Vol. 7, No. 20 – May 22, 2022
May his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it, and let another take his office. (Psalm 69:25) So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to His resurrection (Acts 1:21-22).
So, the adventure begins anew.
Do you remember your adventures? When I managed a Kmart in upstate NY, I and several men took our church teens on a canoe trip on Long Lake in the Adirondacks. The lake is 22 miles long. So, we paddled just a little over halfway—about 12 miles. One of my sons, a teen at the time, went with us.
When we set up camp, the rules for the forests included that the area was a forever wild area. You could not cut trees, but you could gather wood already fallen for campfires. The teens, being teens, did not want to walk through the woods to gather the firewood. They talked me into taking my canoe down the lakeshore, and they would gather wood near the shore and place it in my canoe. Fine.
They loaded it up. I would pull into the shore, nestle the canoe in the rocks, and they would load it up. The time came to return to camp. The canoe was full. So, they pushed the canoe off the shore, and immediately the canoe flipped. I did manage to get most of the wood back into the canoe. Then I pulled the canoe back to the campsite to unload the wet wood.
I need to tell you that I only took one pair of shoes. My son took them and placed them on the stones around the fire to dry them. He returned in a little while, saying he had good news and bad news. The good was that the shoes were dry. The bad was that the tongues of the shoes were burned out, and the shoelaces were completely burned up—gone. Thanks, Mike. That was just the start of our adventure that weekend.
The disciples had an adventure of another kind. They were going on in their assignment (Matthew 28:18-20). Thus, they knew that their number needed to increase. Judas had betrayed Jesus, and it seemed like no time went by; Judas had hung himself, his body falling into the Potter’s Field where useless clay was thrown. Need I remind you that we are made from clay, to be moldable and shaped to serve our Lord.
The disciples chose Matthias to serve in the place of Judas.
This adventure was not going to be an easy one. There would be those who resisted their presence. There certainly were extended family members that did not approve of their ongoing ministry. The Romans were not happy. The religious leaders—Sadducees, Pharisees, Scribes, Priests—were not happy either. When leaders become unhappy, they act. They re-assert their control, authority, and position. They issue mandates to remind people who they are accountable to and provide rules/regulations to convince them to follow and do as they are told.
Of course, that was in the old days, wasn’t it? That would not happen today, would it? It does. Do not forget that power corrupts. We experience that in our own country, a country founded on the truth of God and freedom specified (life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness). The pandemic, over the last three years, has cost the U.S. many lives; however, the “medication” mandated to our citizens has added substantially to the death count and continues to do so. Untested and unexamined, with little data that is reliable, the “vaccines” leave people to be the ones tested at great cost. Living in our present world is an adventure. We have no idea what the eventual outcome of the “vaccine” is for our people. We are told to follow the science. Yet, what we are following is a hypothesis, not fully proven, and the long-term outcomes may well be devastating.
Life Application
Living in our present world is an adventure; however, Christians continue to neglect the adventure to which they are subscribed. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them, to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).
Again, I would remind you that our dear pastor is focused on our church being representative of the Christ we worship. At the end of every service, not only does he give a benediction, he pronounces, you are sent. He is inviting those of the church to move into the adventure he, and we, are committed to doing.
How is your adventure going?
