Waist Deep 2018 - A Daily Dip in the Bible

Acts 16: 6–10 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region . . . having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. . . . they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they . . . went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia . . . begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” . . . we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach . . . to them. (NIV) God is in charge of leadership, the destination, and the way church growth occurs.* The people in the province of Asia, and in Bithynia and Troas, needed to hear the gospel as much as the people of Macedonia. There was no earthly reason for Paul and his team not to go to any of those places. But the doors to these mission fields were closed to them. Their “Macedonian Call” meant that they would trade one fertile field for another. Modern missionaries sometimes h...

Acts 7: 55 But Stephen . . . looked up to heaven and saw . . . Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (NIV) Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face.* Stephen was a disciple who, full of God’s grace and power, was performing wonders and signs. He stirred up opposition from among the Jews who “could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke,” (Acts 6: 10) until they persuaded some men to accuse him of blasphemy. He was brought before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish court), where according to the onlookers, Stephen sat there with his face “like the face of an angel” (6: 15), while false witnesses were produced to testify against him. When the high priest asked Stephen if the charges were true, Stephen let loose with a history lesson, beginning with Abraham and ending with Solomon; then he tore into them for resisting the Holy Spirit and betraying and murdering the “Righteous One.”  The crowd, already in a nasty mood, became enr...

Acts 4: 29 “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (NIV) “Hurray . . . for adversity.”* If you had just been in front of a judge (for the second time) and were ordered to stop what you were doing; and if you knew that as soon as you left the court, the officials would be plotting against you, what would you pray for? Honestly? I would pray for the Lord’s protection. I would (nobly) ask that the Lord touch the hearts of my enemies, but I would be looking for deliverance.  Peter and John and their merry band were remarkable. It’s not as if they hadn’t already spoken boldly – that’s why they were in trouble in the first place. As one commentator observes, they asked for “more boldness, more power, and (essentially) more trouble!”* In Mark chapter 13, Jesus predicted their persecution and promised that the Holy Spirit would speak through them. He did not offer them deliverance from the trials ahead...

Acts 4: 20 “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (NIV) Speaking what one has seen and heard is the essence of witnessing .* One night, in my role as a camp counselor, I was having trouble getting the little girls in my cabin to settle down and go to sleep. Finally, one little girl piped up, “There’s a room full of girls here and I just have to talk!” Perhaps Peter and John could relate to that little girl. They were filled with the Spirit and bubbling over with good news to share. They literally were not able not to speak! Such exuberance was a new development for them. Remember when they were not so bold? Yet, here they were in court where one is supposed to tell the truth about what you have seen and heard and they are being commanded not to speak! Instead of quaking in fear, they are willing to pay the price for their defiance with their lives.*   As someone has pointed out, “A leader’s execution is not a usual recipe f...

Acts 4: 13 . . . and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (NIV) Biblical wisdom is not associated with great learning or with anything particularly intellectual or scholarly.* In this story, the observers were impressed with Peter and John’s courage as they noted that they were Jesus’ followers. How did they know? Perhaps they had seen them with Jesus, or knew them by reputation, or maybe the evidence pointed to no other explanation. Peter and John were not educated men – you don’t need a college degree to be a fisherman. They weren’t rich or famous, so what did they have to be confident about? They weren’t soldiers so why were they so brave?  Their actions were a positive reflection on the Lord. As someone has observed: “Of the proofs for the resurrection of Jesus, one of the most compelling is simply to compare [the] cowering disciples as portrayed [in the Gospels] . . . with the bold, confident figures in the book of Acts.”* If they had...

John 20: 24-29 Thomas . . . was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said . . . “Unless I see the nail marks . . . and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” A week later . . . Jesus came and stood among them and . . . said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” (NIV) Personal contact with Jesus left virtually no one unmoved.* According to the verses just prior to these, Jesus had earlier shown his hands and his side to the other apostles. After Thomas’ exclamation, Jesus remarked that Thomas believed because he had seen him, and he goes on to say that those of us who believe without seeing him are blessed.  I am convinced that it was unfair to nickname him, “Doubting Thomas.” Did the other disciples believe that Jesus ...

John 20: 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. (NIV) There are times in a person’s life when, even in the midst of them, you know you’ll never be the same.* We were rehearing our church Easter drama and the director was trying to get the actors to portray the proper demeanor for someone who had just seen the risen Savior. What would that look like, I wondered. How would I act if I saw Jesus alive, three days after I had watched him die? We usually think we know how we would react in a situation – until we are faced with it, then we often surprise ourselves. It can be a moment of truth about our character.  Are we appropriately impressed with the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection? Wouldn’t it be great if we felt the same awe and wonder as if we had been there that morning? How much more effective our witness would be if we could say, “I have seen the Lord!” with the ...

John 17: 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me.” (NIV) God came to us so we could come to him.* Jesus’ personal request is not so different from what we might ask for – to see our loved ones when we get to heaven and to spend eternity with them. When Jesus spoke these words, he wasn’t just talking about his disciples. He was thinking about me, too.  Three thoughts stand out about his prayer:  Jesus wants to be with me. I have family and friends - people who like me. But how many of them crave my presence? Do any of them actually pray for time with me? Not only does Jesus want to be with me, he prayed for it. Will God not answer the prayer of his beloved only son? Will he not give him everything that he asks for? In order to be with him, we must be like him.  He ends his prayer by saying that he has made God known to us so that God’s love may be in us and that he himself might be in us. Amen. Not only does He want t...

John 13: 35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (NIV) When Jesus came he didn’t just talk about love. He loved.* Jesus said that we would be known as his disciples by our love for one another – not by the rituals we perform; not by the “costumes” we wear; not by our secret handshake or where we hang out. But how does loving each other prove anything? Even the heathens love others. If we back up to verse 34, we see that Jesus presents a new command: to love each other “as I have loved you.” Oh! That’s a way different kind of love! As one writer observes, if Jesus was merely restating the law to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, it would not be new.*   Instead, he is requiring that we hold ourselves to an even higher standard than to love others based on self-love. This new principle, based on Christ’s love, is “self-abandoning and self-sacrificing.”* This kind of love isn’t merely sentimentality and gushy ...

John 12: 32 “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (NIV) My part is to share the gospel and God’s part is to make the gospel effective in the heart. My part is to model Christ and God’s part is to apply Christ.* In the next verse, John 12: 33, we are told that Jesus made this statement to show what kind of death was in store for him. In his death on the cross, he was lifted up from the earth; in his resurrection he was lifted up from the grave; and in his ascension, he was lifted up into heaven.* But his words suggest another truth as well.*   He doesn’t merely tell us, “If you lift me up, the story of the cross will draw men to me.” He says, “ I will draw men to me.”*   We concern ourselves with the effectiveness of our witness but Jesus tells us that it is our job to lift him up. It is his job to draw men to him.  “All men” does not mean that everyone will accept his invitation; we have a free will and we a...