And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon
every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing
the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the
temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food
with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the
people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being
saved. Acts
2:42-47
It's very rare that I get on a soapbox
unless it has to deal with me or my issues. This is one of those times when I
must extend that scepter to the Body again....
We as the Body of Christ have been off
course. We have been distracted and duped into believing certain things matter
when they actually don't and so the alarm must be sounded. Let me explain.
On Sunday after a frustrating morning, I
was able to push through and worship at church and hear from God on some
personal things, to which I'm sure I will blog about later. When I got home,
while looking through emails, one caught my eye but I didn't read it. The
subject line was about Jesus
not commanding us to make churches full... or something like that. I
instantly wondered why we are so bent on churches growing, sometimes into these
mega, super packed, never personal followings. That's when God "got in my
window" and schooled me on some things. First and foremost, He let me know
how out of line and off course we are. He directed me to Acts 2 where the first
gathering (church) was formed and how fast they grew, not because of all of the
posters, commercials, "be a bringer" messages, coaxing members to get
out there and find people or any other fantastic way to get people to join
"our church" instead of the next pastor's church. No, they grew
because they did Kingdom work... they were about their Father's business. They
sold possessions, something we as believers today do not believe in (maybe we
feel our items are more priceless than PURE gold decanters or SOLID silver
plates, etc). They distributed among ALL (this includes those around them but
maybe not in their actually "congregation"), they ate together,
worshiped together and because of THIS, they had the favor with ALL people...
and because of this, the Lord added to them.
How simple it is and how easy we have
moved away from this simple task which is also a Scripture itself! Matthew
6:33 states to seek first the
Kingdom of God and ALL its righteousness AND as a promise, He will add all else
to us... the all else? That's in the passages above verse 33 if you wanna know
what's included! And then to boot, He reminds us NOT to worry about tomorrow
because that is a whole other day! Focus on Him for THIS DAY... hmmm.... isn't
that in a prayer that Jesus taught us to pray? "Give us THIS DAY our DAILY
bread"????
Let's get back to focus and do the will of
our Father as HE states it. Not as we declare it, explain it, water it down, or
interpret it.
Father, we repent as your children for
what we have fashioned after our own desires and lusts instead of what You have
for us. We have allowed ourselves to be conformed to the trappings of this
world and claimed to be renewed all at the same time. We bring this disease of
self to you God and ask you to forgive our sin of forgetting Your Kingdom and
all its righteousness. We repent of making our church services into something
that glorifies us more so than You and does our egos good more than Your
Kingdom. Your Word says that if we Your people, who are called by Your name,would humble ourselves and pray, and seek Your face, and turn from our wickedways only then will You hear from heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land.
I speak to every dry bone in Your family who lays defeated in the valley to
arise and live. We will humble ourselves Lord, we will pray and seek Your face,
and we will turn from our wicked, worldly ways and will wait for Your promise
to hear our cry, forgive our sin and heal our land. Thank You God for Your
faithfulness and lovingkindness while Your children run amuck in this dark
world! Thank You for meeting us in the road with arms wide open as we realize
we need You and come back to You after our journeys in this place! In Jesus
name! Amen!
