Heart Tracks - Closing Mouths

"And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him." Acts 3:9-10...."Are we closing the mouths of people? We'll not do it by the truth we hold, teach, or interpret. But we can do it by what we are; by being in possession of 'the goods.' We're to embody the rest, peace, strength, and presence of Christ." T. Austin-Sparks

Doubters and scoffers of the reality of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ are everywhere. They were certainly abounding in Jerusalem after His resurrection. Many, indeed, most of them were found in the "church." What has happened in the above passage from Acts 3 is that Peter and John, on the way to worship at the Temple, had, in the name of Christ, imparted healing to a cripple who had sat at the gate of the Temple for as long as anyone could remember. Many there that day knew who it was that they said they represented, Jesus the Messiah. Few actually believed them, or the Messiah they represented. Then, relying on His grace and power alone, they spoke healing into this long crippled man, and the result was that the scoffing, doubting, even ridicule, was silenced. All they could do was look on in wonder and amazement. Christ had manifested His resurrection power through the lives of two men who a few years before had been simple fishermen. They had a powerful effect and witness upon all who were there that day. It was the expectation of not only they, but their Lord, that they should. He has the same expectation of all of us who take His name. Do we share it? Are His expectations being realized in our life and witness?

It's been going on 50 years now since it happened, but it still resonates in my heart. I had dropped out of college for a year to earn money for tuition. When I returned, I encountered a young woman I had known during my previous time on campus. Back then she'd been a drug addled, loose living hippie girl. I remembered that her eyes had always been vacant, kind of glazed over, just like my own. What I saw that day was not that. Before me was a young, vibrant, beautiful girl whose eyes shown with light and life. I, like those who beheld the crippled man's healing, was amazed and astounded. She shared with me that she'd come to know Christ, that she was no longer enslaved by drugs and sex. She was free, and from her emanated not only the fruits of His life, but His life itself. While my stubborn heart would not accept what she shared at that time, it also could not deny the reality of what she shared. She embodied what Sparks spoke of, His rest, peace, strength, and presence. Her witness to me that day played a huge role in my own entrance into that reality five years later. I remember little of what she shared verbally, but I remember all that she shared in her spirit and countenance. She had, as Sparks says, "the goods." Do we? Do you?

The world has been dying since the fall in the Garden for such displays of His life. He has chosen to, in the main, show forth those displays through His people. If you are one of them today, how consistently is He able to do so through you? That dying world is not much interested in the Scriptures we've memorized, the attendance trophies we've won, or how grand are the buildings we've built to meet in. They are interested in seeing life, His life, real life, being lived out before them. Such lives will close the mouths of the scoffers and doubters, and though many will never become His, some, like me, will. To that crippled man at the Temple gate, a man who sought a gift of money, Peter said, "Silver and gold have we none, but what we do have, we give to you. Rise and walk." He has entrusted that same resurrection power to those who are His. What He's entrusted us with make silver and gold look like cheap trinkets. We too, can speak to a crippled world, "Rise and walk," because we have lives that prove to them that He has done exactly that in us. We are called to speak it. We are called to live it. How well are we embodying either today?

Blessings,
Pastor O