If, as a church today, we are living out a comfortable and easy Christianity—if the practice of our faith presents us with no challenge or sacrifice, no discomfort or opposition—perhaps it is because the grace we are living by is a cheap grace.
All tagged Acts
If, as a church today, we are living out a comfortable and easy Christianity—if the practice of our faith presents us with no challenge or sacrifice, no discomfort or opposition—perhaps it is because the grace we are living by is a cheap grace.
Individually, we are only a grain of salt, and a grain of salt by itself is not very useful. It doesn't season anything. It doesn't preserve anything. Salt must be used in handfuls to fulfill its function. The church is the salt of the earth as a community, and therefore, it must preach the gospel as a community.
Let us pray that God sends Barnabases to our churches! Let us pray that He will make some of us “sons of encouragement”! The need couldn’t be greater today!
When God connects saints and sinners, it is often the saint he is moving. Philip. Ananias. Peter. Sometimes he connects the seeker. The Ethiopian. Saul. Cornelius. Sometimes the person who at least on the surface has no God-interest.
Throughout the narrative, the author pauses the plot to report on the progress and growth of the church, which becomes a proclamation of victory for the gospel of Christ. Despite the persecutions, false accusations and abuses suffered, the Christian movement was unstoppable.