Lately I have been drawn to find out what the early church was like. I love reading about how God spoke to them. God told Cornelius, a captain of the Italian Guard, to send men to Joppa to find a guy named Peter and bring him back. So he does it! No "why? what if he won't come back?". No questions at all. Now you might be thinking, "not that we know of." I admit I think that often too when I read some Bible stories. Yet a few chapters before this God told Ananias to go and find Saul and he questioned Him. Others have questioned and I think God includes those questions to show that it is normal to ask.
Cornelius' men went to Joppa and found the house and God told Peter to go with them and he did. Cornelius told Peter what God told him and Peter was excited because it confirmed a vision God gave him. In the vision God said that Peter could eat any kind of food, even non-kosher food. Peter realized that it meant non-Jews were also called by God and could be added to the Christian faith.
There are other stories of Peter speaking to a dead woman and she was raised from the dead and telling a lame man to get up and he was healed. Philip ran alongside a chariot and an Ethiopian ended up baptized. God told them to do something and they did it. They spoke to the lame and dead in Jesus' name and they were made whole again.
So the question that went through my head was, "why did they have so much power? Why did they have such influence?" In Acts 2 I think I found the answer. "They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers." and "They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved."
Daily they did these things. They didn't just do Sunday church and occasional group meetings. They made this a daily part of their lives. They came together and were taught, worshipped, prayed, and ate together.
Now sometimes I thought, "did they have jobs?" Well, Simon the tanner is mentioned, he must have been a tanner and that's a job. So they worked and did all this each day. How? Weren't they exhausted at the end of their day? Their lifestyles were not like ours. They were hard workers but they weren't work-minded. I know that I am work-minded most of the time. I love my job, well most of the time, but I let it fill my days. Families fill their days with work, activities, sports, etc. Is there anything wrong with working, doing family activities and sports? No, but we have replaced the daily time with God and those He has called us to spend our meals and prayer time with work, activities, sports, etc.
So if we asked God what is keeping us from living the life of the early church, a life that was general liked and people wanted to join in, I believe He would tell us. So, I guess it's time for me to spend some time with Him and listen to what He says for me to give up, to change.
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See, there in lies the problem. The church members want the benefits without the real relationships. Need I say more? No, because to do so would be offensive. Cannot have any of that now, can we?
Really, it is the Christian's selfishness heart attitude that is in the way of a return to the spirit of the early church days where they lived as God commanded they love one another. When I say "selfishness" I do not use it in its standard meaning. Rather, it is about an attitude of the heart that says to God, "I cannot do this because...". It is the selfishness of distrust.
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