Strange Things Are Afoot At The Circle K

"Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."
- Keanu Reeves in the 1989 film, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"

I've always had an affinity for oddity. The wacky and weird appeal to me. But I don't think I'm the only one. Otherwise, zoos would only have dogs and cats in their cages---instead of walrus and wildebeest and wallaby. Or Cantor's giant softshell turtle. Or a Star-nosed mole. Or whatever this is. (I guess it's a Thornydevil. Aren't they all? Thorny, that is. But I digress.)

The oddities (from a human perspective) in creation speak volumes about the stunning ingenuity of our Creator. We may have cookie cutters on Earth---but I doubt there are any in heaven. And snowflakes? Just try and get your mind around that one.

Yet in spite of the amazing variety in all of creation, we humans tend to gravitate too easily toward sameness, predictability, and---well, boredom. Isn't it a sin to be boring?! (If it's not, can we nominate it as one?) Especially when you consider we follow the most fascinating, captivating, gloriously beautiful and powerful Being in the universe? (Realizing how much God loves diversity makes me kick myself for the hours I've wasted comparing myself to others---said comparison being a practice God calls "not wise.")

A glimpse of heaven provided by John the apostle in the book of Revelation gives us enough mind-bending imagery to outstrip the brightest imaginations in the fields of film and art. John saw beings he called "four living creatures", the throne of God framed by an emerald rainbow and multitudes of angels, and of course, the One about whom the Revelation was given, the Lamb of God Himself. Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, is "strange" in a wholly wonderful and holy Other Than kind of way.

"Strange" is the New Normal

We who follow the Lamb are called "strangers", and granted, some of us are stranger than others. (I kid because I care!) Of course, I'm engaging in wordplay here, but you get the point: God not only loves diversity and variety, but He also apparently gets a kick out of blowing our minds from time to time by invading our cookie-cutter worlds with the strange and unusual.

I've had a number of encounters with God that would easily fit under the nomenclature of "strange" to the casual observer---and even to me (at the time). Yet both in the Bible and in God-sent revivals in church history, we often see a great gulf between our version of "normalcy" and God's.

The Joy Bus Takes Aim

In the mid-90s I went on a spiritual pilgrimage with five other guys to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. We drove there in my Chrysler mini-van to check out what God was doing in a series of extended meetings at TACF, the genesis of which was a Father's Day service in 1994 led by a visiting pastor, Randy Clark.

We'd heard reports---unusual reports---of people being overwhelmed by the Spirit, some laying on the floor laughing uncontrollably. Yes. In church. Others wept, and still others jerked violently as if connected to a high voltage wire. Strange? Oh, yes. Was God in any of it? That's what we went to Toronto to find out.

By the time of our visit, tens of thousands had flocked to Toronto from all over the world to taste of what would later be dubbed "the Father's Blessing." We had heard that people were being deeply touched by God, healed both bodily and from wounds of the heart. Burned out and ready-to-quit pastors were testifying of being restored in their hearts, and thus, to their ministries. Lay people shared similar stories of radical transformations in the presence of God. Marriages on the verge of divorce were being gloriously renewed. Rebellious teenagers and broken-hearted parents were being reunited in love. On and on the stories went.

As soon as we walked into the building that first night, I felt God's "thick" presence. (He is everywhere, of course. But He was really, really there.) The service hadn't even started, but that didn't seem to bother God at all. He was already apparently touching people. Looking around the enormous sanctuary I saw most of what I described above---a tableau I would later come to think of as glorious chaos. As my eyes scanned the room and drank in the scene I heard the still, small voice of God: "Don't watch the manifestations, watch Me."

Instantly I knew what He meant: He wanted me to look beyond the visible world and discern what He was doing in the hearts of people. God is a "heart God". Ultimately, the outward manifestations of the Spirit---e.g., whether someone falls down or doesn't fall down (or laughs or shakes)---is unimportant. The question is, What is God doing in our hearts?

My friends and I attended every service we could over those three or four days. At the end of each service, prayer and the laying on of hands was offered by a seemingly tireless ministry team. And every time, I went forward for prayer. I was thirsty for more. More of God. Less of me. Enough to take home and bless others.

In all the times I was prayed for, not once did I fall down, laugh, cry or shake. But I did feel surrounded by God's beautiful and overwhelmingly comforting peace. No wonder Jesus called Holy Spirit "the Comforter"! Though I was not affected the way others around me were, I was not disappointed because I knew I was encountering Him. And He was speaking to my heart in ways that I had not heard Him speak in a long, long time.

A Rollicking Return: Gobsmacked By the Joy Bus

Our Toronto visit over, the six of us piled into my van and started the 10-hour trip back to Indiana. Due to the late nights, I felt too tired to drive, so one of my friends volunteered to do the honors. I sat in the middle bench seat, next to the sliding door.

As we knifed our way through the Ontario cold, I remember reading a book by Guy Chevreau I had picked up at the church called Catch The Fire, which contained accounts of people---some of whom I knew personally---whose lives had been transformed by the "Toronto Blessing". There was a worship CD playing in the van as we drove and as I read.

What happened next is somewhat hard to describe, as subjective experiences sometimes are. But as I read Guy's book, I remember thinking, If I read one more wonderful testimony, or hear one more anointed worship song (on the CD), I think I'm going to explode! Joy---a powerful, unstoppable spiritual force---was rising up from within me. It was as if, in my mind's eye, I could see a gauge measuring the "level" of the Spirit's joy within me, and it was rising, rising, rising---until it reached the top of the gauge.

When the gauge read "full" I started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more. What is happening to me?!! I suppose I could have stopped, but I didn't want to. I was caught quite off guard, because though I had seen this type of joy on people at TACF, that was not my experience. Until now.

Now, I had experienced laughter many times in my life, amused by a story or a comic or any number of humorous events. But this was different. This was a supernatural joy. It was an overpowering encounter with God's goodness and love, His delight in me and in all of His children.

Is the Holy Spirit Playful?

In the van I flashed back to one of the TACF services when I had seen someone on the floor laughing uproariously. Again I heard the still, small voice of God: Do you think the Holy Spirit is playful? For just a moment I was stumped---is this a trick question? But as I pondered it I had to say, Yes! Of course He is! When children play, are they not expressing a part of the very nature of God? Where does humor come from? From God, who else?! Why, yes! God must be a playful Being, because He has embedded this attribute in those creatures who bear His image!

On that road trip I laughed for what must have been hours. It was like I had overdosed on laughing gas. Several times I fell off my seat and onto the floor, but I didn't care. It was wonderful. It may sound strange to say this, but at the same time I was experiencing the joy of the Lord, a profound sobriety also gripped me. I gained a new appreciation for the Cross of Christ and the inestimable price He paid to save us from our sins. I felt like I was being exposed to regions of God's heart I had never seen or felt before.

You may be wondering what the other five guys in the van were doing. Excellent question! Well, interspersed between my fits of laughter were some richly meaningful interactions with my friends. One such time the Spirit led us to pray for two of my friends who, as children, had each lost a parent and were in need of deep inner healing. They were wonderfully touched by the Spirit of God in that time of prayer.

Encounter = Invitation

In the intervening years, I have on numerous occasions revisited that "place" of joy. I have learned that when we encounter God in a fresh way, it represents an invitation by Him into a new plane of existence. Today's ceiling is to be tomorrow's floor. This is not to say that I haven't been down or depressed in all these years. But I am saying that I find the "joy realm" to be accessible to me, by faith, any time I want to go there. And I am living more consistently in a state of joy than ever before.

The joy of the Lord is not only our strength---it is our birthright as believers. How sad it would be if at the end of our lives we would experience culture shock upon entering heaven, where "in His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand, pleasures forevermore"?

What would it look like if your life were filled with joy? Your family? Your church? It's attainable and sustainable. Why live beneath our privileges as His people? The Scriptures attest that Jesus was the happiest Person on earth. He wants His body---the church---to be in proportion to the Head---full of joy.

I do not mean to suggest that your experience will be identical to mine, nor should it be. God tailors our respective encounters with Him according to our uniqueness. But what I am saying is that His joy is for each one of us to experience. What relationship worth its salt is devoid of experiences?

Yep. Something strange is afoot at the Circle K. Something supernatural. You were born for this. Go after it.

I Feel Like A Mosquito At A Nudist Colony...

...I don't quite know where to start. So I'll just hit on a few thoughts, stream-of-consciousness style.

What This Skeeter's Buzzin' About

• I'm overwhelmed at the moment by the affectionate heart of Jesus. I'm experiencing it in what seems like new and deeper ways, both for myself, and for others. We have two infant grandsons---the affection we feel for Simeon and Marcus is off the charts. But it doesn't hold a candle to the blazing affection that God feels for every single human on the planet. Mind-boggling. Paul the apostle wrote about it: God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. (Phil. 1:8) Tonight outside a local supermarket we encountered a teenager who was selling candy to raise money for his AAU basketball team. As we engaged him in conversation I felt the affection of Jesus for the young man. We bought some candy and then offered prayer for him as we stood by our car, which he readily accepted. During prayer, I had the strong impression that Michael's aunt had been praying for him and that God was going to answer her prayers for her nephew. I shared this with Michael and he confirmed that his aunt was indeed fervently praying for him. During the prayer, Sandy felt prompted to give Michael a monetary gift, mouthing an amount to me to which I readily agreed. We gave him a check and I offered a hug which, again, Michael readily accepted. In the embrace I again felt the profound affection of the Lord toward Michael---and Sandy and I drove home rejoicing that he placed Michael in our path.
• Last weekend I witnessed a number of people enjoying profound encounters with the Lord at the Soaking In His Presence Weekend. Toronto's Jeremy and Connie Sinnnot were wonderful as leaders---so down-to-earth, humble, and transparent. Many great stories emerged from the conference, among them the healing a woman received from fibromyalgia, and the complete healing of my friend Randy's S/I joint. Yea, God! I strongly suspect the ripple effects of this weekend will be felt in Indy for a long time to come.
  
• The presence of God has been so, well, present of late. Of course, I don't mean that God was ever absent! But the manifest presence of God has been so intense, at times I am just undone (or as the Brits say---gobsmacked) by the sheer magnitude of His manifest presence. It only serves to underscore to me what Bill Johnson often says: "We owe the world an encounter with God." I feel like I'm beginning to understand the Psalmist who said: "Better is one day in Your courts than thousands elsewhere." His presence is that wonderful. What our fill-in-the-blank addicted friends need is a superior addiction---and Jesus is "it". We cannot afford to offer the world an impotent theory when the reality of His presence is 'within reach'!
  
• The joy of God is a ginormous deal! C.S. Lewis said, "Joy is the serious business of heaven." Seriously! (Some day soon I'll do a blog post on the time I encountered the "joy inexpressible" the Bible speaks of, and how that joy continues to be a reality to me.) But for now I'll just say this: Once you encounter the joy of the Lord as an experience and not just a concept, you'll be ruined---ruined, I tell you! And it's available to everyone, not just a sanguine few.
• I just finished a book by Rolland and Heidi Baker by the title: Expecting Miracles. It's a continuation of an earlier book of theirs that tells stories of their work among the orphans of Mozambique. It's nearly impossible for me to capture the scope of what is happening in that needy southeastern African nation. It is no overstatement to say the Lord is using the Bakers and their associates to radically change the face of Mozambique. Both Rolland and Heidi have earned doctorates, but what impresses the most is their 'sincere and pure devotion to Christ' and their passionate love for the orphaned children they regularly care for. I am deeply challenged by their story to find new ways to make a difference for the poor of the world. Noblesse oblige.
• After all these years, I think I'm finally getting it---God doesn't want us to worry! I used to read the 'Don't worry about anything, pray about everything' verse and subconsciously dismiss it as an utter impossibility. After all, if I don't worry about stuff, how will anything get done?!! The fact that Jesus considers worry a sin was something I gave intellectual assent to, but in my heart of hearts, didn't seriously attempt to put into practice. But about a year ago a health scare caused me to seek God with a fervency that exposed my anxious heart to God's penetrating gaze. And I got it. Or at least, I began to get it. And so I decided it must be possible to be at peace if Jesus had commanded it. (So noble of me, I know!) And you know what? It's working! I'm finding myself nonplussed by things that would normally send me into a swirling eddy of angst. Again, I found a statement by Bill Johnson to be therapeutic: "We won't experience the 'peace that passes understanding' until we give up the demand to understand everything."

Well, it's time to buzz off for now. Stay tuned. Indy, you're in God's crosshairs for a tsunami-move of the Spirit of God. Believe it!

God Loves Rivers

God must really love rivers. A lot.

He has scattered thousands of rivers across the surface of the earth. (There are 628 in Australia alone.) The Nile and the Amazon compete for the distinction of the longest river on Earth---depending on how they’re measured---each being about 4,000 miles long.

God loves rivers.

God put “rivers” in the oceans. (You have to really love rivers to put them in the oceans!) Surface currents like the Gulf Stream make up about 10% of all the water in the ocean. Not only are there currents on the ocean’s surface, there are deep ocean basin currents called “submarine rivers.”

God loves rivers.

He put “rivers” in the sky. Jet streams are usually found between 10 and 15 miles above the earth’s surface; they can be anywhere from one to three miles thick and from 1,000 to 3,000 miles long. These rivers in the troposphere are fast flowing---air travelers may experience tailwinds up to 100 mph between the US and the UK.

God loves rivers.

He put rivers under the earth. Perhaps the longest underground river in the world was discovered in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It meanders for 95 miles through that area’s limestone caverns.

God loves rivers.

A “river of life”, the circulatory system, furnishes the human body with oxygen and disease-fighting properties. Both light and sound waves can be said to undulate like a river.

God loves rivers.

God's Word---A River Runs Through It

Unsurprisingly, rivers figure prominently in God’s dealings with His people. Consider just these few:

• A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, dividing into four rivers

• Moses was named after his experience of being drawn from the Nile River

• Ezekiel saw a vision of a river flowing out from the temple of God that brought healing to everything it touched

• Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River to inaugurate His ministry

• The book of Revelation begins its concluding chapter this way: 1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
  

God. Loves. Rivers.

On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says." (John 7:37-39)

There’s a beautiful river in our midst, and He wants to flow out of us into a world that cannot live without Him. Bill Johnson reminds us, “He’s in us as a river, not a lake.” Let's allow the river to flow wherever He desires.

You flow into my wilderness
Your crystal waters give me rest
I find my peace upon Your shores
For lesser things I thirst no more

You turn the bitter waters sweet
Of every sour stream You meet
Polluted mind and stagnant soul
Are purified in Your control

I love the loveliness I see
In river bend and waterfall
I plunge my life into the deep
And from Your depths I live in awe

You make me want to laugh and cry
You make me want to dance and bow
You make me want to shout and sigh
Overwhelmed by Your beauty

Beautiful River

Beautiful River Dave Noel ©1999 worshiptogether.com songs

Dan the Man

[In September '08 I was able to locate a friend I hadn't seen since our college days at Anderson University (then College). When I found him, my mind was flooded with the memory of a supernatural encounter I had because of the kindness of Dan Brockman. It was life-changing. Below is the email I sent Dan.]

Hi Dan,

Once again, it's so great to find you after all these years.

I have to tell you that you are (and will always be) a significant part of my testimony.
When I arrived at A.C. in the late summer of 1971 I was about as clueless about the Christian life as a person could be. To that point I don't think I had ever had a serious conversation with a believer about the Christian life. I knew nothing of being 'born again'. Of course, all that changed as I came into contact with a number of believers on campus, and in January of 1972, I knelt down alone beside my bed in Dunn Hall and quietly prayed to receive Christ.

My life was changed in that moment, but I struggled with the typical issues that confront a new believer---doubt, fear, setbacks, and loneliness.
.
By March of '73 there was a gloom about me, a seeming disconnect between the joy and peace we sang about in church services, and the reality of what I was experiencing. That's when you entered the picture. You asked me that day how I was doing and I told you, 'not very well', and you offered to talk. You told me I needed the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and then you walked me through the Scriptures and explained to me how to receive the promise of the Father.

We prayed and you asked if I'd received. "I think so..." was my reply. You immediately said, "You didn't." (And you were right!). You encouraged me to pray once more, this time using the same trust as I had used when I first received Christ. We prayed again and honestly, I felt exactly the same as I had after the first prayer. The difference was there was a flicker of hope inside me, a determination that by the grace of God, I had received the power of the Holy Spirit---because God had made a promise and He could not lie.

I'll never forget what you said next; it was simple in its profundity and profound in its simplicity: "Dave, expect things to be different." And I decided to take your advice---I would expect things to be different, because if God's word was true, things had to be different.

We parted and I walked up the four flights of stairs and down the hall to my room in Smith Hall. I picked up my Living Bible, flipped it open randomly and began to read. Something amazing had happened! Evidently someone had sneaked into my room and replaced the pages of my Bible with all new pages! It couldn't have been the same Book, could it? But of course, it was the same Bible. What was different was the Holy Spirit had answered my prayer and filled me with Himself. Understanding was leaping off the pages of the Word because He had baptized me in a new way that day.

As the realization of what had happened swept over me, the feelings that had been absent in the car moments earlier started to well up within me and overtake me. Ha! So THIS is the joy we've been singing about! And THIS is the peace that had been "advertised" to me as a huge part of the Christian life. And HERE is the LOVE! I was ecstatic, and I'm sure, a bit overbearing to my friends for quite some time. But I couldn't help but tell about the reality of this God who had so radically touched my life!

Dan, it's been 35 years since that day. In that time I've seen the Lord use me to minister healing to the sick, prophesy to the discouraged, and bring deliverance to the bound. And all of it---every bit of it---is traceable back to the day when a guy named Dan Brockman cared enough to reach out to a struggling believer on the campus of Anderson College. You were instrumental in God wrecking my life (in a good way, of course) and setting me on a trajectory that continues to this very day.

There have been ups and downs, as you would expect. But after 35 years of marriage to Sandy, raising two kids, and now very recently welcoming two grandsons into the world---and assorted ministry stops at churches in North Carolina, Oklahoma City, and now in Indianapolis----I have relied on the power of God you helped introduce me to. I've taken His power---or perhaps I should say His power has taken me!---to Mexico, Haiti, and Russia. I've worked for Youth With Christ and other parachurch organizations. But it's really not about my resume'; it's about God's empowerment to do His work in His strength.

So I'm writing to thank you, Dan, for helping me. Thank you for praying with me. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of the Word with me. Thank you for being...available.
Thanks to you, I'm still 'expecting things to be different.'

So if you're ever discouraged, I hope you'll be able to pull out this email and reminisce with me about a cold, damp day in March of '73 when our lives intersected---and I've never been the same.

With warm gratitude,
Dave

Arthur Itis---You Are Not Welcome Here

[NOTE: This blog post originally appeared 3/17/08 on MySpace. MySpace is so 2008, so I elected to copy-and-paste the story here. Since some of us are starting the 'Acts Me' Challenge in a few hours, I thought it especially apropos.]

I’ve been privileged to see God heal a lot of people over the years. Following is one of the most recent such occasions.

It was Sunday morning at the church where I am currently interim worship leader (Midtown Vineyard). During worship I had a sudden and strong impression that God wanted to heal someone of arthritis. I resisted the prompting for a few minutes while I "reasoned" that there was nobody in the congregation old enough to be arthritic. In spite of my reluctance to say aloud what I sensed within, the impression grew stronger.

So, during a brief transition between songs I shared this impression with the congregation, encouraging anyone with arthritis to simply respond to the Lord in child-like faith. I then went on with the worship service. To be quite honest, I had lingering doubts about whether I had truly heard from God.

It was a few moments later that the church’s pastor shared somewhat excitedly that it was his wife Leslie who had been suffering from arthritis for the past eight months. During communion he joined his wife in prayer and by faith, trusted God for healing. He seemed to think that Leslie had already experienced a touch from God.

After the service concluded, Leslie told us that when she first arrived at church she was in such pain that she didn’t know if she would make it through the church service. Her pain, which had been at an "8" on a scale of 1-10, diminished to a 1 or 2 during the communion prayer.

We then joined together in prayer for the healing to be complete. In a matter of minutes, her "1" to "2" pain went to "0" and she has had no arthritis since that day!

Is God cool or what?!

The 'Acts Me' Challenge

I'm likin' this.

I guesss I didn't know what to expect. What started out as a blurb in the blogosphere (see previous post entitled, 'Acts Me' Again) has turned into something seriously cool!

About 24 hours ago I threw out an invitation for my Facebook friends and Ignite Indy readers to join me in reading the Book of Acts through four times in the month of February. I've been encouraged by the response.

As of this moment, there are 14 of us signed up for the Challenge, with more responses expected in the next couple days. Participants hail from four states thus far---Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina. (If you'd like to sign up, there's still time. Go to my Facebook group, "I Accepted the 'Acts Me' Challenge", and click the magic button. That way, I can see who's on board. Thanks!)

There are a lot of great resources out there to help with Bible study; nonetheless, I thought I'd offer some suggestions to facilitate this exercise:

• Read for encounter. The Scriptures were given to bring us into ongoing encounters with the Author. Jesus rebuked the religious Jews for approaching the Scriptures wrongly: 39You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:39-40, italics mine) God wants us to experience Him! Ask Him to reveal Himself to you---He loves to do that!
• Picture yourself there. When you read the story of the disabled man at the Beautiful Gate, put yourself on his pallet. What must have it been like to be crippled from birth? Then the next week when you get to that story, imagine that you're Pete or John. Feel their boldness well up inside you as 'you' say, "Rise and walk!"
  
• Take your time. There's little to no benefit in racing through the text so you can say, "There---I'm done!" I'd suggest splitting the chapters up throughout your day, e.g. one chapter in the morning, one or two at lunch time, and the rest in the evening. Read a section, then pause and ponder it. Ask the Spirit to shine a light on a key phrase or even a word.
• Write stuff down. Got insights? Write 'em down. Questions? Write 'em down. Encounter God in a new way? You guessed it---keep a journal of it. Share whatever you'd like with the group on the group page. We'll learn together.
  
• Include someone else. Sandy and I are going to do this together. Ask your spouse or a friend if they'd like to join you in the Challenge. The mutual encouragement and sharing of insights can be a huge plus. (Encourage them to join the FB group, too.)
  
• Let's chat about it. If you're on Facebook, feel free to share via the group page what you're experiencing as the month rolls on.
  

Like most of you, I have a day job, so my ability to "moderate" the group may be limited. In large part this is an experiment. (I ain't never done anything like this before!) But one thing I'm sure of---God will reward our hunger. I'm excited. Let's do this thing!

'Acts Me' Again

It wrecked me, that simple exercise, and I've never been the same.

The year was 1976. We were serving as youth leaders of a church in Drexel, a Mayberry-like community nestled in the Piedmont area of western North Carolina. The pastor, Don Smith, challenged the church to read the book of Acts four times in the month of January. There are 28 chapters in Acts, so four chapters a day was a manageable feat.

It's been said that the Bible is the only book that reads you, and I believe it. I read those 28 chapters 32 years ago with a mixture of awe and annoyance---awed by the exploits of the early Church, and annoyed that my own spiritual experience did not favorably compare to that of the early Christ-followers.

Try sitting down at the Acts-uary table (ok, that pun was a stretch) and tasting a sampler platter of some stuff you'll find there:

• 120 folks are jammed in a room as they wait for what the now-ascended Jesus had promised, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Next thing you know, the sound of something like a violent wind storm fills the room, tongues of fire appear over their heads, and the people (apparently) stagger out into the streets speaking in languages they'd never learned before! Bizarre! But bizarre in a good way.
• Pete, the guy who'd promised he'd never betray Jesus---and then did by cussing out a servant girl---is one of the 120 who gets blasted by the Holy Spirit. Yeah, he'd chickened out before. But now here he is, set on fire by the Spirit of God, boldly preaching Jesus to some of the same dudes who had crucified his Lord! C'mon! That's quite a flip of the script, if you ask me.
• You have a guy whose life was anything but beautiful, crippled at birth and reduced to begging for his bread, lying at a gate called (irony alert!) "Beautiful". One day Pete, still feeling bold and rollin' with his homeboy Johnny-boy, stroll by the Beautiful gate when the crippled man asks them for some coin. P & J say (my paraphrase), 'Silver and gold, we don't have, but we do have something better for you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!' Then the dude gets up! And not only that, he walks. And then he jumps around like his hair's on fire. Yea, God! Some of that!
• One of the weirdest things in Acts involves a dude named Phil. Phil was on a road trip and had been directed by the Spirit to share his faith with an Ethiopian minister of finance who was takin' a spin in his chariot. The Ethiopian not only wants to become a Christ-follower, but he wants Phil to baptize him right then and there! So Phil dunks him and the next thing you know---wait for it---"the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away and the [Ethiopian] eunuch did not see him again." Well...okay Dave, sounds kinda like Phil split in a hurry. What's so weird about that? But hold on a sec. The Book says Phil was transported miles away, Star Trek style, to a town named Azotus. Frequent flier Phil--what a thrill!
  

And that little sampler platter contains a mere fraction of the events recorded in Acts. There are healings, weird signs, eye-popping miracles, astounding conversions (like the terrorist Saul, who became Paul), and even a couple who drops dead because they lied about a real estate deal! You can check it out for yourself.

I was wrecked by what I read because in the reading, the Spirit seemed to say, 'I haven't changed from that day to this. You can expect Me to show up like this in your life---you just have to believe.'

So I started believing. And then I started seeing. I haven't seen everything that's talked about in the book of Acts, but I've seen plenty of it. I'll be blogging about it, too. Because I've found something out about How Things Work, and it's this: What you honor, you attract; what you dishonor, you repel. The more we honor God and the things He's done (and is doing), the more He does. And that, my friends, is pretty stinkin' cool.

Hey, there are 28 days in February. Wanna join me for another soul-stirring spin through Acts? The only thing you've got to lose is your boredom.