The Old Testament introduced us to our Father and pointed to the Messiah.  The Gospels introduced us to the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and pointed to the Holy Spirit.  Acts will introduce us to the Holy Spirit and point us to the Church.

The apostles needed to wait.  The commands of Christ would not spread to a broken world without the infusion of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit would give them strength, courage, perseverance, even the very words to speak to authorities.  The movement would not proceed far without Him.  They would be baptized, immersed, saturated with the Holy Spirit.  Their anointing would be evident to all by the miracles accompanying them.

Without engaging serious theological debate, how is the Holy Spirit evident in our lives today?  How is the movement that began in the first century still on foot through us?  I have spent hours praying, meditating, and considering these questions.  My greatest hope and prayer is birthing a House Church Planting Movement that greatly transforms the communities of the Northwest.  After five years, the concept is becoming more clear.    I am waiting and trusting for the Holy Spirit to lead the way.

We cannot out give God.  When we give, He gives back.  This is not an investment formula as some health and wealth preachers proclaim.  This is a spiritual principle of generosity.  When you give, you will receive back.  In business I find this is true in many ways, often including financial.  When I am generous toward others, passing along business, making strong recommendations, arranging helpful introductions, I seem to receive the same in return.  This is simply the Golden Rule in action.

Paul said God will meet your needs.  He said nothing about your wants.  I just wrote about contentment.  This is contentment . . . resting in God’s provisions for your needs.  This does not mean you do not have goals and strive for higher accomplishments.  It does mean you live within your means.  The wants are not leveraged on credit.  Or, we don’t pray as Janis Joplin sang, “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?  My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.  Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?”

God wants to meet your needs today.  Some of you have financial need, some medical, some emotional, others spiritual.  Our God is big enough, strong enough, wise enough, compassionate enough, to meet any need.  He is your Abba, your Father.  Trust Him.  Ask Him.  Love Him.  He loves you.

Money.  Gifts. Tithing.  Missionaries.  For some of you, just reading those words gives an impulse to click off the email.  Paul was a missionary who could support himself, if needed.  He did not go around requiring support.  The Philippians sent gifts because they desired to SHARE in his ministry.  They could not all go and do what Paul was doing.  They could all support what he was doing.  Paul is writing from Rome under house arrest.  He could not work to meet his needs.  He was dependent upon others to come and care for him.

Paul brought the gospel to Philippi.  These people were part of God’s family because of his efforts.  They were grateful.  They wanted to say, “Thank You.”  They did not give under compulsion or guilt.  They loved Paul.  They wanted to care for him.  They could extend their ministry through him.  Supporting others is a vital and critical piece to spreading the gospel.  If you are like me, you get bombarded with many requests.  This is how I decide. First, I look at the heart.  Does the person have a heart for God?  Second, I look at the organization.  Does the organization use funds wisely?  Is there fruit?  Third, I look at my budget.  Can I expand my budget and trust God to provide?  Will I need to trim back from others who currently receive gifts? Is there another area of lifestyle that God wishes for me to modify or eliminate?

Supporting others bringing the gospel to unreached people groups in a privilege.  May we give wisely and cheerfully to see the gospel proclaimed to the nations.

Contentment = peace.  When you are content, you are at peace.  I find people have no peace.  There is no contentment.  There is always more . . . more things, more golf, more fishing, more shopping, more house, new appliances, the next phone, ipad, or gadget.  The list continues.  It is a never ending list with increasing desires.  We fool ourselves into thinking something else will make us content.

The secret to contentment is not consumption nor achievement.  The secret is Jesus.  We can do all things through Him who gives us strength.  If we cannot be content now, exactly where we are and what we have, we will not be content when we have what we want.  Contentment is creating peace whatever the circumstance or situation.  Contentment comes from a deep inner state of peace.  You are at peace with God and self.  You will never be content unless at peace with self and God.  This is how Paul endured persecution as well as adulation.
So, I wonder, are you at peace today?  Are you content where you are and what you have?

Today is the National Day of Prayer.  Our nation, states, cities and neighborhoods need prayer.  The war on terror is long from over.  Ask anyone from Israel.  The economy is long from returning to any resemblance of former days.  Ask most financial people.  The need in our schools is exploding.  Ask any teacher.  The problems in our cities are escalating.  Ask any police officer.  These problems are larger than any political candidate or party.  We cannot vote a solution.  The answer lies in transformation, community transformation, state transformation, national transformation.

Transformation happens one person at a time who turns from his/her wicked ways, humbles himself/herself, and calls out to the One who redeems, the One who transforms.  As a collection of voices begin to merge into a chorus in neighborhoods, blocks of community change emerge.  When people are desperate enough to cry out to God and repent, change happens.  Revival happens.  History shifts.  Light expels the darkness.  It has happened in former years.  Let us pray it happens again.

Friends, we need more than a Day of Prayer.  We need a tsunami of prayer.  We need a wave of powerful and prolonged prayer.  We need to stay on our knees until we see change.  Billy Sunday once drew a circle around himself and said he would not get up until the person inside the circle was renewed.  Let us draw circles around ourselves, our neighborhoods, schools, communities, and nation.

The mind is a powerful force.  Paul knew.  If you dwell on the negative, the problems, the potential disasters, you will have no peace, just anxiety.  If you instead dwell on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, you will be uplifted and rise above the problems.  The battle, the choice, all begins in the mind.  Paul admonishes us to have the “mind of Christ.”  Can we really cultivate a thought life modeled after Christ?  Yes!  How do we know?  Because Paul did it.  He invites us to join him.  Paul said listen to what I say, watch what I do, . . . and practice it.  He throws down the model.  The God of peace will be with you.  You must think like Jesus, act like Jesus, and PRACTICE.

Have you heard of the rule of 10,000?  When professional musicians, athletes, and others who perform at the elite level were studied to determine what common traits were possessed across the board, one thing stood out.  They all logged at least 10,000 hours of practice.  They were not content with talent.  Talent was not enough.  A friend of my son plays trumpet at the elite level.  Guess what?  He logged over 10,000 hours.  When others were playing, he practiced.  When others were sleeping, he practiced.  When others were dating, he practiced.  We envy people who can perform at the elite level.  Most of us would never put in the practice.

Guess what?  We will not think or act like Jesus without practice.  This practice for centuries included the spiritual disciplines.  Want peace?  Want to think like Jesus?  Start to practice.  The Spirit of God will lead us.  He is our coach and cheerleader.  Think upon these things and practice.  Peace, my brothers and sisters.

No anxiety, period.  That is a tall order for a nation swimming in anxiety.  Over 19 million Americans suffer from anxiety.  No anxiety, whatever the situation.  No problem is too small, no problem is too big for God to handle.  What is the answer to anxiety?

Prayer.  Prayer and petition.  Prayer, petition and thanksgiving.  Prayer simply means you will bring the problem to God instead of holding on to it yourself.  You will TRUST God with your problem.  This is the first step in relieving anxiety and finding peace.  Most of the 19 million do not attempt this first huge step.  Second, prayer and petition.  Petition is making a request to an authority.  Petitions are signed for ballot measures.  If you seek legal action, you make a petition to the court.  If you are anxious, you petition God about it.  Every time you want to think about your problem, get worried about the problem, become anxious about the problem, you trust God and petition Him.  You can’t do anything about the problem.  God can solve it.  After you pray and petition, now you give thanks.  Why thanksgiving?  You are thankful God loves you.  You are thankful He listens to you.  You are thankful He is omnipotent, powerful, provider, and peacemaker.  You are thanking Him for how He will handle the problem, not how you will worry over it.  Have you noticed when you trust God, when you petition Him every time you want to worry, and you are thankful, it is hard to be anxious?  Some of you can still pull it off.  Most of you will find peace.  You will find the peace the passes understanding of this world.  You will find a peace deep within your soul that is not attached to surroundings and situations.  And, this peace stays.  The Holy Spirit of God is literally protecting it.  The word “guard” is a military term.  The Holy Spirit is guarding your heart and mind.  Oh, you will still have some initial thoughts that can carry you down the road of anxiety, if you let them.  You will have peace, a transcendent peace, a guarded peace, a peace that only comes from the inhabitation of the soul with the God of the universe – the ultimate Peacemaker.

I wish you all peace, my friends.  Memorize these verses.  Say them often when your mind or heart wonders to anxious thoughts.  Trust God, pray, petition, and be thankful.

Let Jesus shine through you in joy and gentleness.  I have heard and read some very strange concepts around joy.  Simply put, joy is anchored in grace centered in salvation.    This joy is unshakeable because our anchor is firm.  Happiness is based on having enough happenings to make you happy.  On any given day, happenings are not happening in sufficient numbers to make happiness.  I know many unhappy people.  There is no joy.  There is no wonder.  There is no grace.  There is no Jesus.

The people who we brush against everyday need a little joy.  They need to see it, feel it, and hear it.  Tom Clifton in his book, “How Full is Your Bucket?” points out the hundreds of mini transactions we have each day with others; store clerks, gas attendants, co-workers, neighbors, family, and friends.  We either add to the bucket of others or steal a little away.  Clifton says just a smile, a greeting, a warm handshake, can add more to the bucket than we often realize.  The reverse is true as well.  An angry exchange, a demeaning glance, a heavy sigh, can steal away more than we wish to know. As followers of Christ, let’s fill up the buckets of those around us with some joy and gentleness.  Let it be evident to all.  And, by the way, when you make it a point to fill up the buckets of those you encounter, your bucket continues to overflow.

Paul reaches out to a third party to help two women in impasse to settle a dispute.  These two women worked hard at telling the gospel to others with Paul.  The good name of Jesus was on the line.  The new believers would be disillusioned by the fighting between Eudodia and Syntyche.  So much at stake.

My friends, when we fight inside the Church, the ripples wash across the spiritual and geographic landscape.  When I came to Portland as senior pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, the whole region knew of the fighting.  The church experienced two successive splits.  It took years to counter that reputation in the community.  We have no voice to those outside the Church when we cannot get along inside the Church.

I chose mediation as a profession to support myself while planting House Churches because the need is so great in the Church and communities.  Far too many churches struggle with conflict.  There is so much energy wasted on conflict little remains for evangelism.  You cannot focus outward when you are conflicted inward.

If there is conflict in your life, especially with someone who is another believer, please, go and be reconciled.  There is too much at stake.  The world needs to witness and experience reconciliation.  We are the ones who can show them.  For the sake of the gospel, go make peace today.

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”  Thomas was willing to die with and for Jesus. He was real, flesh and blood.  He had witnessed miracles.  Jesus was the Messiah.  The Messiah Thomas knew and followed was to inaugurate a kingdom.  The people would be set free from tyranny.  Justice would prevail.  The plan did not include a Messiah dying on a cross.  Thomas was confused, disappointed, may be even bitter.  He would not believe in this risen Christ.  “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”  Jesus appeared to Thomas.  Jesus did not scold.  He did not chide.  “Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

My friends, doubt is a process of faith.  Doubt searches for answers.  Doubt wants to reach out and touch.  Doubt drives us to a tested and tried faith.  Thomas would later be martyred for the risen Christ.  He believed.  He followed.  Thomas had life in His name.

Blessed are we who believe who have not seen.  We believe on the power and witness of the Word and Spirit.  We have life in His name.  We follow and obey His commands.  We go in His name.  We make disciples in His name.  We baptize in His name.  And, He will be with us until the end of the age . . .

Happy Easter!  He is Risen!