Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "Agents of God's Reign" for Pentecost Sunday, 8 June 2014 - Read Acts 1:6-11

Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "Agents of God's Reign" for Pentecost Sunday, 8 June 2014 - Read Acts 1:6 Therefore when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
9 When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold,[a] two men stood by them in white clothing, 11 who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”
Footnotes:
a. Acts 1:10 “Behold”, from “ἰδοὺ”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses... to the ends of the earth.”(Acts 1:8 (NRSV))
In our reading from Acts, Jesus was reiterating what he had said before: “About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matt. 24:36, NIV). Jesus’ parables consistently conclude with the challenge for his followers to be “faithful servants” who are doing their Lord’s work every day with the urgency of those who know that any day could be their last. The good news is that we are given power to live now in ways that are consistent with the values of God’s kingdom. We are called to prepare the way for God’s reign of gracious love, social justice, human reconciliation and peace in our world. God’s promise is not to destroy this world but to redeem it. In John 3:17, Jesus speaks,: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” With these words Jesus calls us not to abandon this earth but to be a part of its healing and redemption by the power of the Spirit of God at work in us.
The Author: James A. Harnish (Florida, USA)
Thought for the Day: How will I prepare the way for God’s kingdom on earth?
Prayer: Dear God, bring healing to the world through our witness. Amen.

Prayer focus: Those working for peace
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