But you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me
everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.” Acts 1:8 (NLT)
Those who believed what Peter said were
baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. They
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being
done by the apostles. All
who believed were together and had all things in common; they
would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to
all, as any had need. Day
by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at
home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising
God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number
those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47 (NLT)
We are summing-up five weeks of
learning about our five promises we make to God and each other as part of the
United Methodist Church.
This is one of those
“easy-to-connect-the-dots” scenarios…Peter shared Christ with a whole crowd…and
3,000 responded; they were saved. In
turn, they went and shared that with others.
How simple is that?
We sometimes make it rather
complicated, but sharing the Gospel as it came to us is effective – after all,
it worked that way at least in your case.
The problem is not with evangelism being too hard – it isn’t. The problem is more with saints who won’t
even give it a try.
My brother Thom has a
sister-in-law, Anne. Anne is my friend
and loves Jesus. She is also the
opposite of a “Yankee” in the South; Anne is from the South, married and moved
to New York. Go figure!
Anyway, Anne told me about her
young Grandson, David:
David
was sitting at the breakfast table [one] morning when he made a little noise
and jerked backwards. He mashed something in the tablecloth and threw it on the
floor. Her husband, John asked,
"What happened?"
David
answered, "There was a spider there. I killed it."
"Wow! You were so brave to kill
it," [Anne] exclaimed.
True honesty
came to the fore when David explained, "I’m only brave when the spider is
little."
Friends, let me sum this up by
saying that when it comes to evangelism, serving, giving, prayers and presence,
ALL the spiders are little! Next to God,
everything in this universe is little, and under His control.
Do you want to move on to
maturity in Christ? Put these five promises
under the column of your life’s major commitments to God and your fellow
members here: Prayers, Presence, Gifts,
Service and Witness.
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Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people! Do
not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your
tasks. Then doing of your world shall be no miracle, but you shall be a
miracle. Everyday you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life
which has come to you by the grace of God.
--- Phillips Brooks:
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Let the church say, Amen!
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