Acts 2:37-47
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
I am decidedly not a surfer. I am not even a paddle boarder. I just don’t have the combination of core strength and balance needed to do that thing. I am not a wave rider. When I see surfers hanging ten, shooting the tube, or just riding the waves into the shore, I am amazed. How do they do that?!? That’s amazing!
But even the best surfer cannot make a wave. You might offer a different opinion. Wave pools create man-made waves. And those new surfing things on cruise ships: those are waves aren’t they? And what about the wake of a ship, or a cannon ball into a small pool. Waves! Yes. But the master of the waves is God himself.
I’m reminded Job’s reply to his friend, Artiber. He describes God as the one “who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea.” And God asks Job,
“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries
as it burst from the womb,
9 and as I clothed it with clouds
and wrapped it in thick darkness?
10 For I locked it behind barred gates,
limiting its shores.
11 I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.
Here your proud waves must stop!’”
Perhaps we can make a little wave. Maybe even a large one in a small body of water. But who alone can stop a wave? Only God can. Think of Jesus calming the storm. Think of the promise in Revelation of the new heaven and new earth, “the sea was no more.” (Revelation 21:1)
All this is to say that God alone causes the waves of the ocean to stop or go. He alone makes waves, or better yet tells them when they must stop. I think of this in relation to verse 47, “…the Lord added daily to those who were being saved.” God grows his church. He makes the wind of the Spirit blow. We can catch the wind of the Spirit (ride the waves) if we take seriously what he calls us to do.
The Christian church is growing dramatically in places like Ethiopia. According to one who has been there and seen how God is at work, that’s primarily because people have taken God’s word seriously and seen themselves as missionaries to their friends, families, neighbors and communities. Check out the post by Rev. Dr. Scott Rische (of PLI-International) here.
God makes the waves. We need to learn to ride them! God grows the church. He uses people to make that happen. Wanna learn to surf? Or maybe even to paddle board?
David Bahn - Reflections 
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