From Dream to Deliverance
Saturday, September 25, 2004
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Thank You for another week of life, learning and serving in the name of Jesus! I pray that as I reflect on this week’s Scripture one last time that You will open the eyes of my heart to see Your truth and to see You in it! Fill me right now with Your Holy Spirit that as I go about this day I may see the challenges and conflicts in my family, my church, my community, and may do what the early church did—turn to You in prayer, and use my gifts to carry out the ministry that You have given me. Use me to encourage others to find their spiritual gifts and to use them for the advancement of Your ever-expanding Kingdom. I pray that You would prepare me and all who will be worshiping You tomorrow, that we may come together as one in our worship, and that You may be truly glorified. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God's Word For Me Today
Acts 6:1-7
1But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. 2So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers.
“We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food program,” they said. 3“Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this business. 4Then we can spend our time in prayer and preaching and teaching the word.”
5This idea pleased the whole group, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (a Gentile convert to the Jewish faith, who had now become a Christian). 6These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.
7God’s message was preached in ever-widening circles. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
Reflecting on God’s Word
What did you notice in this reading of today’s Scripture that you didn’t notice before this week?
Thoughts...The "Perfect" Church...
Sometimes when we read the accounts of the early church and all the miracles that God did, and how rapidly the church grew, we just naturally assume that everything was “perfect.” Of course it wasn’t. This week’s Scripture has demonstrated that. It wasn’t a big spiritual debate, or doctrinal problem that faced the church. The Greek-speaking widows complained of being slighted in the distribution of food, saying that the Hebrew-speaking widows were being given preferential treatment. As we read Paul’s letters we find that all manner of problems existed in the early church—lack of respect for authority, misunderstanding about who Jesus was and whether He was coming back—or already had; and all manner of everyday, “garden variety” sin! The power and rapid growth of the early church sometimes makes it easy for us to overlook the challenges, problems, conflict and sin that these believers—and believers in every era of history face.
The reason there is no perfect church, of course, is that there has only been one perfect person—Jesus. He had his hands full every single day when He walked the earth, because while He was (and IS) perfect, no one else was. So he faced, self-righteous religious leaders who were filled with hypocrisy and pride; all manner of folks with physical and spiritual dilemmas and suffering, and followers who—didn’t’ always follow! If it’s all starting to sound vaguely like the church of Jesus in the 21st century, instead of the first century, that’s because people have always been basically the same: we are fallen and in a state of sin by virtue of our heritage through Adam and Eve. Our only hope is through Jesus! As Pastor Tim so aptly pointed out last week, sin often remains in our lives after Jesus becomes Savior and Lord, but it doesn’t have to reign in our lives. Praise God for that.
As the early church found out, the time when we are least likely to end up in trouble or in sin, or in conflict, is the time when we are in prayer and when we are responding to God’s call in our lives. The Apostles knew that the food distribution problem threatened the unity and health of the church, but they knew equally well that they weren’t the ones to address it. In one sense we could say that it was the problems the church faced that actually let to “every member in ministry!” If everything had continued to go smoothly, perhaps all the church would have done was sit around listening to the teachings of the apostles, praying and praising God, and occasionally meeting the needs of a fellow believer. While that may sound like perfection, it leaves out one vital aspect of our purpose in Jesus Christ: there would be no mission! As the church became more and more inward focused due to the apostles having to do everything, there would have been no ever-widening circles of God’s message being preached. Think about that for a moment. Sometimes what keeps the church from being the church is the idea that pastors or paid staff are to do all the ministry, and the rest of the folks just show up on Sunday, and give an offering to keep the staff paid and growing. Paid staff have a definite purpose in the church—to equip the saints for the work of ministry! The “perfect” church will only exist in heaven, but the church that looks like Jesus planned the church to look, and that acts like the church Jesus planned is the one where EVERY, single believer comes to know his or her gifts, abilities, passion, personality and experiences, and then puts them into practice in the church and in the world! That’s the goal we have as New Life Christian Ministries, and while we haven’t attained it yet—while there’s still a long ways to go to attain perfection—each day each of us has the opportunity to move the goal forward by living in prayer and in the power of the Holy Spirit and then praying for and encouraging others. As we move into the thick of the fall, and as the time rapidly approaches when we will be launching Discipleship Essentials, I am optimistic that God is going to do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine to move us to fulfilling our goal. You and I can do a lot to see that goal fulfilled, simply by living as fully devoted followers of Jesus every day! Today, is the day to start!