When the Twenty-First Century Church Acts Like the First Century Church

I'm writing today from Colorado Springs, where I'm attending a meeting at a well-known international ministry. 

Most of us on the national Physician's Resource Council have been meeting together twice a year for a decade or more. Over the course of those years, we've become family.

A young physician visited with us yesterday. Last night, he made a comment that, in a way, summed up what we do. In addition to learning more about the ministry and wrestling with the most difficult issues in medicine to help with ministry position statements, he said, "You do a lot of two things: Eat and pray." 

We all laughed, but, in a way, it's true. We have three meals a day with snacks mid-morning and mid-afternoon. It's not more food than usual, but we sit down to eat these meals around tables lined with people we love, and that's unusual. For physicians, a seated meal that won't be interrupted is a luxury. 

He's right about the praying part, too. Our meetings begin on Thursday. We always start that day with a thirty-minute devotional, followed by an hour-long prayer time. After every speaker has finished their presentation, we pray for them. 

At the end of the day, we pause to be sure that each person's most pressing needs have been mentioned, and stop to pray for those needs, too.

The more I've attended these meetings, the more I've realized how much like the first century church they are. 

"And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe..." Acts 2:42-43 nasb

When I hear all that's being accomplished through this ministry, I do feel a sense of awe. This is the way the bride of Christ is supposed to function, and it's beautiful. 

If we're to be all Jesus intended, we'll spend time together, gather around the table for meals, share our burdens, pray big for our needs. We won't do it once in a while. We'll do it regularly. 

That's why mid-week "family night suppers" with our church families are so important. It's why church small groups that meet regularly are encouraged.

When the 21st century church steps away from our busy lives to function as the first century church did, things will change. We'll share each other's burdens. No one will struggle alone. We'll pray more. Eat together more. Love more. 

When we spend quality time together, we'll gain more than good meals and lots of prayer time. We'll also become full of love and unity for one another.

If we feel isolated, disconnected, and alone, perhaps we need to reconnect with the body of Christ and do what the first century church did. "Continually devoting themselves..." 

Today, why not invite a fellow believer to share a meal. Spend some time together. Share your hope, dreams, concerns. Pray for each other. 

Be intentional about being the church and watch with anticipation. A sense of awe over all God does is sure to follow. 

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In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: Choosing a Lifestyle of Love Even When We Don't Want to Risk It 

If you feel led to partner with this ministry (US, Jordan, the digital world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 

Or you can mail your check or money order to: Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line.

#Jesus

Adding the Prayer on Top

My pastor tends to preach in "series". Recently, we had a series on the "I AM" statements of Christ. That was followed by a series titled "I am Hope Church", designed to help us understand who we are as the church, the body of Christ. 

Every week, Pastor Scooter has issued a challenge. If you accepted and performed the challenge, you could earn a t-shirt. (We don't have a works-based faith, but we do have works-based t-shirts.) The first week, the challenge was to share your testimony with someone inside the church and with someone outside the church. 

I was already scheduled to speak at a nearby church, so that one was easy for me. At Wednesday night Bible study, we had an opportunity to share our testimony "inside". I hopped up, shared, and earned my t-shirt right off. (Yes. I have a long history as an overachiever.)

There have been several challenges. One week, the challenge was to do something nice for someone and pair it with asking, "How can I pray for you?" I was out that Sunday, so I missed the sermon, but I didn't miss the challenge. 

A young man helped me by doing something I didn't know how to do for myself. When we finished discussing it, he asked how he could pray for me. I told him. I asked how I could pray for him. We prayed.

All day, I thought about how sweet he was. How blessed I felt when he prayed for me. How it was so much more like the church Christ intended.

When I do a "good deed", I (in a way) use my own strength and resources. When I pray, I enlist the strength and resources of God Himself, and that's infinitely better than anything I have.

This week, why not accept the Pastor Scooter Challenge for yourself. Find a need and meet it, then ask how you can pray for the person you've helped. Don't just ask how you can pray. Pray. Right then.

It's like the icing on the cake. The sweetest part of all.

"Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." James 5:16 nasb
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In case you missed it, here's the link to yesterday's post: The Baptism Excitement

Here's the link to the prayer guide: The Prayer List 

Here's the link to my Global Outreach page: Leanna Hollis MD

#helpinghand #pray

The Ice Cream Church

"We're gonna make homemade ice cream this afternoon," my friends told me after Sunday School. "Would you and Sam like to come have some?" 

"Yes, we would," I told them. Sam loves ice cream. If I were as thin as he is, I'd eat ice cream every day. Just like he does. I wouldn't be as thin as he is for long, though.

Over the course of the afternoon, the ice cream plan evolved. We'd combine our lunch leftovers and have dinner together, too. 

Sam watched as I put the peas and pork into transportable containers. He looked confused.

"If we're eating ice cream at 6:00, how're we gonna make it to church on time?" 

"We don't usually have a service on Sunday night, Sam. This is what we'll do instead of a church service in the building."

"Ice cream is church?" Sam looked confused.

"In a way. In the first century, the churches met in homes. They loved each other and cared for each other in a way that stunned the world. It drew people to Jesus. 

Sometimes, we gather in homes and have a meal together just like they did. We'll share what God has done and is doing. We might not have a devotional talk, but it's still church, because we're the church."

"I think I'm gonna like ice-cream church." He grinned.

Ice-cream church. I laughed, but he was right. 

That evening, we ate our combined dinner, then sat around the table with bowls of ice cream. We shared our lives and our victories, our concerns and our triumphs. It was the church being the church, and it was a beautiful thing.

It had been a long, hard week. I'd volunteered at Global Outreach every morning last week. I'd finished Hosea in the afternoon. The emotion of the weekend's protests had combined with the already overwhelming week, and I was drained. Happy with what God had done, but drained. 

I left ice-cream church in a better frame of mind. I was still tired, but I'd shared my load with friends who understood it, and they'd done the same. All our loads had been lightened a bit.

As the body of Christ, we're not just parts of the body, we're family. When we function as a family, we're at our best. Last night, I was reminded of that all over again.

As we begin this new week, let's do the things the early church did. Let's stop in the midst of our busy lives long enough to share a meal and pray together with at least a few members of our family of faith. Let's do it with glad and sincere hearts, just like those first followers did. 

A meal together. It's such a simple thing, but God used it in a powerful way to draw people to Him more than 2,000 years ago. I think He might use it again. Let's give it a try. 

"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... 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 2:42-43, 46-47 NIV
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In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: Tupelo Thankful

Here's the link to the world-wide prayer guide: The Prayer List 

photo courtesy of freeimages.com

#church #icecreamchurch #cellgroup 

Unfaithful Servant: Salt and Light and Logs and Motes

But if that slave says in his heart, 'My master will be a long time in coming,' and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few." Luke 12: 45-48 NASB

We began our study of the unfaithful servant yesterday. If you missed it, I hope you'll follow the link (it opens in a new tab) and read it.

I expected to write today about the slave who knew his master's will and didn't do it. In a way, that's exactly what I'm writing about. In a way, I'm writing about the unfaithful servant who beats the other people. I hesitate, because I'm as guilty as anyone else of seeing motes in others' eyes while ignoring the log in my own, but this is a subject that has bothered me for months. It's so loud in my head that it must be written. 

We are talking today about the WORDS we choose to use. 

My life is chock-full of words because my days are spent writing and editing, correcting the wrong words and making them right. I was focused on words long before I started writing full-time, though. In my growing up years, my mother must have told me a thousand times, "You don't have to say everything that comes into your mind." (Well, maybe not those exact words, but that's what she meant.) I understand the importance of words and the difficulty with choosing good ones.

It has taken me a lifetime to get a filter on my mouth, and I'm the first one to say I'm not perfect with it, despite my effort. With that said, here we go.

Jesus called me (us) to be salt and light. He did not call me to rub a handful of salt into a wound.

I am called to be the amount of saltiness that adds flavor to food, not the amount that makes it impossible to swallow.  If my words spew forth and are filled with venom (in the name of "truth"), I am not adding flavor to the world around me. I am making my faith impossible to swallow.

I am to be light, but the warm light of a lamp that draws people in the darkness to Christ. I am not called to be a spotlight boring into the eyes of the unbeliever to the point that they are blinded by the glare. I am called to be a lamp, not a laser. 

I recently drove to a meeting late in the evening. When I rounded a curve, the sun was shining directly into my eyes. It was so bright that I was temporarily blinded and had to stop lest I run into a fence that was directly ahead of me. Progress toward the goal was completely halted by the glare. It didn't draw me to my destination. It prevented me from moving toward it.

As a disciple of Christ, I am called to obey the Word of God and to live righteously. I am called to share the Good News of a risen Savior with those who don't know Him. Christ died for me while I was a sinner, and He died for those who are also still sinners (which I am, t00).

How can people obey Christ if they do not know Him? Why would I expect the world to obey Him? Yes, Jonah preached a hard word to Nineveh and the people repented. His very effective prophetic proclamation was made only after a radical life-changing encounter with the Most High God had left him visibly changed. 

 If I want to be a modern-day Jonah to the world around me, I need to begin by having a life-altering encounter with God that leaves me so changed that all can see it.  I also need to remember the kind of message Jonah gave. He didn't spew venom. Not once did he say, "Your sin makes me sick." Jonah simply stated the truth. "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."

When I attack the world for acting like the world, but do not address the sin in my own life, in my own church, I appear not only hypocritical (which I am) but also foolish.

Can't I see the log in my own eye? 

Every mote looks like a log when it's in someone else's eye. Seeing a mote in someone else's eye does not mean I am without a log or two in my own eye.

Please don't misunderstand me. I am dedicated to truth, but I need to understand and live with all the truth. 

It is past time for the body of Christ to allow our Lord to clean the sin out of our own lives, out of our own churches. 

It is past time to let go of self-righteousness and see that we, like the world, are sinners in need of a redeeming, cleansing, forgiving Savior.

When I say "we", I include myself in that "we". Christ died for me while I was a sinner. He loves me even though I am still a sinner. His Spirit convicts me, presses me when I persist in sin, and draws me back to my Lord when I stray. 

For today, let's ask God to create in us clean hearts and clean mouths, to remove the venom and give us words that honor Him. (Yes, I'm praying that same thing.) Let's pray that the words of our mouths would be acceptable in His sight. 

Let's be the lamp, the flavor-enhancer He's called us to be, demonstrating Christ to the world in a way that is both filled with truth and also irresistible. 

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Our Father, forgive us for "log disease". Help us to see ourselves, our hearts, our words as You see them. Infuse us with the light of Your love and help us to shine in such a way that those who live in darkness are drawn to the light. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Tomorrow's topic is Christ and the constitution. I'm dreading it.

#disciple #JesusChrist #actlikewebelive #getthelogout

A Demon Comes to Church part 8

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet and come out of him!" And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. (Luke 4:35 NASB)

Without doing him any harm. Isn't that an interesting phrase? The word here is not suggesting that the demon had never done the man any harm. It is saying he did no more harm. You might expect an angry, spiteful demon to create some serious havoc as a parting shot, but, at least this time, he did not. Surely it was the presence of Jesus that constrained him and limited the destruction.  

The man was able to begin his newfound faith without interference from the evil one.  What a blessing!  

Today, pray that we and our children would engage in relationship with Christ without further interference from the evil one.  Pray, too, that Christ would both limit and prevent further destruction in the lives of our loved ones so that they can be free to enter into relationship with Our Lord. 

A Demon Comes to Church, part 2

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, (Luke 4:33 NASB)

The story of this demon-possessed man is not included by accident. There are multiple lessons to be drawn from this pasage, but today we will look at the response of the Capernaum congregation. You may remember that the Nazareth congregation was so filled with murderous rage by Jesus's teachings that they tried to throw him off a cliff. The  Capernaum group seems to be of a different mindset. They have a shouting, demon-possessed man in their midst, and apparently no one throws him out, no one tries to quieten him, no one moves against him at all. In a village as small as Capernaum, they certainly knew him, but no one blocked his entrance to the synagogue.

Think about this a minute. How likely is it that a demon-possessed man would even want to go to the synagogue? Undoubtedly, it was previenient grace that drew him there, but it seems that he went to synagogue that day knowing he would be allowed in the meeting. Remember, this was a special day at Synagogue. The miracle-working teacher ( who some said was the Messiah) was the "visiting preacher" that day. As humans do, the people of Capernaum had probably talked about it to their friends and were probably excited and expecting something special. Our inclination would be to impress the visitor and try to "look good" for him. An out-of-control demon-possessed man doesn't really fit with that plan, yet he was there. 

Can it be that they loved the unlovely and welcomed the unruly? I suspect so, or at least this particular unruly man. 

The important point is that, in welcoming him and allowing him to be present when Jesus came, they ushered in the circumstances that led to his healing and redemption. How amazing is that? In welcoming the unruly and unlovely, we can have a part in bringing them to Jesus! 

I often look around my church and wonder why everyone looks just like me. Maybe the building is too big and fancy for the unruly to risk entering. Maybe they aren't sure of a welcome. (I think they would be welcomed, though) The real reason is probably that we are not doing all we could to bring them in. Those of us who live under the Great Commission are supposed to be making disciples (rescuing the perishing), and a part of that requires that we bring them to Jesus and welcome them as we do. 

Today, pray that we have hearts that recognize the need of those around us and eagerly bring them to Jesus, no matter how different or unlovely they are. Pray that we would welcome all who come, just as Jesus welcomed us. Pray too that our children and loved ones will find the body of Christ to be warm and welcoming and that God would send the perfect laborer to bring them back to Christ.