Acts 14-15 To move man, through God, by prayer alone.

November 18th, Acts 14-15

       What are we calling people to? How fast do they have to do and believe what we do and believe? It was a question for the early church, it's always been a question for missionaries and more than ever it is a question for the church here in America.
       Several years ago we were on a mission trip to a small village in Belize. After a couple of trips, a lot of conversations with people, some of our church people came to the conclusion that "these people need to stop drinking, doing drugs, having children out of wedlock, maintain jobs, and treat each other with decency."
       In today's passage it speaks about this issue of circumcision. Jews make up the early church in mass. They want to carry over some of their beliefs into this new thing. "They gotta do …
      In our day we put qualifiers on new believers. They gotta be against abortion, believe in a young earth, vote Republican etc, etc, etc. After many good conversations with people, if we have to convert people's thinking on all these issues before they become Christians…they will just not become Christians. A guy in the village in Belize…"The pastor told me I had to leave church because I didn't wear shoes. Go home and come back with shoes on…I went home…I never went back to church."
       Jesus Christ changes people. It's not our job to change people. Be careful that the qualifiers we use for "Christianness" are even valid. Some are some are not.  It's our job to get people to respond to the love of God with love that comes from God. Invite people to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. To invite them to read and interact with God's word. As our hearts change, our lives will change.
       Finally, when the Spirit is convicting, there is power to walk in newness. Remember an old quote by Hudson Taylor… "To move man, through God, by prayer alone." God's better than me at making any of this happen. To God be the glory great things he has done.