Another of the basic practices of the early church as described by Luke as the breaking of bread or sharing in common meals, which included observance\celebration of the Lord's Supper. One of the counter cultural qualities of the early church's common meals was how people of different social status were treated and viewed as equals as they opened their homes to one another. Hospitality, even to the stranger, was embedded in the practice of the early church as they recognized they had been invited by God into His Kingdom and family when they were estranged from Him. We are still called by God to practice hospitality in our context.
To Whom Are You Apprenticing Yourself? - Basic Practices #1
The early church devoted themselves to a set of basic practices that helped them fulfill Jesus' Great Commission and Great Commandment. While we live in a different culture and can't do things exactly as the early church did, we can still engage in the same practices, the first in our series being devotion to the teaching of the apostles. To apprentice ourselves to Jesus requires we know His teaching.
Direction, not intention, is what matters
Knowing our identity in Christ and personal vision from God isn’t enough to see these made manifest in our lives. It also requires our taking steps to live these out. Good intentions will not get us to the positive destinations we want in our life. Following Jesus requires effort on our part to turn our intentions into steps that will lead us in the direction of His Kingdom.
Know Your Identity
Emmanuel God With Us
God has always looked to be with humanity. From the Garden of Eden through the times and lives of Abraham, David, the old testament prophets to when Jesus came God had been working and promising for an even closer relationship. Through the work of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit, Christians are a God-indwelt people. So whatever you are going through, you can know God is with you or you can surrender to Jesus and experience His presence.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Christmas is an opportunity to reflect on the amazing event of Jesus coming into a broken world to bring healing, hope and joy. It was always God’s plan to come in this way and as sure as we are that Jesus lived, we are sure He is coming again. Jesus came, is present today through His Spirit and will come again. What will we do in response to this?
O Holy Night
O Holy Night was a favourite Christmas song by the abolitionist movement because of it’s 3rd verse speaking of God’s command to love and God’s heart to break the chains of the oppressed. This theme resonates with Mary’s song found in Luke 1. Mary saw God was at work on not only her behalf, but for all people oppressed by others. With the announcement of the Messiah being born, Mary saw God as faithful Saviour.
A Ground Shaking Prayer
Summary – Peter and John, after being released from prison after a warning (threats) to not speak in the name of Jesus again, the church prayed. They didn’t pray for protection or for the rulers to change their minds or for God to show them where to run away to… they prayed for boldness to continue to proclaim Jesus as King regardless of the opposition that would come. Too often the approach of the church in the West to the culture it is in has been fear. The early church displayed faith in God’s sovereignty and a passion to embrace the culture it was in.
Suffering in an Aspirin Age
Summary – Peter and John are arrested for proclaiming Jesus as Messiah to the crowd in the Temple, following God healing a crippled man through them. The following morning these two disciples were threatened and warned to never speak of Jesus as Messiah again. These disciples knew the next time they would speak of Jesus, they would not merely be warned, they would be beaten. Jesus promised his followers they would face opposition because of following him, but he also promised to give the words they would need when it was time to speak about him. They knew they would suffer. Do we allow suffering to be part of our journey of following Jesus?
Times of Refreshing, Acts Series #8
Peter received another opportunity to publicly proclaim the news of Jesus being the promised Messiah. This required both challenging the crowd and also inviting them towards God through faith in Jesus. Peter promised the crowd that if they would turn from their ways, and turn to God, they would experience “times of refreshing.” What does this mean?