PASSAGE: Acts 2:47 - ...And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. PAUSE: The actions of the early church were contagious! By living out the Gospel and sharing it with others, people’s eternal destinies were changing. Churches living in beautiful community attract unbelievers to the good news of Jesus Christ because they see God’s love on display! That should be our heart in everything we do—to live a life with others in view. Think about those you are in community with—your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers. How can you live out the good news and share that with them? It is a beautiful thing to watch the Lord grow His church as the Gospel is spread! PRAYER: Heavenly Father, may the way we live out our faith together draw many others to put their trust in You. Amen.
PASSAGE: Acts 2:44-45 - And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. PAUSE: Hang on a minute... Is this passage telling us we all need to sell everything we have and give it all away?? Does that thought make your stomach turn? The truth is, this passage is not prescribing a mandatory requirement for all believers to follow. But what it is describing is the heart of generosity that we should all have! If you see the needs of others around you and you have the means to help, would you be willing to obey that conviction in your heart? Sacrificial generosity should increasingly characterize every believer as we grow up in our faith and grow together in God’s forever family! Ask God to reveal any areas of your life that you need to grow in generosity and care for those around you. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help us to see ourselves as good stewards of all You have given us. And help us to actively look for those in need that we can bless with Your abundant provision. Amen
PASSAGE: Acts 2:42 - And they devoted themselves to…the prayers. PAUSE: Praying together about the real needs of life and the heavy burdens of the heart is a spiritual practice that every single believer should experience on a regular basis! Most Christians confess that they have a great deal of either guilt or dissatisfaction about their life of prayer. Guilt, because they just don’t pray very much, or dissatisfaction. because when they do pray it seems shallow or repetitive. And I’ve noticed that most of the time when Christians gather to pray, the requests are about physical needs and often focus on people we don’t even know that well. It’s almost like we are afraid to share and pray over personal struggles or difficult circumstances or relationships. We really need to push through to a deeper level. And we need to pray for the spiritual way more than the physical! That’s the emphasis I see when I look at the prayers of Jesus and Paul in the New Testament. Prayers for God’s wisdom and strength and courage. Prayers that we continue to be transformed into the image of Christ in all our relationships and responsibilities. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, coming before You in prayer together is one of the great privileges of the Christian life. May we do it more often. Amen.
PASSAGE: Acts 2:46 - And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts… PAUSE: One of the most neglected gifts in the modern church is HOSPITALITY! Gathering together around the table for good food and even better conversation is a prime opportunity for spiritual formation. The “day by day” tells us that this was not a rarity but a regular rhythm of life. This “breaking bread” together took place in someone’s home and it included both a full meal and the taking of communion together. In their unique setting, it also meant that those who were poor would have food to eat. There really is something special, something good and enjoyable, that happens when believers gather around the table. It’s like the walls of distance and formality come down and we can talk about real life. We can celebrate milestones and support thru trials and solve problems and speak life and encouragement into one another, all around a tasty dinner. Do you have a group (think Life Group) that you regularly break bread together with? It is core to our spiritual growth! PRAYER: Heavenly Father, You call us to live in fellowship with You and with each other. One day we will join You at the Great Banquet, but today You call us to break bread together! Amen
PASSAGE: Acts 2:42 - And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. PAUSE: This passage (Acts 2:42-47) summarizes the practices that the very first Christians were devoted to. Above all else we see a radical commitment to doing life deeply together! In response to Christ’s devotion to them as demonstrated by His loving sacrifice for their sins these brand-new believers devoted themselves to living out their commitment to Christ. This “devotion” took the form of a decisive commitment to obey Jesus (“the apostles' teaching”) and to live in unity and community! (“devoted themselves…to the fellowship”). They understood right off the bat that getting saved was a personal thing but that we are saved into a new spiritual family. In ways that is hard for modern Christians to grasp, but we desperately need to grasp, these believers didn’t operate on the basis of “me” but on the basis of “we”! They were devoted to Jesus and to one another. They were devoted to Love God with all their hearts and to love their neighbors! (See Matthew 22:37-40: The Great Commandment). PRAYER: Heavenly Father, Thank You for saving us from sin and isolation and into a community of radical love! Amen.
Join us each day for a devotional in the "ABC’s of Community" series. Sign up for “Devotional Reminders” in The Chapel app’s notification settings. August 19 - Acts 2:42 August 20 - Acts 2:46 August 21 - Acts 2:42 August 22 - Acts 2:44-45 August 23 - Acts 2:47
PASSAGE: Hebrews 10:25 - ...not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. PAUSE: As a pastor who loves the online church, hear this loud and clear -- We must resist the temptation to live a “lone-ranger” version of the Christian life. You can’t get more unbiblical than that! DON’T DO IT! In an era where isolation was required for years, don't let that become your new normal. We need each other, and we are truly better together. Technology is a gift to be able to reach and meet people where they're at, and it should be a springboard to greater connections and deeper community. Look for ways you can connect with others and build your community, whether that is in-person or by authentically interacting online. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we recommit to live our lives in deep community with others! Amen.
PASSAGE: Hebrews 10:24 - And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works... PAUSE: Sometimes in our attempt for self-reliance and independence, we miss out on one of the greatest gifts God has given us! Community. Strength in numbers. If we try to do everything on our own, it's going to be much easier to give up, get discouraged, or quit before we even start! But when we surround ourselves with others, we receive encouragement and gain strength from the support of others. We must learn to become better cheerleaders for one another in living out the Christian life. God often speaks to us through others, and there is somebody in your life right now who needs to hear from you! To receive encouragement to press on with the good works they are doing. To hear confirmation of God's calling in their life. To hear that they are not alone. Watch for opportunities this week where you can speak into someone's life and stir them on! PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help us to come alongside one another and actively, wisely cheer eachother on in our service to You! Amen
PASSAGE: Hebrews 3:13 - But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. PAUSE: The spiritual life is a battle, but it is never a battle that God intended for us to fight alone. We must speak truth and life into each other. But to be honest, this kind of speaking is a rarity between brothers and sisters in the modern church! The mindset is that nobody has the right to speak anything strong or corrective to someone else. So, we live as spiritually lethargic islands where nobody impacts anyone else. But this passage says that in the context of loving Christian community, when we see a pattern of sin or spiritual blindness in a brother or sister, we are not to shut up but speak up. Exhort, speak the truth in love. Speak the wisdom of God’s Word into their foolishness. I still remember as a young believer having an older friend speak frankly to me about an area of foolish living in my life. It was a wake-up call that turned me around! It was exactly what I needed. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help us to surround ourselves with other believers who will lovingly exhort us towards You! Amen.
PASSAGE: Hebrews 3:12 - Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. PAUSE: WARNING: DANGER! It is possible for believers to develop an unbelieving heart toward God in our everyday lives. This unbelief does not necessarily mean we stop believing in the existence of God. It is more of a pragmatic atheism where we stop actively trusting in Him and stop believing that He is at work in our lives. We live as if He was not there, and this is evil. I also remind you that we have an enemy that continually puts thoughts and temptations before us in order to entice us away from an active faith life. Yes, God has given us His Word to warn us of such things, but we actually need more than that. We need other believers speaking God’s truth into our lives. We need to be living in community. Join me tomorrow to look at the next verse (Hebrews 3:13) and learn more about what this looks like. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we see that there is a battle going on in our hearts between active faith and cynical doubt. Show us what it looks like to feed our faith in You! Amen
PASSAGE: Isaiah 53:6a - All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way. PAUSE: There is an inclination in the human heart to go our own way. And that way most often leads us towards isolation because everyone else is also going their own way! This “turning to our own way” is actually a vivid description of what sin is. God created us to live our lives according to His way, under His leadership. But, like foolish sheep, we choose to leave God and try to forge our own way. This is not a neutral thing, it is rebellion against God. So how do we realign our way to God? Of course, it begins with Christ redeeming us. But we also need to have godly people in our lives who can teach us the ways of God and who can help hold us accountable to walking in His ways. A critical movement in the life of a growing believer is the shift from living in isolation to living in deep community with others! PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help us to fight against all the forces in the modern world that push us toward isolation and help us to seek and find real community! Amen.
Join us each day for a devotional in the "ABC’s of Community" series. Sign up for “Devotional Reminders” in The Chapel app’s notification settings. August 12 - Isaiah 53:6a August 13 - Hebrews 3:12 August 14 - Hebrews 3:13 August 15 - Hebrews 10:24 August 16 - Hebrews 10:25
