Acts: Christians in Community, continued

Hi Everyone

Thanks for a lively discussion last Sunday.

On October 11 we engaged our four key questions, relative to the description of communal life in the first Apostolic "church". The questions are:

1. What does this passage tell me about me?
2. What does this passage tell me about God?
3. What does this passage tell me about my relationship with God?
4. What will I do?

We covered a lot of good ground in our conversation, ranging from feelings of new awareness of the role and presence of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives, and as a vital factor in effective leadership. Much of our discussion focused on the disturbing fate of Ananias and Sapphira, who, apparently, were killed by God for deceiving the Holy Spirit. This evoked musings about what kind of God the first Jewish Christians were expecting, and experiencing -- feeling, from our point of view, very "Old Testament" in character -- a holy God who is strict and, well, dangerous! Yet at the same time we have an understanding, from the text, that these first Christians enjoyed a wonderful fellowship, an exciting kind of awe, and an enhanced feeling of safety.

It seemed, in general, that the issue at hand is not what we do with our wealth, but how we are in relationship with God, and how that affects our choices -- knowing that we, too, have the freedom to act with or against God's will for us. Several folks shared meaningful personal stories about these kinds of choices.

For next week, please review chapters 3 & 4, and begin reading ahead to capture the sense of flow of events as the church grows and begins to face organizational challenges.

We appreciate you all! Have a great week & hope to see you Sunday, October 18 at 10:00 a.m. in the Stephen Ministry classroom.