Acts 2:42-47
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
42 They devoted themselves
to the apostles’ teaching and
to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone
was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the
apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything
in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to
anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued
to meet together in the temple courts. They
broke bread in their homes and ate
together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the
people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Some
churches today are trying to trend back to look like the “early church”. They use scriptures to support positions in
the church yet they seem to forget about this scripture that I think is the
most important one if you are to “grow a church”. Names and positions are of little importance
to the Lord. He is more interested in us
loving one another than He is about what position we hold in church. In these verses it appears that the early
church was truly like a family. Anything
they owned was used to help others in the church.
Notice
that this early church met together regularly, not once a week but daily. How many times do we lead someone to the Lord
and then don’t talk to them for another week.
These new believers were being fed the Word of God daily by meeting
together. You may say that now we have
Bibles readily available, we don’t need to gather daily but we need to have our
daily devotions. This may be true, if
people would actually follow through with it.
Yet we need to realize that a personal contact with other believers has
a special impact on people. They realize
you care about them. You are there to
guide them through the scriptures, to teach them the Word of God, to pray with
them, and to strengthen them in the name of the Lord.
How many
of the churches trending back to the new testament church have members who are
willing to sell all that they own in order to be a part of the family of
God? Often times today we would classify
that as a cult. Or how many are willing
to open up their homes in order for believers to come in eat with them or have
even a weekly Bible study in their home?
How many of are willing to sacrifice their time and devote it to praying
with other believers?
This
early church was immersed in the Word, being taught by the apostles, they broke
bread together, shared their possessions with one another, and were devoted to
prayer. The men teaching these new
believers were men who had direct contact with the Lord. These men had walked with Him and learned
directly from Him while He was living on this earth. If it were important for them to meet
together, how much more important is it that we all meet together? Our lives seem to be too busy for that and
thus our numbers stay where they are at.
We don’t add daily to our numbers because we don’t want to take the time
and sacrifice the energy to be together more than once a week on a Sunday
morning. We need to devote ourselves to
prayer, we need to have others in our homes, and we need to be willing to sell
anything that we own if it will help a brother or sister in Christ.
As you
seek Him today, think about your possessions, think about your time, how are
you using those two things to glorify the Lord.
Seeking
Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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