Daily Devotional - Friday

Theme: The Gospel Community

In Acts 2:42-47 we see what the church community looks like soon after Jesus death and ascension into heaven:  "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.  44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.  45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  46 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,  47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

• This is a gospel community.
• It was created by the Gospel - in this case Peter's preaching (Acts 2:14-40).  
• It was being nourished by the Gospel - in this case by the community devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42).
• But, far from only being a community with their noses in the Bible, they were a community that embodied the the Gospel - making it visible to the world what it would look like if the Gospel drove a community.
• What would your community look like if it was driven not by religion or irreligion - but by the self-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ?      

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I am the reason my community doesn't care for the weak and the vulnerable, the outsider and the poor.  It is because of my self-centerednes that I can't make your self-giving visible.  Would you flood my heart with your Word and your Spirit to enable me and my community to embody your Gospel.  Amen 

Rev. Kruger de Kock

London

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