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Wednesday, September 22, 2004
So, the church gets off to a pretty interesting start. 3,000 souls added in one day. They come into one tribe (see yesterday's entry)...with their own identity...with their own way of doing life together.
What happens to them now? The life-changing event has taken place. They've come into a relationship with their Lord and Savior. What does "doing life together" look like?
Read Acts 2: 41--47 a couple of times. Sorta to refresh your brain a little bit.
Let's focus on v. 42: "And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
The first word that leaps out is "continually." They didn't have a "church" life and a "real" life. It was simply life. 24-7-365 (366 in leap years). All too often we have our lives divided in a way that it was never intended. We have our "church" friends and our "school" friends. We have Christian bookstores to handle our specific needs and Christian radio that only Christians listen to. I just can't bring myself to see it that way. It's just life. And we live it out continually...whether or not we're with "church" people or at "church."
Then we get a list of four things that "looks" like:
1) Devoting yourself to teaching. Sound, authoritative teaching at that. And in our society we can get our hands on some of the best teachers of our time. We're not limited to traveling preachers who happen to be coming through town or whoever the parish sticks us with. We can get books, CD's, radio programs, sermons on line, excellent churches with solid, Bible believing expositors, Sunday School classes...the whole deal. One mark of the believer is a desire for consisent teaching. Being a disciple means being committed to a lifetime of learning from those further down the path.
2) Fellowship. Rubbing shoulders with others on that path. In my student ministry, I call it "mileage." Those people doing whatever they do together. It could be watching an NFL game. Or building a house in Mexico (or the bus ride to and from). It could be grabbing a bite to eat together. A good question to get conversations going with other believers: "So, what's God teaching you these days about Himself and yourself?" Spending time with other believers was paramount to them.
3) The breaking of bread. A common meal together. Probably much like a pot-luck supper. Could be the celebration of the Lord's Supper (which, in early times might have been difficult to determine where the Lord's Supper began and the pot-luck ended). But either way, they spent time together at meals, and had a specific time to do it.
4) Prayer. They prayed together. Maybe it was out loud. It doesn't matter. But I think we've lost that communal effort of group prayer. Just talking to God, honestly from our hearts. Slowing down and allowing God's thoughts to be our thoughts and His perspective to seep deep into our pores so that we begin seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness. It ain't rocket science. Sometimes we act like it is rocket science because we get confused and just decide not to do it because we don't understand it. But praying together was part of that life.
So the mind vitamins/journal prompts are pretty easy today: In what ways have you divided your life into "secular" and "Christian" compartments? What part of these four marks of the early church are you strong in? Weak? What can you do to enhance the strong ones? Develop the weaker ones?
Brent 4:05 AM
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