The Road Trip Begins

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Don Merritt

Acts 13:4-12

Saul, Barnabas and Mark sailed to the island of Cyprus, and when they arrived, they began to proclaim the Word of God in the synagogues. There was a certain Roman proconsul named Sergius Paulus who sent for Saul and Barnabas because he wanted to hear the Word of God. Yet he had a sorcerer in his entourage named Bar-Jesus (Elymas) who was a Jewish false prophet; here the story begins…

Elymas was opposed to the Word, and did all that he could to turn his master against the message that Saul and Barnabas were teaching. Apparently, Saul, under the leading of Holy Spirit, turned on Elymas:

Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. (13:9-11)

This is a very interesting few verses, for not only does the story take an unusual twist, but it contains three very interesting elements. First is that Saul was also being called Paul, and so was he known thereafter. Second, we have the third time that God, through the Holy Spirit takes decisive punitive action against someone in the book of Acts, the other two being the story of Ananias and Sapphira, and most recently, Herod. In this, rather than striking the man dead, He made the man blind, and that is the second time someone who was attempting to stop the Word has been struck blind− Paul himself having been the other.

The third thing is this: In Scripture, blindness is an apocalyptic element. It symbolizes an inability to see the Truth of God’s message, which was certainly true for both Saul in his early persecution of the church, and for Elymas the false prophet. When each was struck with blindness, it was a stark dramatization of their spiritual condition. On the other hand, when we see Jesus restoring sight to the blind, we see an illustration of the work of Spirit in restoring lost humanity to a spiritual condition in which they can see Jesus and the truth He spoke in their rightful light.

This little demonstration was not lost on Sergius Paulus:

When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. (13:12)

Will it be lost on us?

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God’s Cathedral

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Don Merritt
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The greatest of cathedrals are not made by the hands of men, but by the very hand of God Himself.  In those cathedrals, you can go to pray and to listen to the sounds that are not sounds made by men.

If you listen very carefully, you may even hear the voice of God.

People often say that they can worship God anywhere; in the desert, by the sea, in the forest…  I happen to agree with them, for these are wonderful places to worship Him.  Surrounded by His awesome creation, taking it all in, it revives our spirit.

I can only think of one better place to worship God than in the midst of His creation, and that is in the midst of His people, for when we are in the midst of His people, we are not only surrounded by His handiwork, but we are also right in the midst of His purpose.

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A Paradigm Shift

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Don Merritt

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8

Way back in the first chapter, the theme of this book is found in the words of Jesus. So far, we have seen that this is exactly what took place, for Acts 1-7 contains the story of the church in Jerusalem, chapters 8-12 tells the story of the Gospel’s spread into the surrounding areas of Judea and Samaria, all the while giving us indications of how God’s plan was unfolding. We have looked at each of the steps involved in this process as we have journeyed on our way to this point and thus I must point out to you now that just as the Gospel was not only intended for the city of Jerusalem, it was also not intended just for its environs; it was not only for the Jews but it was also intended for the Gentiles, representative of all peoples everywhere on the globe.

With chapter 13, there is a major shift in the book of Acts, for the rest of the story is the story of the Gospel moving out of the Jewish homeland and into the far corners of the earth. Yes, it is found in Acts 13 through 28, but let’s be clear that it is a story that continues to this day, and you and I are living a part in that continuing tale.

The story begins as Saul and Barnabas are sent out from Antioch, along with our young friend John Mark. In this chapter we find a pattern that they will usually follow as they move from place to place in that they will almost always begin their preaching to the Jewish people in the synagogue, and then take the message to the general population, mirroring the theme Jesus set forth in 1:8.

We should also take notice that this, the first of three “missionary journeys” undertaken by Paul, wasn’t quite like what we might think of on a “missionary” trip today. There was no fixed agenda, no timeline or schedule that we would recognize. Rather they set out and stopped in the towns and cities they came across, stopping to share their message. They had no idea which ones would be more or less receptive. They had no hotel reservations, no maps or GPS devices, and for the most part, they were at the mercy of the hospitality of strangers for shelter and sustenance, which is to say they were completely dependent on God. There were places they remained only a short time, and as the story unfolds, there are other places in which they might remain for a very long time. One thing is sure: When they left Antioch, no one knew whether or not they would ever return.

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Prayer, part 1

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Don Merritt

Like spiritual practices, prayer is a very big topic about which thousands of volumes have been written. Yet, not only is prayer a very large subject, it is also a controversial one in many places, for when it comes to the subject of prayer, we often forget one slippery little detail…

There is no “one size fits all” answer to questions about prayer.

Now, before you feel the need to call me a heretic, consider this fundamental presupposition that you will need to address: God is willing to meet us wherever we are.

That statement doesn’t just refer to geography, it goes much deeper than that. Each of us has a different personality, different expectations, hot buttons, and ways of understanding and comprehending things. We have different life experiences, different fears, different cultural backgrounds and theological backgrounds… and God knows each and every one of us better than we know ourselves. He created each and every one of us after all, including our personalities, hot buttons, emotions and so forth. He wants an intimate relationship with each one of us, and thus why wouldn’t He know us so intimately; He is all-knowing isn’t He?

Since prayer is all about knowing God, relating to God, and communicating with God, doesn’t it stand to reason that each of us would relate to Him slightly differently?

When you stop and think about it, isn’t that why there are many classical spiritual practices and not just one?

I have a dear friend, an absolutely wonderful brother in Christ, who almost always begins a prayer by saying something like this: “Our most gracious and merciful Heavenly Father…”. I, on the other hand, just say “Lord…” or “Father…”. Which one of us is right and which one is wrong? In general, my friend is a tad more formal than I am; he is also 10 years older. If you think about it, he came of age when formality in social settings was still more or less the norm, while I came of age right around the time informality was coming into vogue; could that have something to do with it? It’s possible.

When I was a little kid, my parents attended the Episcopal church, and looking back, it was a “high” church, rich in tradition, ritual and ceremony. Each week the same prayers were read from the Book of Common Prayer of 1840; there was no deviation. For me at least, and remember, I was a little kid, God was entirely unapproachable, and a really scary dude, always anxious to smite somebody, little boys most of all! “Better mind your P’s and Q’s young man!”

When I came to discover that God was not only approachable, but that He desired a relationship with us, everything changed for me; terror changed to love, and I was eager to approach the throne of grace.

My friend came from a different church background than I came from;

maybe that’s where my friend and I grew to have different approaches; still, neither is “wrong”.

This then, is the first lesson about the spiritual practice of prayer: It is perfectly fine if you approach the subject a little differently than I do, as long as we both approach the subject honestly. With that said, in our next installment, let’s look at the model Jesus gave us for prayer, for it is full of insight.

See you then!

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Living Hope

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Don Merritt

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Peter begins this letter by giving praise to God for the living hope that we have in such abundance through Christ; what an amazing hope this is! It cannot be taken away from us, and it is being kept pure and unsullied by the very power of God in Heaven, waiting for the day we will inherit.  It remains intact even though we will have our share of problems during this time on earth, but take heart, for whatever may happen to us now, we remain co-heirs with Christ, and if what He received after His sufferings is any indication, our inheritance is far greater than the human mind can even begin to comprehend.

Even now, because we believe, we are filled with joy, and we have already received the salvation of our souls, which is to say that we have received forgiveness for our sins. But wait! There’s more…

 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

1 Peter 1:10-12

This is one of my favorite passages, for it demonstrates that the work of Jesus in establishing His Kingdom at the time and by the methods He used were no mistake, having been part of God’s purpose from the outset.  Look carefully at the words here and you will see something truly amazing… The Old Testament prophets were filled with the spirit of Christ and understood that they were serving a different people in a different time when they foretold of the salvation that we have received.  Notice that we have already received this salvation; it is not still in the future.  Those prophets searched carefully to figure out when this would happen as they wrote of the work of Christ, and in this, they were serving us!

Then, Peter says the most interesting thing:   Even angels long to look into these things.  Even the angels want to look into these things, for our inheritance is far greater than anything they will get, and we have been sinners.  When God created Man, he had a great purpose in mind, and even though things went astray back in the Garden, God is sticking with his plan, and you and I are right in the middle of it, for we are on a track where even the angels cannot follow.

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A New Topical Adventure: The Journey

Posted on February 8, 2025 by Don Merritt

I’ve been thinking, always a scary and somewhat dangerous enterprise, about doing a topical series of posts. As I thought about it, it seemed to me that a survey of spiritual disciplines or practices would be a useful place to start. If you actually undertake to study this subject, you will find that it can be quite involved, for spiritual disciplines have been practiced for thousands of years by Jews, and from the very beginning of the Church. You will also discover that in certain historical periods spiritual practices existed that we today would likely consider barbaric and crazy, particularly in the Middle Ages.

In more recent times, a number of the older practices have been dropped by most Christian brotherhoods, things from earlier times such as self-flagellation for instance, aren’t practiced in the Christian mainstream today.

Yet, many practices remain.

Depending on who you ask, there may be 14 or 15, or 25-30. Scholars place these in various categories such as Inward Disciplines and Out ward Disciplines, or as Disciplines of Abstinence and Disciplines of Engagement. For our purposes however, I’m going to let others worry about what to call them, how to place each one into a chart and to argue over what should and what should not be counted. Instead, I thought I’d pick an even dozen of the best-known classics such as prayer, meditation, silence, solitude, fasting and… well you get the idea. After that, I thought I’d cover another category of Spiritual Practices that are usually not included in the Classical lists, which I would call “Expressive” Spiritual Practices.

So, the plan is to run these “The Journey” on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and we’ll get our Journey started with Prayer on Monday, right here: See you then!

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Herod, Peter and God’s Will

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Don Merritt

Acts 12:1-19

Luke shifts scenes, this time we see Herod and his nefarious doings. He arrested some of the believers in Jerusalem to persecute them, and in the process, James was murdered. With this act, Herod noticed his approval rating soaring amongst influential Jews, so he decided to kill Peter too; he was arrested and thrown into prison until Passover was over with, then he would face a show trial on trumped up charges and be killed, to the delight of the crowds.

It would seem that old Herod hadn’t cleared his devilish little plan with God, who had other ideas…

Luke goes to great pains to establish that Peter was very well guarded in the prison, since Herod was taking no chances, but in spite of that, Peter would escape. While Peter was sleeping soundly, chained up between two guards, an angel woke him up, told him to get dressed, and then they walked right past the guards and out of prison, and all the while, Peter thought he was dreaming. After a block or so, the angel left him and Peter realized this was no dream; he had been sprung from the big house.

He went to the home of Mary and her son Mark, yes, that Mark. He knocks at the door and a servant girl answers, recognizes Peter, and is so overjoyed that she forgets to let him in! I don’t know about you, but I think this is hilarious… Those inside the house who were praying fervently for Peter didn’t believe the girl, and Peter is still outside banging on the door until someone finally lets him in: Amazing, not to mention comical, but then how often do we expect the miracle we are praying for?

When Peter finally gets into the house, the people are so excited he has to tell them to be quiet so he can tell them what happened, and when he finishes, he asks them to get word to the others, and departs for an undisclosed location.

The next morning, those poor guards must face the wrath of Herod who is pretty much looking like a fool; he has them all killed.

For me, this story brings into sharp focus something that we sometimes forget in the day-to-day of this life, and that is that God and the gospel, are on the offensive in the spiritual battle we live in; not the other way around. Thus, Satan and his minions are playing defense, and despite all appearances, their position is desperate and hopeless; they are trying to hang on. Does anybody really think that Satan can go toe-to-toe with God and have any chance of success?

Well… he can’t.

His tactics are indirect, playing our weakness and frailty against us, but understanding this, we can take heart, for when we are weak, God is strong. From our point of view, and that of the people in Mary’s house that night, Peter’s jail break was an astonishing and almost unbelievable miracle, but from God’s point of view, it was just another day at the office− no biggie. After all, Peter still had work to do, so let’s get on with it.

After this, Herod tried to keep up appearances, and did some fence mending with certain groups and arranged to make a major address to the people (12:20), then, an odd thing happened…

On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.”Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

Acts 12:21-24

Thus, God showed everyone the peril they would face if they tried to stop God from establishing His Kingdom.

Isn’t this a cool story?

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“Reverent Fear”

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Don Merritt
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Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

1 Peter 1:17-21

These few verses have really been “messed with” over the years!  I used to read terror into them, as though they were a serious threat of hellfire, but these days, I’ve changed my view.  Let’s bear in mind what Peter has been telling us up to this point in vv. 3-6. He has been talking about our great salvation, pointing out that it has already come. Then he mentioned our inheritance as co-heirs with Christ and reminded us that we have so much to look forward to that, in faith, we set this crazy world and its ways aside for Him. Now, he is continuing in that vein.

He reminds us that our salvation is great, by pointing out that is wasn’t bought with mere perishable things, but with the very lifeblood of the Son of God; what amazing, incredible, awesome powerful love!  WOW!! Jesus, the Son of God, God incarnate was chosen from the beginning to redeem us all.  He was without sin, totally undeserving of His fate, and yet He willingly allowed Himself to be led to slaughter for you and I: Amazing Love! He took our sin away…

So then, why would we want to go back to the old ways?  With this great salvation that came from indescribable love, why ignore it for a moment’s amusement?  It makes no sense.

Are we missing anything if we decide to knock off the things we really don’t need to be wasting our time with?

NO! We are gaining everything!

The long and short of it is simply this: We modify our behavior not because we fear punishment, but because God loved us and in return we love Him.  Remember that next time you are tempted, and see if the temptations don’t fade significantly…

See, I told you this stuff wasn’t complicated!

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A Word on the Discipline of Theology

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Don Merritt

I often read and hear Christians say that they don’t like theology or that they don’t want to hear about it or study it; they just want to hear about… (fill in the rest). I also hear others who say they love theology and doctrine, and they want to hear more about doctrine…

I’m reaching for my old professor of theology hat for a minute, because I’m afraid that neither of these points of view really reflects an understanding of what “theology” actually is. Most Christians seem to think theology is “teaching”, but teaching, in this case Biblical teaching, is actually “doctrine” not theology; theology and doctrine are not the same thing.

Does that surprise you?

Strictly speaking, theology is the study of God, not the study of doctrine; doctrine is only the first phase of theology. Classically speaking, the pursuit of the academic discipline of theology meant the student identified and learned everything Scripture teaches about everything, arranging this information in a logical and systematic way (called a “systematic theology”) and then, in light of systematic theology, studying all other academic disciplines to discover and understand how God works in every area of investigation, and to this end such institutions of higher learning as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Princeton were established. As a result of this, theology was once considered the highest of all academic undertakings, not simply because it involved the things of God, but because it involved learning all of the sciences, rather than just one of them.

In the last section I mentioned stepping back and rather than getting caught up in the small details, seeing the big picture of what God was doing in those days, and then studying the secular history of the next 2,000 years and finding the Book of Acts patterns repeating over and over, and then looking at current events and being able to discern what is really going on… that was basic classical (or “applied”) theology. It may be many things, but it is not boring, dusty, or silly.

The problem today however, is that most of us never get beyond systematic theology, in fact most universities that teach theology only have systematic theology, as though systematics were the end game; but the end game isn’t doctrine, it’s understanding God’s workings in the world around us… and in our lives.

Some might still be confused: “Isn’t theology studying the Bible?”

The answer to that question is “Yes and no.” It is yes because there is a great deal of Bible study involved in learning what He has revealed to us in Scripture. It is no in that learning what He has reveled to us in Scripture is the point at which we then study other subjects. In many Bible Colleges, “Bible” is its own course of study, apart from theology.

“Don, why should I care about any of this?”

Now that’s the best question of all!

Because if all you want to do is learn doctrine, you’ll make a great teacher of the law, if all you want is to learn about one particular subject, say… Jesus, or love, or church for example, then you will be a walking book of knowledge on one thing. But if you want a real and vibrant relationship with the Lord, a relationship that is at the core of your being, and that is in alignment with God’s will and purpose for your life, it would behoove you to have a better understanding of theology so you can better discern what He is doing in and through your life.

That’s this reporter’s view, anyway.

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Like a Newborn

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Don Merritt
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Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

1 Peter 2:1-3

Peter is summing up his discussion in the first chapter and transitioning into the next section in these three verses.  There’s some good stuff here…

Peter is reminding us of our salvation, and how we have been purified from our sins and that now it’s time to live as followers of Jesus by loving one another.  Therefore, we need to rid ourselves of the old ways, and he mentions several things that we should no longer harbor or practice. I’m sure (or at least I hope) that I don’t need to elaborate on malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, or slander; we can move on to the “good stuff.”

Like newborn babies… Can you think of what a newborn baby is, that we were not, but now are in Christ?  

Newborn babies are innocent. Now that our sin has been taken away by the blood of Christ, we are as innocent as a newborn.  So, Peter uses a metaphor, a baby’s milk.  Peter says:

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

We’ve received so much already from our relationship with Jesus; crave more!  Seek out His Truth in your relationship with Him.  Dig into a healthy portion of His Word, pray unceasingly, and seek His guidance, asking Him always to grow in your being so that in all things you do, your walk with Him will grow closer.  Form the habit of seeking His presence and His Word so that your testimony to the lost will give Him glory… and do all of this because you love Him and remember that we love one another because He loves all of us.

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