Getting Serious about God (2)

    
'The believers met together...and shared everything...' Acts 2:44 NLT


I love this portion of scripture in the book of Acts because they took fellowship seriously. We are more than a common-interest-based social club. We're a family: birth-children of our heavenly Father, blood relatives. The cross made it so. '...We have all been baptised into one body by one Spirit...' (1 Corinthians 12:13 NLT)

Those early disciples valued their relationship. It went beyond merely singing songs and hearing sermons. They 'met together...shared everything they had...sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.' (Acts 2:44-45 NLT) One of things I love about the two Connection groups I'm involved in is that there is true community. Last night at the Clark's as we came together to hear Missionary Dean Elders, you could feel and sense relationship happening in our midst. So much that it was hard to even get started because of the dynamic that was happening.

Do we have such selfless love, caring enough to share everything we own, or share our lives openly with others? One of the traits of the early believers is that they shared what they had? 'All the believers.' How much did they share? 'Everything they had.' God's Word describes His church as a body. Its members exist individually but they can only function properly in connection with one another. Arms, hands, legs, shoulders etc. cannot live separately; they must be joined to a body with a head to accomplish their purpose. The early church survived incredible persecution and achieved amazing things. Why? Because they understood the need to value each other and to sacrifice personal interest for the sake of the whole. Think about it; "As isolated, self-reliant, self-promoting individuals they would have been destroyed by the overwhelming force of their enemies." As a believer, you may survive apart from the church, but you can't thrive. Your God-given potential will never be realized until you commit wholeheartedly to a local fellowship and invest yourself in serving God's vision for that church. Forgive the past; you need to be a part of the family at Calvary! You are loved...