Chreasters

A Chreaster is someone that attends church only on the major holidays of Christmas and Easter. It's that person that, two times a year, grudgingly gets out of bed early, throws on a suit and tie or some panty hose, and makes an effort to seem as if they have it all together. 

Scanning the Twitter feed throughout the day today, I've seen the phrase, "He is Risen!" proclaimed time and time again by people that I wasn't quite sure even knew the meaning of what they were saying. Jesus rose. FROM THE DEAD.

This. Is. Awesome. News. We should be doing some hardcore Tebowing right now! 

BUT Easter isn't solely about the resurrection of Jesus. I mean, it is, but the implications for His resurrection are so much greater than a 140 character shout-out to Jesus on social media. The main point people are missing is that because He has overcome death to sin, we can too!

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his." - Romans 6:4-5

These verses say it all! Through the symbolism of baptism, we are dying to our sinful selves and proclaiming to live a new life through the "glory of the Father." It's crucial that's God's glory is the only meaning, the only goal, and the only mission of our new, resurrected lives. This is only accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus! So this leaves me with a question...Are we just going to focus on the surface of this Easter holiday, or are we going to rise with Our Savior and live a life worthy and full of God's precious glory? 

Boldness in Christ

I'm an introvert. A soft-spoken, confrontation-avoiding introvert. Bold is generally not a word I would ever use to describe myself, much less a quality I would ever desire to have. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I tend to strive to be the peace-keeping, people-pleasing Christ "follower." But I realized something recently...can you truly be a follower of Christ if you are solely focused on doing it in a way that is pleasing to everyone? 

While reading through Acts 4 today, I saw how fervently Peter and John prayed for great boldness when preaching the name of Jesus and I started to desire that same boldness. I mean, these guys were praying this prayer the morning after they had been released from jail. FROM JAIL.

You see, Peter and John had stirred up quite a scene back in Acts 3. The two men were walking to the temple for their afternoon prayer time when they encountered a man, who had been lame since birth, begging at the temple gates. When this man asked the disciples for money, Peter turned to the beggar and said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6). The man then gets up, walks, and starts to praise God. In verse 8, it says that he was literally "walking and jumping, and praising God!"

I took a couple of things from that passage:

1. Peter did not spend hours praying some elaborate and fancy prayer over this man for all the onlookers to see. He did it in a way that glorified God, and not himself.
2. There are many problems in the world that could be fixed with silver or gold. Oh how many times I have wished to have the savings account of Bill Gates! If only I were wealthy, then I could fix world hunger. Just write a check and feed all the starving little African children. If only...but look at the gift Peter gives this beggar. He gives him no money at all, but instead gives him the power to WALK! And this gift was only possible in the name of Jesus. How often do we beat ourselves up because we feel we don't have what it takes to heal others? Jesus, people, JESUS! To me, this passage says that JESUS is the ultimate solution to every problem, every pain, and every chain that we will ever encounter!
3. The man that was healed immediately started to praise God. Now I don't know too many people, or any for that matter, that have been physically healed in the way that this man was healed. BUT, I know of several people, myself included, who have been healed in other ways by Jesus. How come we aren't all jumping around and praising God for all the world to hear? Why is it that it seems we ask for a miracle, but yet when the miracle comes about, we are content to thank God privately and record the event in our journal, never to been seen by the eyes of others? 

After Peter had healed the man, people were shocked! They were running up to the disciples, trying their best to get some answers and make sense of what they had seen. Peter says to them in verse 12, "Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?" It's crucial that we don't miss the effort Peter is making to give all the glory to God. In verse 16, he tells the people that it is by faith in the name of Jesus that this man was healed.

Now let's fast forward a little to Acts 4...

Peter and John were preaching the resurrection of Jesus to the same people who had just witnessed this beggar get up and walk for the first time in his life. The combination of hearing about the miracles of Jesus and seeing one firsthand brought 5,000 people to Christ that day. WOW! One man healed = 5,000 new believers. I'm sure that after this day, the man who was healed probably continued to praise God for this miracle of being able to walk...thus bringing even more people to Jesus. 

Because of the scene that was made that day, Peter and John were arrested and thrown into jail that very night. It says in Acts 4, that the jailers told the two men to never speak or teach in the name of Jesus again. So you know what Peter and John did? They said (directly to the jailers, I might add), that they were not going to stop. MAN! Talk about courage! Peter and John looked these people in the eye, these people who had the power to keep them in a dank and dirty jail, and said that they were never going to stop talking about Jesus. Instead of trying to please the jailers, these two men proclaimed that they were never going to stop spreading the Gospel! As if that wasn't a bold enough move, the moment the two disciples got out of jail, they prayed to God that they would have great boldness in which to preach the Word! 

So this leaves me with a few questions. WHAT IF...we never stopped praising God for healing us? WHAT IF...we refused to shut up when it came to making the name of Jesus known? WHAT IF...we prayed for great boldness in which to bring people to Christ instead of being quiet peace-keeping, people-pleasers?

The book of Acts is workin' on me, y'all! So today I'm proclaiming that I am no longer the introverted girl that strives to put people's sensitive feelings above the Gospel. I'm just a daughter of the King that is powerfully praying for the same boldness that was given to Peter and John. The power to never shut up, never give up, and to never stop telling the world about Jesus!