Year of the Bible: Part Ten of TwelveSample

God, the Box-Breaker

The early days of church growth must have been mind-blowing times! While many amazing things were taking place, the Jewish Christians had to confront a challenging thought: God wanted the Gentiles (non-Jews) to join His family by the same grace the Jews had entered.

Some Christian Jews still believed in adding the law to their Christianity; they confronted Peter about taking the gospel of Jesus to an unclean people (non-ethnic Jews). God got their attention and called them forward to a new revelation: God's desire was for His church to include people from every tribe, nation, and language.

Like those ultra-religious (rule-worshipping) Christians from the early church, we, too, draw boxes and make lists of which kinds of people can come in and who should be on the outside. We assume that because we already have Jesus, we're special or hand-selected by God, and "those people" who have yet to meet Jesus are too different and, therefore, not welcome inside the family of God.

Remember, God is the God of the "all" and "every!" All who call on His name will be saved and can come into His family and receive the power to become more like Christ.

Question: Are you quick to decide who fits in your church community and who doesn't?

Prayer: Ask God to soften your heart toward those with different backgrounds. Ask Him to open your eyes to see the community He is growing and invite him to "pour out His spirit on all flesh" (Acts 2:17).

Go Deeper: Do you believe that a person is saved and then transformed, or do you think they should first commit to fixing their life and then join Jesus' family?