Creative Space for Wanderers
Read: The Stoning of Stephen was a tragic event for the early Christian church movement. Stephen was one of the finest examples of a strong Christ follower. Luke includes a list of attributes to set the scene: full of God’s grace and power, face like that of an angel, one they could not argue with because …
Read: The greatest problem for any church planter is dealing with amazing church growth. Luke provides one case where members are being added to the community at a pace that has outgrown the current organizational structure. The solution: create deacons. On the surface, it seems like we’re being transported back to Moses’ day where people …
Continue reading “Acts: Growing Church Requires Better Structure”
Read: The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira resulted in great fear among the people, but these events did not slow the growth of the church in the least. The remainder of chapter 5 climaxes with Gamaliel’s assertion that the disciples should be allowed to follow their hearts and let God be the judge. His compelling …
Continue reading “Acts: Healing, Preaching, Prison, and Flogging — The Church Grows”
Read: The story of Ananias and Sapphira are a vivid contrast to the euphoria surrounding the birth of the new church. Up to this point, we are given a great sense of unity and joy filling every gathering of the apostles and hundreds of new believers (over 5,000 from the latest report). The harmony in …
Continue reading “Acts: Lying to the Holy Spirit – Hypocrisy in the Church”
Read: For my generation, and those proceeding me (yes, there are actually people older than me!), the term Communism evokes an emotional response that’s hard to appreciate. Preface that with Christian and many of us are ready to fight! I am not an advocate for Communism, even worse, Christian Communism. Last week, while visiting the …
Read: Though professionally unqualified, Peter and John are able to articulate scripture, defend their positions with eloquence, and act with courage that defies logic. They should’ve been scared and speechless but their response sets the Sanhedrin on its heels. they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Someone took …
Read: We spent this past weekend at Koinonia Farms just outside of Americus, Georgia and down the road from Plains, GA where President Carter lives. The farm is one of the places that stood out during the Civil Rights Movement, where people had to make a choice to stand with the status quo or open …
Continue reading “Acts: Thrown in Jail, Peter Preaches Again”
Read: Acts 2 ends with some remarkable discussion about the fellowship of believers. While all this is going on, the disciples continue to preach the gospel. In this case, the sermon illustration comes from healing a lame beggar, one that everyone recognized. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I …
Read: One of the most quoted scripture references ever, encourages us to be a community of believers, to stretch our corporate understanding of “church” into where we live, even open the doors of our super-secure homes to those we don’t know. And to do all of this with joy, sharing as needed, while giving thanks …
Continue reading “Acts: Fellowship of Believers — Best Time Ever!”
Read: Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would come and here we read about the powerful event known as Pentecost, fifty days after Passover. Once again, Jesus uses a Jewish event to usher in a Christian movement. While many were moved by the experience, some simply could not believe. The faithful few were gathered as Jesus …
Continue reading “Acts: Pentecost – The Holy Spirit Invades”