CWW Week 26 - Day 5 - What Is Church?

Acts 2:42

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to

fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

This verse gives a picture of the early church’s activities, showing

the importance of teaching, fellowship, communion (the breaking of

bread), and prayer in the life of the church.

I have found this verse to be foundational in a good and growing

church; a healthy “body of Christ.”

I pray every morning with two good men as we encourage each

other on our journey of life. Just this morning as I write this

devotional I have just finished that prayer session. It’s very

revealing when we come together in prayer confessing our sins to

each other and growing together.

One of my friends is a church pastor who shared of the struggles

within his own church. A very conservative church in a country

setting is made up of many elderly people who are set in their ways

of worshiping having grown up in the same church most of their

lives, is now being pastored by a less conservative man who is

stretched in ways he never imagined. You might be asking, “what

could possibly go wrong?”

My other friend shared how much his church has changed from

being a rocky conservative inflexible church to one that embraces

the people while rejecting the sin. I know this church very well. It

was where I was baptised and married to Michelle on the fifteenth

of December 2007. It was the church where we launched our

twelve step recovery ministry and it’s the body of Christ to whom

our hearts belong.

It was like the church that my other friend is dealing with but it has

changed. It’s heart has softened but its resolve has grown stronger.

I have come to see that a soft heart can be a very powerful tool to

stand in great resolve in the testimony of Jesus.

Jesus heart was tender towards everyone but His resolve was

unchangeable and powerful.

Imagine a change of events at the cross where Jesus said “Father

forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Lets imagine that His last words were “You are all going to pay for

this and what you have done to me. I hate you all and you will wish

you had never been born.”

How much impact would those words have had on the climate of

our existence. It was the love from the heart of flesh that amplified

Christ’s words on the cross and that’s why the church has spread

across the globe.

Was that a soft fluffy love or was it a climate changing, earth

shattering kind of power that alters destiny?

My pastor friend will realise that God has placed him right where he

needs to be and his presence is just what the stayed and

conservative church needs. The two will grow together for mutual

benefit. It may just be for a season but everyone gets to grow when

we see God’s hand in it.

Todays scripture tells us to devote ourselves to the teachings of the

Apostles, and to the breaking of bread and to the fellowship or

friendship and most of all to prayer.

It is by worshipping together and sharing a meal together and by

praying that we become refined. This cannot be done as effectively

alone. God’s methods are like killing two birds with the one stone.

He never wastes a hurt and when we come together in His name

we can all grow together in mutual benefit. Why? Because we are

all a work in progress and we need each other even if we often

disagree with one another.

This is what church is all about. It is by beholding that we become

changed.

Is Jesus waiting for us to come together and grow each other

Questions.

1. 2. 3. If you go to a regular church, do you struggle to fit in?

If you have been a church goer all your life have you ever

wondered why your church doesn’t seem to change or grow?

In either situation are you now fully ready to have Christ soften

your heart?

Prayer.

Dear Lord, Papa God.

I need to belong to the body of Christ but I struggle to feel like I

belong. Am I stuck in my own feelings of inadequacy Papa or am I

just too stubborn to change. Lord I desire to feel like I belong to

Your body. I want to become changed and I want to see that my

brokenness can be used in the healing process to add value to the

body to which I need to belong.

Help me to grow and be used to grow others is my prayer in Your

precious name Jesus. Amen.

Have a great day today with Jesus.

Graham Hood.