"So continuing daily with one accord in the temple,and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart...." (Acts 2:46)
Where on earth is this church?
Someone recently sent me a video clip of a famous personality sharing a testimony with a very high profile church in California. I could not help but notice a sign in the background which read, "America's Television Church." Maybe it should read, "America's Long Distance Church."
Our text reveals the Church meeting daily, "from house to house...with gladness(?!)------------"with simplicity of heart." Now a careful reading of the Epistles will reveal that walking in Covenant did not mean everyone got along, everyone was "normal," there was perfect morality, no false doctrine. But the Church of Acts is the pattern. This is not an attack on large churches or modern technology. The Church at Corinth with 60,000 members was larger than any American church. But I'm afraid that sitting in the comfort of homes, in dorm pants with a cup of coffee, having fellowship with a television, listening to great music, and big name preaching has become too convenient and far less threatening than "the assembly of yourselves."
In the Gospels we see our Lord Jesus demonstrating the true nature of fellowship, living and sharing with the disciples what Bohnhoeffer called, "The Common Life." Is it possible to discover once again the "daily with one accord," this "house to house," this "gladness-and- simplicity-of-heart" Church?
Father, in Jesus' Name, deliver us all from the social uncomfortableness of being together with all kinds of people, and help us to come into true covenantal relationship. Amen.
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