Do you ever feel like you are unimportant? Worthless? That everyone else has a much greater calling than you do? In Acts, we read how the church was growing so large that the apostles could no longer handle everything that needed doing. They ended up having 7 others come alongside them to help them so that they could contribute to studying and preaching. The people who joined them were in charge of making sure things ran smoothly and that everyone was getting their needs met. It could seem like the apostles' job was the most important, but as I read this I realize that wasn't the case. Acts 6:7 starts with the word "so". That tells us that what is coming next is the effect of what happened before. It says, "so God's message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased...". We all have a part to play. There is not a single gift that God has given you that is wasted in the body of Christ. You NEED to use your gift to help increase the body of believers. Not to necessarily grow a specific church, but to bring people life through Christ! If God has gifted you to encourage- encourage. If God has gifted you to help- help. If God has given you a passion to pray- pray without ceasing. Every single thing we do should be about bringing people closer to Jesus. We aren't working just to put on a show or feel important. We are doing our part to show people the love of Jesus and that love will draw them to Him.
Right or Righteous?
As we read through the New Testament it is so easy to look at the Pharisees and judge how manipulative and self-righteous they were. It seems like all they did was follow Jesus around trying to trap and discredit him. I read about them and think of how angry they must have always felt and how sad their lives must have been. As quick and easy as it is to judge them I can look around at our world today and realize that there are so many similarities- especially in the Church. God's goal was for the Jews then, and the Christians now, to focus on Him and have a right relationship with Him. As Christians, our focus should never be so set on being right that we forget to be righteous. The Pharisees were so focused on proving that they were right and Jesus was wrong that their focus was completely off of the God they claimed to serve and completely on themselves. They no longer cared what the truth was, they only cared about their interpretation of the truth, and they would do, believe, a...
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