Get Moving!

I've been studying Acts lately and got stopped again by another verse. I kept coming back to it because of the picture it stuck in my mind. 

"As they watched , he was taken up and disappeared into a cloud. They stood there staring at an empty cloud." Acts 1:10

Here were the disciples after having this history-making moment. Jesus Christ had just fulfilled years of prophecy and promise. He'd told them a gift was coming and given them a great commission. He'd been physically in their midst! Not gonna lie, I envy them just a smidge. They got a moment we'll have to wait until heaven for.

But there they stood. Staring at an empty sky. Probably a bit amazed. A whole lot awed. And not wanting to let that moment go.

Ever been there?  Maybe your Sunday worship was blown over with the power of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you were praying, and He erupted in your midst. And it was amazing--because the power and presence of God is just that, uh-maze-ing!

It's so great you want to just stay there and talk about it, keep that moment going. But just like those disciples, we've been commissioned to go out there and reach the lost. While those God-moments are so completely great, they are not meant to only change us, but to change those around us as we carry what we've learned and how we've been changed to those who so need Christ.

Look at what happened next to the disciples.

Suddenly two men appeared in white robes. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand there looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from you to heaven will come as certainly--and mysteriously--as he left." So they left the mountain of Olives and returned to Jerusalem." Acts 1:11-12

I think those angels were sent as a loving kick-in-the-pants. See, Jerusalem is where Jesus had asked them to go. It was where they were going to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, the power and presence He was leaving them so they could fulfill their calling. If they'd stayed there staring at an empty sky, talking about what they'd just shared, none of that would have happened. I can just imagine those angels looking at them and finishing with a "so get a move-on."

And I think that's what we need sometimes. Being in the presence of God is wonderful. I love our Sunday morning worship because always, always, the Holy Spirit is there. I love my quiet time with God, just sitting and talking with Him. If I could, I'd stay in those moments all the time--but that's what Heaven is for. Oh, I long for that. But I'm not there yet. And if you're reading this, neither are you! While there are so many great things we can in this lifetime, the only thing that truly matters is how we reach  people for Christ. It is the ONE thing we cannot do once we die, but staring at the sky isn't going to get the job done. It's time to get moving!

What will you do in your world today to point them to the One who's in that sky?