Written by Mark Driskill:
Wednesday November 10, 2010
Read Acts 1:12-14
Did you hear about the latest archeological find? This could revolutionize the way we function as churches. Archeologists found an alternate manuscript of the book of Acts. They claim it is only one chapter long! After Chapter 1 verse 12 it reads a little differently than the one we have in our Bibles. I have copied an excerpt for you to investigate. Here it is:
“And the disciples began walking back to Jerusalem to wait in prayer as Jesus commanded them. But as they walked Peter said to the others, ” Hey guys you go on without me. This week has been so stressful I need some down time. I’m gonna head home and try to unwind a little. I’ll catch up with you next week.”
So he went home and spent the next few weeks cleaning out his garage, and reorganizing his fishing gear. John and James followed suit because they didn’t want Peter to get out on the water ahead of them, so they raced home to tend to their fishing gear as well. As the other disciples came into town and apporocahed the upper room Bartholamew suddenly remembered his favorite video game, “Baylon II the expansion edition, was on sale this week. He told the guys he wanted to go home and install it then he would join them for prayer in a couple of hours.
Well, as it goes with new games, he was not seen the rest of the day. The other disciples thought it would be a good idea to go home and check their Facebook status before prayer time so they could let everyone know what was going on. While online Matthew realized he had left a lot of paperwork undone when he left his tax business. He felt kind of guilty about having left it all so abruptly and decided he would reconnect with the folks at the home office and offer to help out with the extra work.
The rest of the disicples found themselves falling back into regular patterns as well and before long everybody decided they were just too busy to get together for prayer. Andrew did try to make a facebook prayer group but those things are just so hard to manage that it soon fell into the background of farmville and other applications. None knows what happened to Thomas. His status bar simply read, “I am so embarrassed by that whole, ‘touch my hands and see’, incident, that I just need some time to deal with my feelings.”
The women made it to the prayer meeting but before they could dive into prayer they decided the upper room was in serious need of cleaning, “How could thioose men have been so nasty?” The floors were swept, windows cleaned, and new curtains were put up. All that cleaning led to conversations which reminded each of them of all the things that needed to be done at home. So one by one the women left, each to her own pile of laundry, or soccer game run.
Weeks turned into months. Before long the disciples forgot all about Jesus’ commission. They did however form a club for fellowship and reminiscing. Every month they would get together and talk about the good old days of miracles, and preaching. Every now and then they would feel a little guilty about not doing anything so they decided to try a revival meeting every fall and spring. Once they even had 120 people show up. It was a great time of food, fellowship, and preaching. But none outside Jesus’ original circle ever showed up. Simon the Zealot tried to start a jail ministry once, only because an unfortunate altercation with a Centurion landed him in the big house. He thought he might as well do something while serving time. None really knows what happened with him. Judas the son of James had to spend lots of time in therapy because he kept having nightmares about being Judas Iscariot.
Over time the disciples kind of fell apart and the upper room was rented out to a young man named Saul of Tarsus. He had started holding self improvement seminars for young Pharisees wanting to improve their image. It was pretty good at first, until that whole scandal came out. It seems Saul had trouble managing the finances accurately. The Tax office, under the direction of Levi, shut him down. And so this ends the story of the church. I your brother Luke am still not sure why I wrote this. Oh well. Have a nice day.”
So what do you think? Is this the real story of Acts? If not then let’s ACT accordingly. Lets do what the disciples did and devote ourselves to united prayer. Let’s expect the Spirit to show up. And let’s turn the world upside down.
Mark Driskill and his wife Mary are homeschooling community ministers in Breathitt County Kentucky. They have four children. They co pastor Emmanuel fellowship Church, serve as Camp Pastors at Bethel Mennonite Camp, and Mark Teaches at Oakdale Christian Academy.
Mark is web minister for Begotten by theWord , a ministry of Helping Hands Christian Resources.
Once a month he preaches on the local radio station through the “Lion of Judah” program. Mark also preaches in youth rallies and revivals upon request at no charge. Their vision is to see true spiritual awakening come to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and to the nation.
Contact information:
Email: driskill@hillbillymail.com
Facebook: Mark Driskill
Address: PO Box 1159 Jackson KY.
