Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A life that matters”
Our Bible verse for today: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We are to be “kingdom” people.
In Acts 1:8 Jesus established a Biblical perspective that He expects His followers to adopt. It’s what we call “a kingdom perspective.” This is the understanding that the kingdom of God on earth is much larger, and includes much more, than just what we personally experience in our own church and in our own community. The kingdom of God on earth is worldwide and manifests itself in an incredible array of cultural settings. It involves people of every color and language and ethnic group.
The problem for many of us is that our understanding of God and His kingdom is usually extremely limited. It’s limited by what we see and hear and experience in our own church and in our own community. That being the case, since our church and our town is such a miniscule part of the world, it means that we miss out on most of what God is doing. To a large degree we remain unaware of and insensitive to most of the ways in which He expresses Himself and interacts with His people. That’s such a shame! We’re missing so much!
In Acts 1:8 Jesus called for His people to expand their vision (and therefore their perspective). He commanded us to get involved in the kingdom of God beyond just our own little piece of the world. When we do that we get to see and experience God in many new and different ways and our understanding of Him and His ways and His kingdom grows exponentially.
At Oak Hill Baptist Church in Crossville, TN we have adopted what we call “The Acts 1:8 model of ministry.” This is an understanding on our part that our Jerusalem is Crossville, TN. Our Judea is the state of Tennessee. Our Samaria is the United States of America. And the ends of the earth, well that’s everywhere else beyond the USA.
We have then structured our church life in such a way that all of our members are able to participate in a variety of different ways in ministry activities in all of those different locations. This approach to ministry and to church life has had a transformative impact on our church. If you would like to learn more about the Acts 1:8 model of ministry, I encourage you to visit our church website at www.oakhillbaptist.net and click on the tab for “Acts 1:8 model of ministry”.
As we consider how we will use our time and structure our lives in 2017, being on-mission with Jesus in our world has got to factor into our thinking. Tomorrow we will continue this discussion and I’ll offer you some ideas for how any church or individual Christian can follow Jesus’ command in Acts 1:8.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 