‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’ Acts 2: 42
When reading this verse I find it helpful to evaluate my life and the life of St Saviour’s. Now I understand times have changed and people don’t have the time to meet daily, etc., but one thing that we can evaluate is our attitude.
The word devoted means ‘to be very loyal and giving yourself over to …’ If we put that into the context of the apostles’ teaching, we need to consider how much we read the Bible and act upon it. It is easy to turn up on a Sunday morning, listen to a talk, and go home to live our lives for the rest of the week. But this is not what being a part of the church is about. ‘Devoting’ doesn’t mean one day a week, it means every day. Do we take time out of our busy lives to spend with God, digest his word, and act upon it? The book about the early church is called ‘Acts’, because the church acted. (It is a good thing they did, otherwise we wouldn’t know God today.) The church is not a building, but the people.
Are we willing to act? We often say we are too busy, but talking to God is easier than talking to anyone. He is always there, we don’t have to even dial a phone. We can talk when walking, eating, driving, or doing any other daily activity. I have up in my office a piece of paper that just says ‘PRAY’ because even working for a church, I sometimes forget.
With Easter coming up it is a great time to really think about this verse and how we can become more like the early church. They were seeing people come to know God daily. How long does it take us to see up to 10 people come to know God? Jesus died for us so that we can have eternal life with God. This should be something we want to share with others as God does. Just imagine if someone hadn’t shared the gospel with you. We don’t want to take opportunities away from others.
Especially our young people. We could always do with more volunteers. Feel free to join the team after Easter. A big thank you though to the few volunteers we do have, it is very much appreciated.
Nathan Bendell, youth minister
