Joy and Generosity

Meditate: Acts 2:46

I don’t know about your experience but in mine it’s no big deal to find people who can tolerate one another long enough to slurp down a meal. It’s something else altogether to find folks who can do it with “glad and sincere hearts.” (NIV)

From the different translations of this sentence, a sense of celebration comes out. Not an outright party but a “hey, we’re really glad y’all are here” kind of lightness and hospitality.

This is pretty amazing when I take into account that this Church wasn’t just your typical home group. Remember they had over 3,000 people in the Church already. There’s not really anything said about the logistics of this; whether this is two’s and three’s or 50’s and 100’s we don’t know.

Another thing that’s challenging is the image here of what the group dynamics folks call “assimilation.” Remember that “over 3,000″ number I just threw out? We know that because of the reference in the previous paragraph that “about 3,000″ were believed and were baptized on that first day. These “hearts” were “glad and sincere” enough to absorb this influx in genuine fellowship. Present company excepted of course, but if this happened in many churches we’d spend all our time sizing one another up to figure out who the “newbies” were.

In my mind, I hear the voices of pastors I heard long ago who insisted that if you truly loved God, you’d be pretty excited about His family, the Church. And, they went on, if your heart wasn’t in spending time with the family maybe it’s because you’re not a part of it.

I don’t know that I’d totally agree with that but I do know this. My wife is enough to bring my mother-in-law and I together. Any one who’s survived boot camp seems to be able to find plenty to talk about with a fellow veteran. An American can hear an American accent on a street in a foreign country and that common citizenship is often enough reason to talk on a level you’d never reach on a city bus.

And if all that’s enough, then maybe we Jesus followers, we fellow adoptees of the Lord Almighty, ought to be able to muster “glad and sincere hearts” in one another’s company.

• Tell us how you really feel. How often do glad and sincere apply to my attitude about fellowship?
• Is my “heart” generally “glad and sincere” or do I save that for certain people only?

Pray:
Praise: You are the Lord, the Almighty, the Everlasting Father.
Confess: I’m not always glad or sincere in the presence of Your people.
Thank: You have given us Your family to love, serve and watch over us.
Ask: Fill my heart with Your love for Your family.

Digging Deeper: Psalm 133

Posted by email from Ferndale Tonight (posterous)