| Now a Christian |
|
A question that is often asked by people who feel they are now a Christian is this: “Is it possible to be a follower of Jesus by yourself, without having to go to church?” And the answer is unequivocally yes. No question! But if you choose to do that, you risk losing nearly all the good things that an active relationship with God can bring. After Luke wrote a biography of Jesus, he went on to compile a sequel about what his followers did after his resurrection. He wrote that this is what they decided to do about their new-found faith: “(The followers of Jesus) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” From Acts 2 The first thing to notice is that the entire experience of being together as Christians was full of excitement and joy. More than that, they described it as awesome! These are the things that featured in being together as Christians that could not have happened individually: • Eating meals together; • Welcoming each other into their homes; • Learning from their leaders (called apostles) what the way of Jesus should mean in practice; • Praying for their shared concerns; • Praising God; • Seeing God do things that they could only describe as miraculous; • Getting rid of excess possessions so that the money could be used for those who were poor; • Trusting each other that when a need arose, help would be at hand. This sounds so effortlessly appealing that you imagine that everyone in the town would want to join such a group. Actually, hundreds did! There is absolutely no reason why a cluster of Christians (whether they call themselves a church, a community or just a group) should not experience every single one of those joyful benefits of being people of faith. To be honest, though, many people’s experience of church is that it is a bit boring. Or at least, not the kind of activity that they would normally feel at home in. The best advice is to keep looking for Christian friends with whom you can meet supportively, because there are definitely Christians near you who want and need the same things that you want and need. When you find them, you will be good for each other. Enjoy! But these are places where you will only receive if you start to give. So you may have to put up with some features that are not ideal in exchange for all the good that you are going to receive. Now A Christian is a free email course for new Christians. Sign up to get an email like this every day for five weeks. You can also share your own thoughts and read about the experiences of others. www.nowachristian.org |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
