Eternally Grateful
Well-Known Member
Acts 2:
42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided[p] them among all, as anyone had need.
46 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, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added [q]to the church daily those who were being saved.
Alot of people think the church is getting together for an hour or 2 on Sunday morning, Sunday night and maybe wed night. Sing a few songs. Read some bible verses. Maybe discuss those verses, otherwise have a 20 minute sermonette, Then pray, and say hellow to people you never see except for there and tell them you will see them next week.
That is not the church, it never was the church.
I remember my last few years at home before I left for military service. I was told learn as much of the word as you can, Being a former military officer. The pastor loved to use military examples. He said learning the word was like getting all your ammunition together. If you do not have the ammunition, when the enemy attacks you have no way to defend yourself with the truth..
The only problem was. It was only partially true.. The church and the body is more than that. As we learned from Peter in Acts 2. The church met together. It says the continued steadfastly in my version. The word means to be devoted to, to stay close to, To remain faithful to a task, with consistency. This is much more than a few hours on Sunday and an hour on wed night. Later it says they met in the temple daily to break bread. They sold things and became a community of people who did everything together.
It says they continued in the apostles doctrine - This is where the word comes in, They studied together, the contemplated and learned what the doctrine was. What God had written to us.. and they did it together.
It says the continued in prayer. Corporate prayer was continual. Not on some wed night prayer meeting. The church I go to now gets together often in mens groups. womens groups. People meet up in social groups. and they always are praying. I have never in my life seen God work so much in the lives of people and actualy miraculous answer to prayer than I have seen here. And is not what God said he would do? (when 2 or three are gathered)
It says they continued to break bread, Here it says daily. They ate together. They broke bread. We see later in acts they were taking this serious. but at the same time, People were taking advantage. As some were getting drunk with the wine, and eating so much that when the less fortunate people would get there there was no food left.. This is how the early church did communion. Not some Mass like you see in the roman churches, or even the traditional way of doing it. They ate, Like jesus did in the room that night. while they were eating their meal. they broke bread, and took the cup.. and they did it in remembrance of Christ.
the last thing they did is to fellowship with each other. They hung out. They discipled each other. they did ministry together. They confessed their sins to each other.. God never met for lone wolf christians. He meant for us to be a body, a group a community,
You may be able to withstand sin you are not tempted to much anyway by just the word thou shalt not. But that alone will not help you or anyone else with sins you are bound to be tempted to. I have seen many a believer fall hard because they know they should not be doing something, But they are to week for this particular temptation, And they need someone to come along side them and struggle with them. Not to Judge them You better stop or else. You need more faith blah blah blah. But to fight the battle alongside.
The church needs to get back to its roots. and its people need to get back to the church.
