Acts 4: 32-35
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything that they had. With great power the Apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them, for from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, and brought the money for the sales, and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”
I especially like the wording of the one my wife is teaching the kids. “Nobody said ‘That’s mine, you can’t have it!’ They shared everything.” I think that comes from the Message, but I am not sure.
I have had a couple of thoughts rattling around in my mind over the past couple of days and none seemed to manifest themselves enough to where I thought I could get it out on paper(or computer screen actually). Much of what I am facing deals with knowing that I should be doing more, but I am not. Which in my mind, is worse than being ignorant of the fact that I should be doing something more. Blogging about doing more for God is not really doing more for God! Or if it is, it is not enough!
Do I talk about needing to do more at/for the church, or do I talk about sharing Jesus with the lost. Both areas that I need to work on. The passage that I included at the top of this e-mail popped into my mind, while I was considering starting a post on another topic. So I figured it is what I should address first. And I am a little torn about it because saving someone’s soul from the Wrath of God, is far more important than taking care of a brother’s or sister’s worldly needs. Eternal Needs always trump Worldly needs.
Now that I have addressed my concerns over putting the needs of the church over the needs of the world, I am still going to stick with talking about the passage above. The main reason for it is that if we can live in a way that is counter-cultural to the rest of the world, maybe the rest of the world will be interested in what has happened to us and wonder why we are different. When we live in a way that makes them ask, “Why are you that way?” we open the door to tell people about Jesus. And we get back to what I think is most important.
I came across this passage again a month or so ago and Sarah Grace and I talked about it. I told her I wish the church could be like this again. It doesn’t say the people gave 10 percent to the church and the church helped some people. It says that they shared everything. AAAHHHHH!!!!! The communist democrats have somehow used the DeLorean and the flux capacitor to go back in time and influenced Luke (probably with some form of witchcraft) and caused him to include their socialistic agenda in his book. Evil! Evil! Rip out that page!
Sorry for that rant. No I am not. Sorry for lying about being sorry.
Back to the point of this post before I loose 3 of my 4 semi-regular readers. This is the church that was the beginning of the church. We have all (no matter what denomination) come from here, because this was the beginning. And this is the church that grew in numbers daily. Acts 2:43-47 says the believers shared generously with each other and that “the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.”
The church was living against the norm. It caught people’s attention and those people were then told about the life changing power of Jesus Christ. This was the church that was living out their faith in a new life.
I know that we live in a different time, and we have mortgages and college funds to worry about, and don’t forget saving up for the Wii. But I can’t help but think maybe this is part of the problem. Bills, college funds, and the Wii fund may be important, but we must not forget that they are only important from a worldly standpoint. Not a single one of those are eternal things. Who is going to really care that I got highest score ever recorded on Mario Kart. Especially when it comes down to taking care of others, and even more so when that taking care of others results in the lost being saved.
Our other option is to share our worldly things with the lost world directly. We can meet people’s physical needs to show them their spiritual needs. Either way we handle this we would be living up to the call to letting go of everything and letting God use it all to make an impact.
I would assume many of you are somewhat familiar with Rich Mullins. He was the Contemporary Christian recording artist who was quite successful who had an amazing career ahead of him. He died in a car wreck in 1997, what many would say, cut short the life of a great Christian singer/songwriter. Many of you may not have known this about Rich. He moved onto a Navajo reservation where he taught music to the poor Native American kids. The profits that were made from all of his music(tours and recordings) was divided up. He took the average income of Americans at the time for his pay ( which I believe was around 25,000 dollars a year, but I may be off) and the rest was given away to charity. He said this at a concert shortly before he died.
“Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken....”
This story hurts, because I know that I am not anywhere close to being that kind of man and I know it is true that Jesus calls us to give up everything and follow him. I think this is something that we should pray about. I know for a fact that it is something that I need to be praying about. I want to do anything within my power to serve people. I want to get over being selfish about my stuff. If I have something someone needs I want have the ability to recognize that need and give it up. I want us all to live in a way that shocks the lost world and makes them draw near us to figure out what is going on. And when that happens they can see Jesus
About Me
- David Willy
- I am a husband and a father and I pray that I will continue to look more like Christ to my wife and children each day. I pray that all that I do will be used to give glory to the Father and Christ through the Holy Spirit.
A couple of comments...
ReplyDelete1. If we rely on the government to be the distributor of wealth, I think we miss the point. We don't need the government to literally take our money from us to give it to others with less. That should be our own decision. Not to mention that a communist/socialist America would crumble within six months and the rest of the world's countries would be MUCH worse off than they already are. The vast majority of money given to spread God's Word across this planet comes from the pockets of Americans. If you take their money away, the funding dries up.
2. We, as Christians, are COMMANDED to seek the lost, the poor, the orphan and the widow. This is not debatable. God has blessed each of us with tremendous wealth compared to the rest of the world, yet we continue to live in luxury and toss pennies at the church in order to say that we've "done our part". Our mouths may say we align ourselves with Jesus, but our lives speak otherwise. Maybe we should give up things like going out to eat, television, movies, etc. and take that money and feed the poor, clothe the naked, seek the lost.
Maybe you think I'm crazy, but I know one thing...God is stirring something within me. We, as Christians, are called to be DIFFERENT than the world. How else will the world recognize us? We need to stop being chameleons and start being obedient children.
Really it doesn't matter what our government is. My calling to serve others to show them Christ doesn't change if I live in a democracy, constitutional monarchy, dictatorship, or communist state. If the American government that so many love and support falls apart tomorrow, my purpose in life doesn't change. God doesn't care what type of government we have.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about giving up those minor luxuries to serve God. That is one of the best ways to start the change. That is when true worship starts
This is Jeff...
ReplyDeleteI agree DW. Our mission as Christians does not depend upon our circumstances. Be it government, wealth, age, etc. We are to love God with all our heart, mind and soul and love our neighbor as ourself.
Amen Brother!
ReplyDeleteFirst, we missed having you last night at the men's Bible study. Last night turned out to be a pretty good study.
ReplyDeleteSecond, and I don't mean to keep bringing this up, but have you had a chance to listen to any of David Platt's sermons in the Radical series? If not, make sure that SG listens with you.
I haven't listend to the series yet, but I plan on it. We just need to slow down a little and do it. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteI plan on coming to the study again, however I am quite disappointed in the book. I have read through 4 chapters and it just isn't clicking.
Yeah, the book isn't the greatest (don't tell Pat). However, it is nice to meet with other men and discuss living life for God.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the problem is that people are scared to say they are in need. The Church should be a place were people feel at ease about their situation but we have made the Church a place where people go who have got it all together and right.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to begin to change that attitude and make the Church (the people) a place where people can come and seek help and confess their needs.
On another note, Dave you need to be at the next study and Jeffery you need a blog.
You are right Dustin, people don't want to ask for help. Not only do we isolate ourselves from the outside world, we isolate ourselves from each other also. That's why we need to look for needs and supply them. We need to develop real relationships with people, both in church and out of church, so we can know what their needs are. We also need to ask God to show us. Christ looked at the crowd and had compassion on them. He looked at them and saw that they were a lost and hurting people. We can do the same. If you really watch people you can tell the difference between someone who is doing great and someone who is hurting, but says they are great.
ReplyDelete