Just
Go: Acts Chapter 5-6 (June 10-June 16)
Day One:
This week we will be covering Acts chapters
5-6. There is literally so much gold
contained within these chapters that I initially had a tough time deciding what
I wanted to write about. The Holy Spirit
came to the rescue and prompted me to dig deeper into the story of Ananias and
Sapphira contained in verses 1-11 of chapter 5.
It’s a sad story but its message is something that must be dealt with if
we are to fully understand what God asks of us in our walk with Christ.
To start, I will give everyone a
short synopsis of the story. Ananias and
Sapphira were a married couple in the early church. They decided to sell a piece of property and
promised to give the entire proceeds to the church. Deceitfully, they violated this promise and
only gave part of the proceeds to the church.
As a result, God in his miraculous power struck the couple dead for
their sin.
Now, this may seem harsh, however,
this unfortunate story shows us how seriously God views commitment and the
fulfillment of promises. Hopefully, this
isn’t a surprise as much as it is a fresh reminder of this idea. After all, we know that God fulfills all of
His promises. Simply put, when we say we
are going to do something we should actually do it. And, when we do those things we should give full
effort — body, mind, and spirit — with the glory of Christ being the central
motivating factor. God doesn’t just want
part of us. He wants all of us!
Unfortunately, here in America we
live in a culture where commitment doesn’t mean very much. When we get bored with our marriage after a
couple of years or find ourselves in financial difficulty we just get a
divorce. College athletes forgo the
commitment they made to their universities to graduate with a degree when the
pros promise them millions to leave early.
We church hop when somebody says something unkind to us or when we don’t
quite connect with the worship music or something is not being offered that the
church up the street is offering. The
list goes on and on. Just so I don’t
lose credibility here, commitment is something I struggle with as well. God is speaking to me and correcting me right
along with you. We are all in this
together.
Ultimately, I believe that there are
two ways to solve this commitment problem.
The first and primary way is to keep Jesus at the center of everything
we do. We must keep in mind that we do
all things for His glory and He is the one we hurt when we break our
commitments. Secondly, I believe that we
must evaluate carefully the commitments we undertake. It’s actually kind of funny how people today
are involved in so many things that many times they can’t truly commit to any
single activity. People are left burnt
out and everything begins to suffer. Maybe
it is because most of the time they had nothing to give in the first
place. It is far better to do one thing
and do it with all that you have than to do many things and do nothing
well. Thank you and go with God and be
at peace.
- Kyle Bogner
To
Memorize:
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving
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