Wonders

• Acts 2:1 (TNIV)

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Ok... so more in the vein of "never saw this before." As I read, I noticed that the theme of the "wonders" of God is repeated FOUR times in the chapter. When the Holy Spirit comes, what the people heard was the disciples "declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Essentially, they were extolling God's goodness, what we might call God's "glory," simply declaring how awesome and worthy and amazing God is.

This is the basic nature of praise and is sort of "worship evangelism" as one author has called it. When we are in awe of God, with our eyes fixed on Him--people look up to figure out what we are looking at! The Holy Spirit, as at Pentecost, places us in awe of God--and rightly so! AND this awe and wonder of God is contagious--sparking other people to see and sense God's goodness.

So, this idea of the "wonders of God" keeps coming up in Acts 2--twice more in Peter's sermon referring to the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus and finally in the end as the growing community of disciples "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles." In all of it, I can FEEL the excitement... can't you? God is awesome, God is at work! Things are happening! God's nature and God's work through people are awe inspiring!

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