What is Acts?

Have you ever had someone tell you what to do, but not make it practical?  They didn't give examples or show how they tried to live it out.

The New Testament has a really cool part that people often skip that puts skin on the teachings. 

It's called Acts.

Weird name, right? 

It's actually short for The Acts of the Apostles, or in more  'normal-speak' it's a book that shows the stories (or Actions) of the earliest Jesus-followers and how they tried to live out this very, very new way of life.

As an interesting side note, Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and Acts as one continuous story, though our bibles tend to put the Gospel of John in between them. 

Unfortunately, this book, while being a history, is often taught as if it is a book of "how-tos."  You'll often hear people say, "We need to look back at the early church and live like them." 

Sure, there is a purity to them that we want to follow.  They are so close to the life of Jesus that it's important to see what they were doing and saying.  On the other hand, they were new at this thing and didn't do everything right.  For example, they pick a disciple to replace Judas.  Why?  They just seemed to think they should.  How?  They rolled dice.  Huh?  Yep.  The guy they picked was Matthias, and...we never hear about the guy again.  Was he a bad choice?  Maybe. 

The beauty of the book is to see these young believers, transformed by the Holy Spirit, who are now living transformed lives.  They lived, they loved, they shared.  It's fun to watch all the different ways the Spirit leads them.  Sometimes they're all praying together and Father gives them an insight.  Other times they just thought something "seemed right" to them and the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes they make choices and later change their minds.  But all along they have this happiness and excitement about living life loved and led by the Father.

So, check out Acts and just enjoy the story.  Also, when you do go on to read the rest of the New Testament letters (also called epistles) it will give you some background to the situations those letters were written in.

Living Together?

This is a segment I took directly from this book by Kevin Leman that my wife and I are reading:

From early sex, today's dating darlings typically advance to "shacking up," or living together without being married.  The number of unmarried couples who live together in America increased by close to 1,000 percent between 1960 and 1998.  Whereas cohabitation before marriage was an anomaly in the early 1900s, today, over half of all marriages include some form of premarital cohabitation.

Supposedly, this living together is a form of trial marriage, a way of gathering vital information about a partner's character, but guess what?  This so-called "weeding-out" process actually works against the intended goal of lifelong, fulfilling marriage!  Instead of pulling weeds, it plants them!

A recent Penn State study found that couples who live together before getting married have poorer

communication skills when trying to solve a problem than those who didn't cohabit prior to marriage.  Study coauthor Catherine Cohan suggested that cohabitants "may have less invested in the relationship, leading them not to try to develop their skills."

Numerous studies have shown that cohabitation results in hurting women and men who have suffered numerous relational breakups, creating an ever-growing distrust of future relationships.  Such "quasi-commitments" actually weaken the mutual dedication and perseverance that is all-important for a successful marriage.  It's not too surprising, then, when Popenoe and Whitehead point out that only one in ten last five years or more.  Sadly, every one of these failed, cohabiting relationships makes you a little less fit to enjoy a lifelong, satisfying marriage.

I have counseled thousands of couples, before and after marriage.  Some of them have lived together before tying the knot.  Others never moved in together, but spent their share of time heating up the sheets.  Still others managed to stay of out bed and kept their own address until the day they got married.  Without equivocation I can say that if you want a marriage that takes you from your twenties until the day you die, that fulfills you and inspires others, that results in kindred-spirit communication and soul-mate loyalty, having sex before marriage and living together before marriage will take you in the wrong direction.  That's not the best way to find your true love.

4 Gospels: Why?

The Bible.  Let's figure this out.

Ok, so I suggested starting with the Gospels.  Here are some things that could help.

There's four.  What's up with that?

Four different guys wrote down their recollections of the things Jesus said and did.  It's like you and
your friends writing about what you did together last Saturday.  You'd all have different details because you experienced things from different angles, but generally you'd tell the same overall story.

This is the beauty of several different people sharing their take on experiencing Jesus.

Lots of people think Mark was the first because almost all of this material can be found in Matthew and Luke as well.  The idea is that Matthew and Luke borrowed from Mark's text and added things they knew.

Mark wasn't a disciple.  He was a friend of Peter.  So, mainly the Gospel of Mark is Mark writing down the things Peter shared.

Matthew focuses a bit more on how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament stuff.

Luke emphasizes how Jesus reached out to people on the fringes of society. 

John is way different.  While the other three tellings focus on just writing down what Jesus did and said, John, who was a disciple, explains the significance and meaning of it all.  His is not told chronologically, but more in a thematic way. 

Some big deals in the Gospels are Matthew 5-7 and John 14-16. 
The first is the so-called "Sermon on the Mount" where Jesus tells what it's like to really live the life God longs for us to live.  It sounds quite crazy actually. 

The good news is that John 14-16 tells us how we can actually do it. 

You'll notice that all four tell the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, but mainly as an event.  They don't really get into what that all means for us.  The rest of the New Testament unpacks just what Jesus' death and resurrection did for us and how we can now live in the affection of the Father. 

This is just a little bit to give you some background.  When you read the Gospels, read to experience this Jesus, the same one living inside you now.  Meet Him, feel His love, learn from His encouragement.

The Bible is confusing!

Do it. 

Go ahead.

Start reading the Bible. 

If you make it through Genesis I'll be impressed.

If you get to Leviticus, I'll bet my non-existent cow that you'll give up.

If you are living inside the Father's affection and would love to read His story, then you probably want to read the Bible.  The trouble is that it's not put together like a story, though.

The Bible was arranged like a library.  There are sections like this:

The Old Testament has a history section, a poetry & wisdom literature section, and a prophetic book section.  They're not necessarily chronological.

The New Testament has History stuff (The Gospels and Acts), letters to groups of people, letters to specific people, and ends with a prophetic book.

Ok, great, but where do I start? 

Here's my recommendation-start in the life of Jesus.  All of the Old Testament is a lead-up to His arrival.  Everything after Him is the early Jesus-followers trying to figure out how to live a new life now that they had been changed by Him.

Don't feel the need to rush through the Gospels.  You could spend years just in the four Gospels.  Just read them until you feel like you are really getting to know this Jesus.  If you do, you are getting to know God because the letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus, "the radiance of God's glory, the full representation of His being."

And always remember, the Jesus that you are getting to know doesn't live in that book.  He is living inside of you.

Saturday Morning Sinners

Saturday Morning Sinners from Kurt Maechner on Vimeo.

You MUST go to church and read the Bible

So recently in my speech class students were learning how to teach a 30 minute group situation,
similar to a youth group or small group setting.  One group was addressing the question "What is the difference between believing in God and having a relationship with God?"  They asked the class this very question and here is the most frequent answer:

Someone with a relationship with God goes to church and reads their Bible.  

Sounds right doesn't it?

Do you know that the first Jesus followers for the first several hundred years did neither?

They didn't have churches in the sense that we use it today.  They didn't hold weekly services or congregational meetings.

They also didn't have a New Testament.  The documents that would become the New Testament were being written as letters and recollections, but they were not thought of as "The Bible" yet.  And even when it was, most people didn't have one in their homes until the invention of the Gutenberg Press in the 1400s.

How did they do it then?  How did they follow Jesus without weekly church services and daily Bible reading?

What did Jesus promise to leave them?  What did He tell them to wait for?

The Holy Spirit.

He would come and live inside of His people.  He Himself would shepherd us from inside our very hearts.  He would lead us into all truth, remind us of what He said, comfort us in our need, and fill us with strength in all circumstances.

So, then should we just ignore the Bible?  By no means!  I can get to Chicago without Mapquest, but

it will be tougher.  The Bible is a tremendous tool to help us on our journey of faith.  Let's rely,
though, on God Himself living in us, and His love, first and foremost.  Let us love Him with all our hearts.  The book is a tool, not the reality.

But that being said, the Bible is an incredible insight into the story of a Lover, the Father, seeking out people and then a story of the beloved, us, learning progressively how to live in that love.  Once we see it that way, we can stop using it as a legal document or a replacement for our Father, and instead, enjoy the love letter He gave us. 

God and a Girl

Let me tell you what happens with us guys when we like a girl.


You scare us...in a really cool way.

There is something so mysterious about a girl.  We can't figure her out.  She looks at things differently, sees the relationships differently, and has a way about her that is not like ours.

It inspires a sense of awe.

That awe pulls us toward her like one magnet to another.  It's a trap, but we want to get caught.  We need to know her, spend time with her, experience the world she lives in.

But something happens.  If we marry that girl, over time, the things that seemed so mysterious can suddenly become annoying.

For example, my wife is big on hospitality.  She invites people over, makes meals for them, talks and listens, and does everything to make them feel at home.  For a number of years I found this annoying because it's so unlike myself.  I didn't like the prep and clean up and disruption of my evenings.

But here's where it changed.  A few years ago, I realized this: Beth's hospitality was one of the things that drew me to her.  I loved how she made me feel so welcome, so comfortable, so able to open up.  I also saw how she did that with other people.  Her fragrance of love for God was so tangible in how she loved people.  My life was changed by it.

I needed to return to my state of awe for this girl, my girl!  I don't want to wryly say, "That's just Beth."  No!  That's my girl!  The one I married!  My bride!  She has a gift!

From then on, I have supported her so differently when we invite people over because I see the amazing lover that she is.

Isn't this the story of our relationship with God?

We are initially moved by his power, his love, his sacrifice, but then, over time, we lose the awe because we're used to it.

But the heart can be stirred. We don't need to let our emotions wither away.  We can stir the awe once again, and repeatedly.

So, remember again the craziness of the God of the universe loving you individually, the immensity of Jesus being nailed to a cross just to make a way to your heart, the tremendous peace you can have in life because Father cares for you, the unending power and leading the Holy Spirit gives you in tackling all the stuff of life, the incredible mission we get to be a part of on this earth with Him.  All these and more are worth it to recall, relive, and re-feel.

Intimacy with my wife is something I am willing to work hard for.  Intimacy with me is something my God works hard for.  I long to do the same for Him.