DEVOTION - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012

DEVOTION –  FRIDAY,  FEBRUARY 24, 2012

“Community: What Does It Look Like?”

BY

RON MOORE

Acts 2:46-47 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, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The Crucifixion. The Resurrection. The Ascension. Now the new community is off and running. Today’s passage gives four ingredients for healthy community.

• Meeting Regularly: True believers meet regularly for worship, teaching, prayer, and encouragement. They don’t have to; they get to.
• Fellowship: From the required Old Testament feasts to the events in the life of Jesus that took place at a meal, there is something about coming together around food that enhances fellowship.
• Praise: Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “The more genuine and the deeper our community, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us” (Life Together, 26).
• Growth: Church growth is not about special events and clever advertising. God is looking for genuine, healthy communities to place the lost.

Father, may we not settle for anything less than vibrant, genuine, and healthy communities. May we meet the needs of those around us with Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.