Let's not change what has always worked. Acts: 2: 42-47.

By

Pastor Marco A.

In the NTV version of the Bible we find a title that says “ Believers form a community”, in one way or another all Christians who are born again are part of a community of faith, we attend a building, a local etc. Most belong to an X or Y denomination, but what worries us most is that we have stopped doing what our brothers in the early church practiced, you practice, simple disciplines that were very successful and the most important thing was that the church grew.

First of all, we are told in V 42 that all believers dedicated themselves to the teachings of the apostles, today very few people want to study the Bible in their faith communities, and even fewer still want to dedicate themselves to studying exegesis and hermeneutics, the ignorance that is in the basic doctrines of our faith is incredible, we all have our theological conclusions without even knowing that it is exegesis and hermeneutics , the Bible invites us in 1 Corinthians 14, to sing with the understanding, to pray with understanding, understanding based on biblical doctrines, something that we lack today.

V 42 also tells us that believers had fraternal communion and participated together in meals including the Lord's Supper and prayer, how starved our communities of faith are in these things, especially in prayer, in our worship services. prayer to the majority very few people attend, when I ask the brothers how their prayer lives are, the majority lower their faces, our prayer times are 5, 10, 15 minutes, and that makes us happy.

V 43 tells us that through these practices there was a reverent fear in this community of faith, many miraculous signs and wonders were performed , we know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, we know that He continues to perform miracles and healings, But many times we see them in our faith communities, if a person in a wheelchair enters our congregations today, how many people would pray for him or her, how many of us stop on the street to pray for those in need and sick, however in chapter three of Acts, Peter and John are told to give the lame the only thing that had "power of the Holy Spirit", the same that we have and we prefer to keep it to ourselves.

The vrs 44, 45, 46, tell us that there was any kind of selfishness among believers of this community of faith, we are told that they shared everything, even sold their possessions and shared with those who had less, shared their meals with great joy and generosity , as the word of God says those who have more should bless those who have less, today sad to see the selfishness among brothers, we no longer laugh with those who laugh, we no longer cry with those who cry, we have become callous.

This community of faith held services every day, and meeting every day and sharing a service is unthinkable, we are used to meeting only on Sundays and then if I saw you I do not remember, in V 47, these brothers of Acts They spent all the time praising God and enjoying the good will of the people, and the most beautiful thing is transmitted to us at the end of the verse “and every day the Lord added to that Christian community those who were being saved.

The formula is simple, let us submit to the Lord , let us be obedient to our God, let us love, pray, study, we are simple sowers in the Kingdom of God, it is he who will add to the saved, it is his work, we do our work.

The important thing is that we have time to act as the early church acted, we can and we need to change, let us use God, that God continues to bless our lives.