Leaving Jerusalem

I had breakfast over the Holidays with a good friend.  We were talking about "doing church", among other things. We were challenging the traditional views on going to church and the whole idea that it is very easy to turn into a Sunday-go-to-church-consumer, and forget about why we "do church."

So I decided this New Year, I would begin by reading in Acts, and see if I could not learn some new things from the New Testament Church.  So I did not get very far this morning, and a phrase caught my attention.  (As an aside, I have decided to try a technique shared with me by a good friend.  Praying that something in a passage would jump off the page, and then reading it...reading it again, and then doing some journaling about what thoughts are evoked from that passage...that is where this blog comes in)  So, Acts Chapter 1 verse 4, Luke has set the stage describing the scene the 40 days after Jesus was crucified.  He states that he appeared to them several times to prove he was alive.

He then mentions a particular time, when they were eating together.  He says, "Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before."  The phrase that caught my eye was "Do not leave Jerusalem..."  How many times have I "left Jerusalem" before I got my gift?  How many times have I ended what I was doing, before I was able to be totally used by God?  Did I "leave" because it was too hard?  How many people leave a church because their preferences are not the same as the ministry team in place at a particular time?  How many people "leave" a job because of another person's attitude?  Now, don't get me wrong, there are definitely situations where this is appropriate, however, I think there are times that we "leave" before we get the gift......


I am challenged by this idea.  What if Jesus would have "left Jerusalem" before the plan was complete?  Sometimes I think we need to hang out, and not leave Jerusalem.  We need to wait and see what gift the Lord has for us.  This can get hard.  Maybe even boring....self-centered......Challenge us from all different fronts...let's choose to hang out, make another trip to the buffet, and see what the Lord has in store for us.