Christians

Now those who were scattered as a result of the trouble that occurred because of Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. They proclaimed the word only to Jews. Among them were some people from Cyprus and Cyrene. They entered Antioch and began to proclaim the good news about the Lord Jesus also to Gentiles. The Lord’s power was with them, and a large number came to believe and turned to the Lord. When the church in Jerusalem heard about this, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw evidence of God’s grace, he was overjoyed and encouraged everyone to remain fully committed to the Lord. Barnabas responded in this way because he was a good man, whom the Holy Spirit had endowed with exceptional faith. A considerable number of people were added to the Lord. Barnabas went to Tarsus in search of Saul. When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. They were there for a whole year, meeting with the church and teaching large numbers of people. It was in Antioch where the disciples were first labeled “Christians.” (Acts 11:19-26, CEB)

In the beginning, those who followed Jesus were called Followers of the Way. It wasn’t until later that they came to be called Christians.

Sometimes in the world today, I hesitate to say I am a Christian, and lean more towards a follower of Jesus, or a Disciple of Christ.

We should focus our journey on doing what Christ called us to do. Love like he did.

Showing love will help bring the kingdom to fulfillment.

Christian.
Follower of the Way
Disciple of Christ.

Whatever we are called, we need to be about love. Love for all.

That is how the world will know who and whose we are.

Loving People. Loving God.

How?

When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Human One has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify the Human One in himself and will glorify him immediately. Little children, I’m with you for a little while longer. You will look for me—but, just as I told the Jewish leaders, I also tell you now—‘Where I’m going, you can’t come.’ “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” (John 13:31-35, CEB)

Jesus gave them a commandment. Not a suggestion. Not an idea for something to do if they thought they could. It was not something we could shrug off.

Jesus told the disciples to love each other as Jesus loves them. Even when they failed, or did not follow where they were led. Jesus loved them. Period. Full stop.

That is how the world knows we are followers of Jesus, by our love.

Not the time we spend sitting in pews, or being in a building. Not by the songs we sing or anything else, except love.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

The time came…

Then the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God. They said, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and was, for you have taken your great power and enforced your rule. The nations were enraged, but your wrath came. The time came for the dead to be judged. The time came to reward your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the chest containing his covenant appeared in his temple. There were lightning, voices, thunder, an earthquake, and large hail. (Revelation 11:16-19, CEB)

Soon it will be time. The wait will be over.

God will rule and come to be with God’s people. The dead will be judged, servants, prophets, and saints will be rewarded, and everything will be as God intended.

All in God’s time, who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Not my timing, or yours, but God’s. The time will come. We just need to trust and wait, and in the meantime, love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Kingdom!

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become
    the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ,
        and he will rule forever and always.” (Revelation 11:15, CEB)

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ!

And the Lord, our God, will rule forever and always.

No matter what is happening now or how bad things are. Our God wins in the end and rules over everything forever!

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

What did they say???

Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven. He was robed with a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet were like fiery pillars. He held an open scroll in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. He called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring, and when he called out, the seven thunders raised their voices. When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and don’t write it down.” Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. He swore by the one who lives forever and always, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, and said, “The time is up. In the days when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious purpose will be accomplished, fulfilling the good news he gave to his servants the prophets.” Then the voice I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the opened scroll from the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to give me the scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will make you sick to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” So I took the scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. And it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it made my stomach churn. I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.” (Revelation 10:1-11, CEB)

Another angel came down, robed in a cloud with a rainbow over his head…

The angel called out in a loud voice, and when they did, the seven thunders raised their voices. And the seven thunders spoke, but what they said was sealed up and not written down. What did they say?

Something we will learn later, or maybe not at all, but that was written because it happened in the vision.

We are not to have all the answers or the details, and that shouldn’t be our end game. Our end game should be to follow God and know the way we are led by God is the best for us and for all humanity.

We don’t need to know all the details. We just need to trust.

Loving People. Loving God.

gods, children…

Again the Jewish opposition picked up stones in order to stone him. Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of those works do you stone me?” The Jewish opposition answered, “We don’t stone you for a good work but for insulting God. You are human, yet you make yourself out to be God.” Jesus replied, “Isn’t it written in your Law, I have said, you are gods? Scripture calls those to whom God’s word came gods, and scripture can’t be abolished. So how can you say that the one whom the Father has made holy and sent into the world insults God because he said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. But if I do them, and you don’t believe me, believe the works so that you can know and recognize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again, they wanted to arrest him, but he escaped from them. Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had baptized at first, and he stayed there. Many people came to him. “John didn’t do any miraculous signs,” they said, “but everything John said about this man was true.” Many believed in Jesus there. (John 10:31-42, CEB)

Jesus replied to their questioning, “Isn’t it written in your Law, I have said, you are gods? Scripture calls those to whom God’s word came gods, and scripture can’t be abolished.”

Where does it say this in the Law? It says it in Psalm 82:6. This verse is, “I hereby declare, “You are gods, children of the Most High—all of you!”” (CEB).

But is the Psalter in the Law? Actually, the Psalter is part of what is known as Ketuvim or writings in the Hebrew Scripture and not a part of the Torah, the Law.

But the point is we are all gods. We are all God’s children and therefore gods. And our lives should speak to the love and grace of God.

So live so your life speaks love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Turned

As Peter toured the whole region, he went to visit God’s holy people in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed and had been confined to his bed for eight years. Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you! Get up and make your bed.” At once he got up. Everyone who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. (Acts 9:32-35, CEB)

This is interesting to me. Peter was touring the region and found a man who was paralyzed and confined to bed for 8 years. Peter said, Jesus Christ heals you and he got up and was healed and because of this, the people who saw him turned to the Lord.

Why did you follow?

Why do you follow?

Is it because of the healings Jesus did, does, will do?

Do you hope to get in that healing, and think following will help your chances?

Do we follow for what we got, or get?

Do you follow because it is the best way to be a person who shows love to others?

Loving People. Loving God.

Glory

Then I saw another great and awe-inspiring sign in heaven. There were seven angels with seven plagues—and these are the last, for with them God’s anger is brought to an end. Then I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire. Those who gained victory over the beast, its image, and the number of its name were standing by the glass sea, holding harps from God. They sing the song of Moses, God’s servant, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and awe-inspiring are your works,
        Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
        king of the nations.
Who won’t fear you, Lord, and glorify your name?
        You alone are holy.
All nations will come and fall down in worship before you,
        for your acts of justice have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:1-4, CEB)

Who will not glorify your name and fear you?

I wonder about that. This is a vision of the coming of the kingdom of God, and yet who will not fear God? Is there reason to fear God?

If we do not do what we are supposed to do and turn away from God, then maybe we should fear God, but this is a vision of the kingdom, we have made it, so why should we fear God? And the word in the Greek is for fear, however an extended definition of the word is “to have profound reverence and respect for deity, with the implication of awe bordering on fear — ‘to reverence, to worship.’”

Profound reverence and respect. This is what I see this as.

Who won’t reverence and respect you, Lord, and glorify your name?

Who?

Loving People. Loving God.

Tell us plainly

The time came for the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple, walking in the covered porch named for Solomon. The Jewish opposition circled around him and asked, “How long will you test our patience? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I have told you, but you don’t believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you don’t believe because you don’t belong to my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never die, and no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them from my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:22-30, CEB)

It seems we believe what we want to believe.

We have heard what we want to hear and decided what is true and right.

This does not mean we actually heard what was said. It means we heard what we wanted to hear, or took what we heard and made it fit the narrative we had already decided on.

Do we listen to Jesus?

Do we see and hear the truth? And if we do, how do we adjust our lives to live in the truth?

Love like Jesus, and help everyone hear.

Loving People. Loving God.

Desire

Don’t chase after what you will eat and what you will drink. Stop worrying. All the nations of the world long for these things. Your Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well. “Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights in giving you the kingdom. (Luke 12:29-32, CEB)

What do you desire?

We should not desire things we need or want but what God wants us to be about.

Love each other. When we desire the kingdom of God, all we need will be given to us. Love.

Loving People. Loving God.