But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” - Acts 19:15 (ESV)

With the 500 year anniversary of the start of the reformation approaching in October, I was recently listening to the opening lecture of a series on Martin Luther. He was the medieval monk with a mallet that kicked off the movement that later became the reformation. The discussion turned to how different his thoughts, ideas, and fears were than modern people, including evangelicals. The presenter spoke about his world that like Luther's song (A Mighty Fortress), would have been filled with literal devils. He would have feared journeying through the woods at night for fear of supernatural creatures attacking him.

Why don’t you share your faith? The predominant answer I hear to that question is fear. It shows up in different ways. We fear how people will view us. We fear we may not be able to answer a question. We fear we may break a relationship. We fear we won’t know what to say. We fear we will look foolish. Generally we are told to just overcome it and get out there. Go do it! I mean, look at the apostles. If they ever felt like us, then the gospel wouldn’t have spread. And then I read Acts.

He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. - Acts 18:25 (ESV)

When Jesus said he would build His church, I’m not sure we believed him. We have all kinds of ideas and schemes to build the church. But God often does it in unexpected ways and he does it with an interesting collection of characters - like us. That’s true of the church at Ephesus. While Paul at first preaches there, others are instrumental in helping it grow numerically as well as growing their faith along the way.

Read more

We think of Christianity and the gospel in calm and orderly terms. Those that believe it become exemplary parents, employees, and citizens, it’s claimed. It sets their life right and they pull it all together. But does it?

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. - Acts 16:9-10

I hate telemarketers. I’ve done everything I can think of to eliminate their calls, but they still seem to sneak through. My least favorite type of phone sales is the one that comes to the church. A photo directory, a new gadget, a comedy group, a hot new study; I’ve received calls for all of them and more. It seems that ‘new’ ‘hot’ ‘improved’ and ‘with more power’ are not just adjectives for soap boxes but for every new strategy and gimmick for churches too.