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Acts 2 Living – Part I
(This is the first in a four-part devotional. We will post one each week. To read all at once, search for the “Acts 2 Living” category within the blog.)
Acts 2:42-47 tells us about the first church – the fellowship of the believers. Verse 42 tells us, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” “Devoted themselves.” Notice that it was an individual decision to…become the church. Each believer submitted themselves to full devotion to Christ. What did that look like? How did they keep the fire burning white hot inside themselves to be fully devoted?
I see 4 distinct ways in which they devoted themselves, and the first is to the apostle’s teaching. You can be sure they met despite a 10:10 rule – being in church unless 10 inches of rain or below 10 degrees. These folks were sold out – the weather didn’t determine attendance; no sleeping in; no family obligations that had to be considered first; no driving distance or traffic to weigh in; no deciding whether to go depending on the topic addressed, the teacher that day, or the kind of music played during worship.
They came expectantly to hear the Word of God preached.— Expecting to meet God when they came.— Expecting to hear from God personally— God directing them, gently nudging them, correcting them, affirming them, filling them with His presence, receiving their worship, blessing them and answering their prayers. God was relevant to everything they faced in their lives and they subjected their lives to a God-filter in how they lived.
In verse 43 it says that one of the things that happened as a result of becoming this church was that, “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.” Imagine what God would do in Cypress Meadows if we all lived lives devoted to God’s teaching.— If we came expecting to meet God personally, not adding church as an activity on Sunday that we may or may not be ‘able’ to make. What if we were sold out?! What a white-hot fire our church could be!
~ Kay Evenwel
August 30th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I thought about this post for a while and it has been a source for some great discussions in our small group in the past.
Not wanting to play devil’s advocate here but wanting to generate some discussion with this response.
I think there were just as many people back in the day who were not on fire, just as many slackers or those who had to go to donkey riding lessons, stay in shelter because of the sand storm heading their way or take their 10 mile walk for water on Sunday’s. I think there are some great learnings here about priorities and commitment that not matter when you walked this earth you can learn from.
I think Cypress “is” on fire for God and there “are” many people in it who are as well. We have seen so many brought to faith, so many baptized, so many experience true heart and soul transformation. We will always be becoming an Acts 2 church - we will never arrive.
In the meantime God wants us to learn that just as it was back then the lessons he has for us are timeless and worthy of our commitment even though some of our life circumstances have changed.