This week is race week in Indiana, and Sunday is race day. If there is one thing I have learned through my years living here is that people take race day seriously. This weekend will see the tiny area of Speedway, Indiana become one of the largest cities in the United States. To put things into perspective, the state of Wyoming has just over half a million residents, and that 2.5 mile oval on the west side of town can hold 300,000, just a little less than the whole state of Wyoming.
People will come from all over to watch race car drivers cram themselves into tiny cockpits in four wheeled rockets that can hit 240 mph on the front and back straightaways of the famed track. I was watching some of the qualifying highlights this weekend, and as I watched the drivers get in and out of their cars I could just feel claustrophobia coming over me.
Then today I was reading through the scripture for the upcoming weekend, and I saw the words, "Peter, James, John and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one ACCORD in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his Brothers."
And the only thing I could think was, "That must have been one really big Honda to have all those people in it!"
Of course I know that the writer of Acts was not writing about a Honda. But let me ask you something, can you even imagine that many people being in one accord on anything? Notice that the writer tells us that those who were gathered there were both male and female. Look at the names, Jew and Greek, and Gentile. It was a mixture of so many and there was agreement.
Here in our nation we are so divided. This past week we were remind how abortion laws in places like New York and Illinois and Alabama can polarize us so greatly. Partisan bickering and posturing often paralyzes our federal government. We can't seem to find common ground, and yet these people did. But, notice something very important, they were a people who "continued in prayer and supplication" The key to their agreement was found in their humility and their submission to a higher power and their seeking that power for guidance and direction.
We as a people will never be a people of one accord, until we release all that we hold on to and seek the one who holds on to all.
Acts 1:12-14 English Standard Version (ESV)
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
People will come from all over to watch race car drivers cram themselves into tiny cockpits in four wheeled rockets that can hit 240 mph on the front and back straightaways of the famed track. I was watching some of the qualifying highlights this weekend, and as I watched the drivers get in and out of their cars I could just feel claustrophobia coming over me.
Then today I was reading through the scripture for the upcoming weekend, and I saw the words, "Peter, James, John and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one ACCORD in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his Brothers."
And the only thing I could think was, "That must have been one really big Honda to have all those people in it!"
Of course I know that the writer of Acts was not writing about a Honda. But let me ask you something, can you even imagine that many people being in one accord on anything? Notice that the writer tells us that those who were gathered there were both male and female. Look at the names, Jew and Greek, and Gentile. It was a mixture of so many and there was agreement.
Here in our nation we are so divided. This past week we were remind how abortion laws in places like New York and Illinois and Alabama can polarize us so greatly. Partisan bickering and posturing often paralyzes our federal government. We can't seem to find common ground, and yet these people did. But, notice something very important, they were a people who "continued in prayer and supplication" The key to their agreement was found in their humility and their submission to a higher power and their seeking that power for guidance and direction.
We as a people will never be a people of one accord, until we release all that we hold on to and seek the one who holds on to all.
Acts 1:12-14 English Standard Version (ESV)
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
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