What is Truly Important

2.9.2011

Acts 16:5 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. NIV

Somehow, I think we’ve grown tired of the gospel. Somehow in modern America, we’ve seemed to have relegated church and spirituality to Sundays; and the rest of the week – well the rest of the week is given over to the weightier matters of life and the American Dream.

I’m so tired of the American Dream that I could puke. I’ve spent so much of my life chasing after what I was told to chase after and now I look at what I have to show for it and that amounts to an abundance of dust covered trinkets, deep debt, and certain foreclosure. Sounds more like the American Hangover.

So, here in Acts 16 – a marvelous chapter in the Bible about Paul's Macedonian vision and the conversion of the Philippian jailer – is a quiet little statement about what is truly important: “…the churches were strengthened in faith and grew daily in numbers.” The question I have is, why? Why were the churches strengthened in the faith and growing daily in number?

People were as tired of the Grecian Dream or the Roman Dream or the Palestinian Dream then as I am of the American Dream now. I think people then were smart enough to look at life and ask, “Is this it!?” The Gospel debunks the dreams we have of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on earth by redirecting our focus to the promise of God’s presence in Heaven. That is always what gets people’s motors going – the hope of something beyond these tired lives of ours, and the endless pursuits of our empty dreams; at least it ought to.

Somehow we need to change our minds about what is truly important and live our lives for that; and then live as simply as we can in the meantime giving our attention and energy over to strengthening our churches and then watching them grow daily in number by those who embrace and pursue the Heavenly Promise. Sounds good to me…

Father in Heaven,
You’ve called me to surrender all I have for all You are. I surrender. You’ve called me to preach the gospel to every creature – I surrender. You’ve called me to live on earth by getting ready for heaven – I surrender. Help me this day to get it – I pray in Jesus Name so that the churches may be strengthened in the faith and grow daily in number – amen.