However, I am starting to hear a lot about the early church in Acts and that's starting to make me wonder if we as Christians have everything wrong. I've always known how the church in Acts worked, I've heard about it over and over growing up and I know a lot of churches try to base themselves ater it. However, recently it's been brought up in conversations multiple times and today my Bible reading took me straight to Acts. So, I feel like it's something that I'm really supposed to be focusing on. Anyway, I came across this verse and it really struck a chord with me:
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
-Acts 2: 42-47
These people lived together! They talked, fellowshiped, studied God's word, prayed together, ate together, and did ministry together. Their lives were intertwined! And so it got me thinking how incredible this would be. How amazing it would be to live with other Christians, to spend all my time with them, to be able to talk and pray together at a moments notice, because we were always together. How beautiful this would be. And I realized, I have this opportunity everyday at school. I live with Christians, I eat with Christians, I go to class and to church with Christians. My life is constantly spent with Christians. And yet, it is so far from this picture of the early church. We hardly ever talk about God and our "christian" lives, we never pray together, we hardly ever study God's word together. There is no openness, no vulnerability. I don't know my friends struggles and they don't know mine. I'm not sure exactly how to change that, how to make our lives be more like the early church in Acts, but I know that if we do, God will use us, and what more could we want in life?! Anyway, continuing on, the author of Acts speaks about sharing your burdens with one another in the hope that they will be lifted. I am so blessed with this, because I have such incredible people in my life that are always ready to listen and pray. I was recently matched with a mentor from The Good Women Project, which if you haven't every been there, you should check it out! Anyway, they as do I, believe that to become a Godly woman, you must be poured into and mentored by someone that has been through and understands your struggles. So I signed up and have been emailing back and forth with this wonderful women of God who is serving Christ in Spain. I feel so joyful for having met her! She is incredible and has really helped me in the past couple of weeks that we have been talking. She encourages me to pray and stay in the word, to overcome my struggles, and to rest in the fact that God loves me no matter what. I finally feel like I have a glimpse of what God intended for the church to be.
It should be open. We should stretch across borders and barriers. We should love each other no matter what, because God loves the church no matter how many times it/we turn on back on Him. We should pray for each other. We should encourage one another. This relationship with my mentor has given me a picture of what a christian college should like, of what my life at school should look like. I pray that God would open my eyes as to how that will happen. I pray that He would use me and that before I graduate, my campus looks more and more like the early church in Acts.
Just a thought for the day.
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