When I first started writing this one, it was July and the mid-summer classic had just taken place. Now by the time I’m finishing this, I’m aboard a plane to Asia in September. At this point in time, I can’t even tell you who won the all star game or who is in first place in the AL East. It’s a sobering lesson but I am truly learning how time comes and goes faster than I can pour my coffee. My wife has told me that I need to prepare for fall weather when I get home next week and I don’t want to believe that could be possible.
Anyhow, this summer my wife and I had a conversation after we went on a short family getaway. During the trip we took our kids to their first professional baseball game and it has instantly become one of our most treasured family memories. Some time after, we started debating baseball movies and how the 1994 Disney classic, Angels In The Outfield is still our favorite movie – we often find ourselves reciting lines to one another. Further into the conversation The Sandlot came up and we started debating about what, if any, of the movie we would let our kids watch. My wife was quite surprised when I told her that I would not skip the infamous carnival scene. If you’ve watched the movie then you know what happens there. The boys think they’re getting away with using chewing tobacco, not knowing how to use it, they find themselves on the other end of something very very very nasty.
I then explained to my wife that I feel there are valuable life lessons throughout this part of the film, which can greatly impact morality and decision making. Our children receive a life lesson centered on the truth that sneaking around and doing something that seems cool but is wrong, isn’t just wrong but furthermore it’s sin against a Holy God.
Regrettably, that’s the culture that we live in today and as a matter fact, is in the very fiber of our DNA – it’s called sin nature. We get excited over the wrong things at times in life, and don’t get excited about the things that Jesus Christ calls us to get excited about.
I’ve read through the book of Acts several times, but I just recently read through it again and fresh eyes allowed me to appreciate something I haven’t noticed before. This time as I read, I was able to notice in a deeper way the boldness of Peter and John.
As a coffee lover, it’s similar in theory that you can drink a cup of coffee for decades and decades, and never appreciate what goes into that cup of coffee, or be able to pick out flavors that are in it.
I have a friend that almost 10 years ago opened up his own coffee shop, and one of the things that I always marveled of was how passionate he was about coffee and the coffee that he offered. This person was able to pick out all different types of flavors and tell you all about them. He knew everything from brewing temperatures to ratios, and was doing nitro brew before they got really popular. For me though I always felt like I offended him because he would be preparing this glorious cup of black coffee and I was the guy ready to ruin it all by dumping loads of creamer and sugar in it.
I believe my friend would be quite proud of me now as I no longer act like a heathen and ruin my coffee in those same ways. And much like that glorious view on coffee, without asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten your eyes to scripture and prepare your heart to read like a barista brews a Chemex, you’re wasting your time.
Back to the point now:
You have to set the stage here: the disciples had just been apart of three years of witnessing Jesus and his ministry. Then towards the end, He starts foretelling his death, then all of the sudden He’s crucified. Then three days later, just as He told them, rises again. While He was in the tomb, they go in hiding, fearing for their own life. That is all one giant emotional roller coaster that I think many of us would not pick up on if we don’t place ourselves in their shoes for a minute and understand what might’ve been happening to them.
So moving further into Acts 2, shortly after the Holy Spirit falls on the disciples, they go from scared little chickens to ferocious lions filled with the Holy Spirit and a renewed strength to preach the Gospel. Furthermore, what really stirred my spirit was in chapters 4 and 5. In chapter 4. Peter and John are arrested and put on trial, and they are subsequently given a charge by the Pharisees and Sadducees to cease preaching and speaking the name of Jesus Christ, son of God.
The key passage in this is v. 40-42 (emphasis added) of Acts 5 in which it says:
40 And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.
Where am I going with all of this you ask?
When was the last time we got excited about being dishonored instead of comfort?
Do we affirm that a life laid down for the Lord’s honor and glory would be far greater that that of a life laid up to man’s highest praise?
I know that I can come off borderline pious and arrogant by posing those questions, but the truth is that I’m challenging myself on them as well. We love our comforts, not having to face the music, and not having to suffer in this life.
As I was walking through the airport before my connecting flight – it’s store after store just filling a heart with discontentment. I felt like it was just beckoning to all walking around:
“Come look at all the things that you need.”
And what are all these folks doing (and I too, as I buy souvenirs my kids don’t need), we are buying the lie that these things are what we need in life. We are listening to the voice that says come stare at the $50,000 watch you think you need, come put on all these things to “make-up” for what you don’t have.
We listen to these words instead of listening to the words that are saying to us “bid thee come and die.”
The great theologian, John Calvin, states this in his work, Faith Unfeigned, where he is exhorting believers in the days of the reformation to not compromise their faith in fear of the Papists:
“It is not their job to reform the existing social order. No one is asking them to do that. What they are being urged to do is to reform themselves. For that they are responsible! They are not being asked to clean up either the churches or the streets. Everyone, instead should keep body and soul pure, and take pains to see that God is honored in his own house.” (Emphasis added).
Coram Deo, Latin for “living before the face of God”, is a motto that was big in the reformation era and which I believe is so crucial to our life now. We are called to be vessels for the Lord and I pray that somehow through all of my analogies, the Lord would use these words to encourage and breathe life into some of you and myself that we need to start getting excited about being dishonored.
We need to start getting excited about standing out.
We need to start getting excited about not fitting in.
We need to start getting excited about saying no to sin.
We need to start getting excited about loving Jesus and glorifying God more than our own personal reputation.
We need to start getting excited about our children’s children’s children knowing and loving the Lord because their great grandparents made decisions in a culture worse than that of the pagans, made choices to stop assimilating, and made decisions to start being persecuted.
The guy sitting next to me and the people in the row next to me already think I’m weird because I’m crying as I type this, so I don’t have anything left to lose. I don’t think they get it that I’m Italian and emotional.
As I finish this now that I’ve been in Asia for a few days, I recently had the pleasure of meeting two pastors that have become like brothers to me. Both Pastors have endured many hardships in starting their churches, however, one has suffered at great lengths with leaving the caste system to give his life and ministry fully to the service of the Lord; going from the top of the social status, to the lowest for the sake of the Gospel.
These are men who aren’t afraid to be persecuted and get excited about suffering for the Lord in many ways. In many ways, the opposite of all that we know. They are a blessing and inspiration to me because they remind me of what we should look like.
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV
I think all that is left to ask is:
Ego in, et tu?
The Fire & The Flood 