August 14, 2019

August 14

Running with Jesus  

Acts 2:44-47 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.  

     With the filling of the Holy Spirit entering and changing the lives of men we begin to see what church community life should look like.  They were together, shared and helped each other and met each other’s needs, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and materially.  They continue at this time to go to the temple, went house to house fellowshipping and the result was gladness and singleness of heart.  As a result of their loving and caring for each other they had favor with all people and the church grew.

     Eventually they were rejected at the temple and began to have church in homes and will begin to worship on Sunday instead of Saturday.

     When the body of Christ begins to use their gifts to minister to each other and demonstrate the love of Christ, the church becomes healthy and loving and the church will begin to grow. This will attract others to the church. 

     Sometimes many in the body will not see the need to attend baby showers or weddings and functions of the body, however, we can see that it is very important to the body that all of the body demonstrates their love to each other.  If you notice this verse says they had singleness of heart.  That means they had one heart. The heart is the seat of the mind, will, and emotions. The heart we should have is the same heart of Christ who loves and treats all with the same love, kindness, and respect. That is why God commands us to love him with all our heart, mind, and soul.

     Are you operating with a single mind?  I am afraid most of our minds are not on God and functioning out of His thoughts and cares.  Most of us are functioning out of personal wants and desires.  If we truly want our churches to grow we will mind our minds.  We will stop and refocus so we can be about the Father’s business.  Days are short friends and time is running out, the church needs to wake up and start dying to self and becoming alive to God so we can win the lost.

Father, forgive us for thinking selfishly and help us to become single hearted and remind us it is all about You and not about us.  We ask You to help us empty self today and show us someone who might have a need today.  Go before us and lead us to walk in Your Spirit as we run through this day.

Let’s go up and pray with Peter and John in the morning!

Judy Hollaway

Originally penned 2015