Acts 1:6-11
Do you like to travel? Many of us do enjoy going to places that we
have heard or read about, and yet in order to do so we must do some homework on
what I call the how, when, and where’s.
I for one am not into the “how, when and where” of the trip and my wife
Jan can testify that one such trip to Germany, Austria, and Italy had many
memories but sleeping on a train because there were no rooms to be had, and
going into East Germany sharing a sleeper with three Chinese teenage girls was
not in our plans. The next morning we
stayed on the train and returned to West Germany. What did I learn from that trip, I needed a
person who enjoyed the “how, when and where” of planning the trip
My friend, Carroll Ray Jr. was
the most “how, when and where” person you will ever meet, and for years all
travel, other than business where someone else set my schedule, I let Carroll
do the planning, and Jan and I just went and enjoyed the fruits of Carroll’s
labor of love. If you are not a “how,
when and where” person, you need a friend like Carroll or you need a travel
agent. But this I’ve learned, we all
want to know the “when” so as to get things arranged at home to be gone for the
time allotted on our trip.
As we address the verses above it
is more than likely titled above verse six in your Bible “The Ascension” and
Jesus is getting ready to leave planet earth and return home. For three years Jesus has been the “how, when
and where” person for this group of disciples and now He is telling them
goodbye. Stop and place yourself in
their shoes, they now believe Jesus is God, not a god, but the God, the Son of
God and they have seen many miracles, but they are still under Roman rule, they
are hated by the religious leaders of their nations and they want to know, “how,
when and where” before their “travel guide” leaves the planet.
The following is that
conversation: “So
when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons
that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when
the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were
gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,
and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you
stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven,
will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts
1:6-11 ESV)
When my friend Carroll ejected
from his earth suit and went to the Father I was left with some very good
memories, but when Jesus left planet earth He knew that we needed help, we
needed a “Helper” someone who would guide us in this trip called life; who has
all the answers to “how, when and where” and that Helper is none other than the
Holy Spirit.
Many of us Christians are so busy
doing and going for what we call the ministry, but so many of us are like my
friend Pete Peterson, who did it all in his Methodist church with the exception
of the women’s ministry, only to discover that he was like the guy with the vacuum
cleaner that worked very hard to clean the building, but had never plugged into
the power supply. It was amazing to see
the Pete Peterson who was now plugged into the Holy Spirit; his life made a
difference in my life and so many others.
A sheer impossibility, that is, without CHRIST but for all that He says, you have all that He is, and that is all that it takes!
The Christian life can only be explained in terms of Jesus Christ, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you, your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your sacrifice, or your anything then although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it!”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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