Acts 1:1-11

Currently we are in the season of Lent. It is a 40 day period taking us through the Easter season. There is a lot that can be learned in 40 days if we focus on our spiritual life. The number 40 is significant in the Bible. We see desert experiences lasting 40 years and we see temptations that last 40 days. With each experience there is a time of preparation. God is in the process of setting apart so He can prepare to do something amazing. I’ve been thinking about this whole process recently. What could each of us learn if we had our own 40 day experience? If we took the next 40 days to daily seek what God wants from us. The desert time has a lot of unknowns. Yet are we so busy in our day to day lives and serving and doing what we think we “should” be doing as believers versus what God wants us to do. Could we go to a place where we get back to basics, where we hear from God in a new and fresh way? A place where God is present and we enjoy His presence as He prepares us for what He desires from us. A place where we may be tempted to quit or go back to our own Egypts. A 40 day experience where we return different. Are you willing to take the 40 days and go to the desert? This week I want to use very little of my own words and let the Scriptures themselves speak to you about the desert and 40 day experience. I ask that you prayerfully consider this journey with God. It doesn’t require you to leave your location or everyday life. It is a different mindset and an new approcah to the heart of God. It is between you and Him. Will you join Him in the desert?

Acts 1-Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven

1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Lori