The other day I was reading the book of Acts and ran across a familiar passage. Now before I go any further I have to say one of the dangers of “Familiar” anything is that we assume that we already know what it entails and then miss something important altogether. So I pushed through and read it all anyways.

22 A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.23 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.24 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. 25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. – Acts 16:22-25 (NLT)

If you’ve been in church any length of time someone has stood up and tried to encourage you to worship through whatever situation that you are facing.  So we end up closing our eyes tighter, singing a little louder and pushing harder hoping that the walls of our situational prison will come tumbling down. Please don’t get me wrong in this, I agree wholeheartedly that God honors our worship and that sometimes we do need to just push through. In fact if you go to our church I was probably the bald guy up there trying to get you to push through. I get all of that, but, as I read through these verses something struck me.

Paul & Silas weren’t worshiping God to convince Him to get them out of prison. They worshiping because the God that they knew was good and worthy to be praised. They worshiped because of the things that God was doing in their lives. Not as a means to an escape, that came because the God they believed to be Good was in fact GOOD!

I guess what I’m getting at is, I wonder what would happen in our lives if more of our worship was just because of how good God is. Personally, I believe that our perspectives would change. I believe the reality is, that we would see those situations we face as the speed bumps they are rather than prison walls we make them out to be!

As a culture, I think we focus way more energy, money & time on the things that we think are wrong rather than on just how good God is.

I got an idea, why don’t you join me right now and just begin to tell God just how good he’s been to you. Maybe the earth won’t shake, but I bet a smile will come to your face. And you might just see things differently!

For those that know me, I love coffee. I don’t try to hide it, & i’m definitely not ashamed of it! Whether it be a fresh pot of french press brewed at home or an Americano from my favorite local spot. I guess what I’m getting at is if you see me I’ll usually be enjoying a good cup of joe.

One of my favorite things to do is to get the water boiling, grind some beans & grab that french press so I can sit down and read.  With that said we’re starting something new on here I’m calling the Daily Bean, just a place where I write down some thoughts in regards to what I’m reading and leave with a question to ponder. Now, is it gonna really be daily? Not sure but here goes nothing…

Over the past year I’ve spent a lot of time in the book of Colossians. It’s easily became on of my favorite epistles. With verses like:

“For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you the assurance of sharing his Glory.” Colossians 1:27 (NLT)

“⁶ And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. ⁷ Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7 (NLT)

“⁹ For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. ¹⁰ So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” Colossians 2:9-10 (NLT)

“¹³ You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. ¹⁴ He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15 (NLT)

And many more…

But I recently began reading a book called Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola and something jumped out at me and caused me to pose a question to myself. Colossians 1:19 says:

¹⁹ For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,

Now if God was pleased to in all his fullness live in Christ, and Christ now lives in me, wouldn’t it be safe to assume that the very fullness of God lives in me. I think it’s time that we as Christians live worthy of not just the calling, but the caller. I mean come on, think about this for a minute (READ IT LOUD & SLOW):

¹⁹ For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,

I think that the idea of God being pleased with anything to do with us is hard for most of us to comprehend. But if we look at this verse with literal eyes then: “God in all his fullness is pleased to live in you!” So to coin an old phrase why don’t we all just “put that in our pipes and smoke it today!“ No matter how you currently feel about yourself smile and rejoice that the God of Heaven and Earth is pleased to dwell within you! Can I Get An AMEN!