Life Together - Day 161 Month 6-10 Week 23-7
Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)
Joshua 21:33-22:20, Psalm 127, Jeremiah 39, Acts 2:37-3:10
Life Together
Imagine a world where people:
Have all things in common with others
Who have plenty, will sell property and possessions to help those in need
Share meals together like real family, daily, while visiting from house to house
This is a description of the early church after Pentecost.
In the church Syl and I attended in Ontario, we would go to church on Sunday and then during the week, we were all encouraged to be part of a “home church” where we’d spend time with other believers and share life together. Home church would typically be a gathering in someone's home for about 2 hours midweek. Syl and I hosted and led one of these home churches for a few years. Our hope was to replicate as close as possible what the early church would experience. So every week we held a potluck dinner. We intentionally avoided food rules (apart from allergies) for what to bring so that sometimes it would be all desserts and potatoes and sometimes it would be all meat dishes and a bag of chips and sometimes it was a well rounded meal. The main point was that we would sit around our large dining table, which sometimes wasn’t quite large enough and do our best to experience family! As a large group of 8-14 sitting around our table we sometimes just socialized and other times we had important discussions. One time we processed a very difficult group conflict that began on social media between two of our members that eventually culminated in a passionate discussion around the table and though the conflict was never eliminated, we all recognized that we could love each other even with major differences of opinion. After dinner we moved into the living room and discussed the sermon from Sunday and had time for prayer.
The early church did all of this naturally. People were drawn to these Jesus followers and many became believers themselves. If you remember from our reading in John where Jesus explained “by this all men will know that you are My disciples , if you have love for one another.” The early believers of “The Way” (Jesus followers) had sincere love for one another to the point that all were regarded as equal and if someone was in need, that person would be provided for by the other members. Syl and I have experienced people providing for us and we have had the opportunity to provide for others. Between the two, there was no better feeling than to be able to provide for others in need with no expectation of repayment in any way. One time, we needed about $250.00 and had not told anyone we needed it but it was weighing us down. I went to pick up my office mail one day and there was an envelope with $250 in it with a card. We do not know who gave that to us to this day.
In a perfect world there is no one in need. There are very wealthy people who could help end starvation in their communities but they need to be willing to do it. The key to this is not through government taxation or through force of any kind, but through people listening to the Holy Spirit and volunteering to provide help. All of us can be involved in providing for whoever we can in our sphere of influence. A gentle reminder: we live in a first world country. We all have the ability to give whether it’s financial, material, or our time. I’m a firm believer that we can’t outgive God so let’s loosen our grip on our “things”, “abilities” and the intrinsic nature of maintaining our own comfort zone to help others.
Have a great day!
Steve
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