us in the right place in relation to God that we might receive and so go and share. Simply put. At Caim this week we read Colossians 2:20-3:5 (and went back to Col.1 as well) I think Paul gives expression to where we should be placed in relationship to Christ (see below)
Came across this as a teaser - have a think and I'll post again the answer, so that you get the lesson too.
A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out.
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We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
21-23You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don't walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.(Message Trans)20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this
world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules:
21"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? ... 1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (NIV)
