Have you heard someone say they’re “living in” a book? Maybe it was before a test. Maybe it was book on marriage for an engaged couple. Maybe it was a work of fiction that was written so well that it feels like a real world.
I’ve been living in a book. The funny thing is it’s not the way a person normally “lives in” a book. I’m looking at my life and noticing things that really remind me of a book I’ve read most of my life. They say “history repeats itself” and it seems true to me.
About 2000 years ago, a doctor named Luke set pen to paper and recorded what he’d seen and heard either directly or through the voices of eye witnesses. I remember reading this book in the ’80’s and thinking that I wished I was alive in that time. My heart broke for the chance to be there to see lives and eternities changed forever.
Seven years ago I started going to a church where my perspective changed. I’d been in places where an occasional life would change where an eternity would be impacted, but that was the exception not the rule. I started to believe that it wasn’t possible anymore. Not long after starting to go to Quest I noticed that some families were starting to come to know Christ together. I’d never seen anything like that except in Acts.
The people coming to know Jesus were then a couple a month. This was about 24 times more than I’d ever known. It was then that I started to pray a bold prayer. I asked for the verse “and the Lord added to their number daily those being saved” to be something that I’d get to see. It happened. I couldn’t believe it. In the last couple of years, people are coming to know Jesus in huge numbers.
I should say that I don’t care about numbers. It’s people that matter, really matter. Each number is a person. A number is just a quick way to say that. I could list names, and we often do at my church, but it’s easier to talk about the 6 who came to know Jesus today than say that 2 of the 6 were named Josh and Christina.
Then I started praying another bold prayer. Questapalooza 2008 saw hundreds of people make that decision. I started to hope that it was possible. Could thousands come to know Him in a single day like in Acts 2:41?
This weekend I saw the impossible. My pastor spoke at Ichthus, Christian music festival that was founded in reaction to Woodstock 40 years ago. Today there are about 20,000 people who participated in this festival. Before he finished speaking I tweeted, “At #ichthus. Listening to my pastor speaking to 20,000 people. What if 5-10% of them really get it? Praying hard.” Sometimes prayers are answered no matter how impossible. Sometimes a couple thousand people’s lives and eternities are forever changed.
Other than Questapalooza and a Pastors’ conference we put on, I’ve never felt both so tired and so alive. How can I feel this way after a night of 2 hours of sleep? It’s a gift. It’s a gift to me that I get to live in Acts.
Paul
this is in response to your response to ‘tweet the gospel’ http://www.brianbaute.com/?p=969. umm… i would challenge your thinking and say that it is not about what we can do, but about what God has done, is doing, and will do. God is working now, and God is coming back. be prepared.
I said, “Christianity is not about what you do, but what God has already done.”
140 characters is limiting. I was trying to show that God doesn’t want us to be good, but receive the free give of grace. Jesus died (past) to offer us salvation (started in the past and continues in the present–what we call Past Imperfect in Greek). The fact that Jesus is coming back isn’t good news unless you embrace the fact that you can be forgiven if you receive Him and His forgiveness.
“Be prepared” doesn’t convey the “Good News” aspect of this message. “It’s already been done, just receive it” (which is what I was trying to say) does, I think.
Thanks for the comment. Feel free to keep up the discussion.
Paul