Acts
2:42-47 (NIV) 42They
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe at the many
wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44All the believers
were together and had everything in common. 45They sold property and
possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46Every day they
continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their
homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God
and enjoying the favor of all the people. and the Lord added to their number
daily those who were being saved.
Today’s text has been the foundation
for countless sermons, lessons, and exposés. I count myself as among the least
qualified to ever critique any church, but yet sometimes I cannot help but take
a sneak peek at how well we are doing.
The early church was a church of fellowship.
What I find interesting is that this is not the first quality mention, yet
is the first quality present in most churches today. We have the “fellowship
thing” down to a science as they say. Most churches have no lack of fellowship
groups and opportunities. Hear me well, this is a great quality for any church
of Christian believers! However, fellowship is not the primary function of a
church.
Notice some of the other qualities
and characteristics: the early church was a learning church; a praying
church; a reverent church; and a worshiping church. I have heard is
said that a wasted day is a day when we fail to learn something new or fail to delve
deeper into something we thought we knew. Christian churches often do well today
with the presentation of sermons, messages, and opportunities to learn; yet for
Christians today with access to their own Bibles we might add the
responsibility of personal study and growth. The early church was devoted to
prayer. Just like those early Christians, we too, realize that we cannot meet
life circumstances in our own strength and that we do not need to. We
can meet life’s challenges with more courage, when we meet with our Heavenly
Father first in prayer. When we consider reverence as fear built upon a deep
sense of awe, we live in reverence to God because we know the whole earth (not
just the church building) is the temple of the living God. Everywhere we go and
everything we do should reflect our reverence for our Heavenly Father.
When I stop to think about our
churches today in respect to being a place of worship; I pause. There are some
churches today that give the sense of attending a rock band concert—everything is
for show and entertainment—lights, camera, action! There are some churches
today that give the sense of ritualistic roboticism—we follow the script, the
same script, and nothing but the script. Somehow I wonder if either of those
extremes can truly qualify as worship. Worship is not about us or
our needs; it is about giving our Heavenly Father all the glory, honor, and
praise due to Him alone.
The early church was a caring
church; a sharing church; and a happy church. As a body of
believers, we can do everything “right;” we can fellowship, we can learn, we
can pray, we can be reverent, and we can worship. All of this will only meet
our own needs, and means little if we fail to reach out to others and bring
them in. A church that cares for others and shares with those in need; a church
that participates in ministries of various kinds, is a church on the right
tract of reflecting the love of God to a world in desperate need of love. This
leads to being a happy church. The thought comes to my mind that a gloomy
Christian is an oxymoron—a contradiction in terms.
Dear Readers, I have no idea what
your church affiliation might be, but I would leave you with this question; If you sense your church is not on the
right track in some way, if you feel there is room for improvement in some
area, what are YOU doing to make a difference?
Gracious
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the example of the
early Christian church. Our world is so different now, but we realize these
foundational truths remain the same; we are to be loving, caring, sharing,
learning, praying, worshiping, in total reverence to You. Show us the areas in
our own church that are not on track, and give us motivation to improve. May
everything we think, say, and do be to Your honor and glory.
In
Jesus’ Name, Amen.
The
devotional How well are we doing?
appeared first on
Write
From My Heart at https://writefrommyheartblog.blogspot.com
Email:
Dotty Willmon, writefrommyheartblog@gmail.com
Scripture
quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International
Version®, NIV®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by
permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
