As discussed over the past two weeks, 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 - the first is to the apostle’s teaching, the second is to the fellowship, the third is to the breaking of bread.

I find it interesting that verses 46-47 tell us, “…They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people…”  What a beautiful picture of believers gathered together to remember Christ’s sacrifice and to share a meal with the people they care most about, in the special loving environment that a home can have.  There is a small group at Cypress that begins every gathering with a meal and it’s amazing what it does to bring about community and intimacy within their group.  They are glad and prepared to share authentic community and study with one another after time together like that.

Don’t you just feel special being invited to be together around a table?  What about the Lord’s table?  He invites us to come to it regularly and Cypress Meadows offers corporate communion at His table the first Wednesday of every month.  Practice full devotion by obeying His command to break bread in memory of Him.  It definitely stokes the fire when we remember the extent of His devotion to us.

~ Kay Evenwel

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 2:00 am and is filed under Acts 2 Living, Week 4: Ravaged by a Holy Fire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.