Acts 2
This passages this week will be about the church. We begin with Acts 2 which tells the story of the birth of the church. The church begins with the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the believers. Jesus had given them instructions to go to Jerusalem to pray and wait. On the day of Pentecost, while they are together, the Holy Spirit comes and empowers them. A huge crowd gathers, Peter preaches a sermon that invites individuals to repent and be baptized. Three thousand turn to Christ that day. These new believers begin meeting every day with the disciples, who are now apostles, to be taught, pray and break bread together.
It is hard for me to imagine the world without Christianity. What would your life be like if you did not believe?
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I actually read some of this passage earlier today for another study I am a part of and consequently started thinking about how my life would be different were I not a Christian.
ReplyDeleteI realized that being a Christian does not mean that things will always be easy-we are actually told we will suffer, but that our reward will be greater than anything we could imagine on earth. Just because I believe in Christ, doesn't mean He will come down and take away any hurt or pain that may come my way. Because I believe, though, He is there to guide me through it. I was thinking about tough times that I have been through, that I am going through, and how it would have been had I not known Christ. I tried to imagine what it would be like if I went through the same experiences as a non-believer.
My first thought was darkness. To me, Christ is the guiding light. Sometimes it appears more brightly than others, but it is always there should I lose my focus. He is the light at the end of the tunnel, both literally and figuratively. Literally, I look forward to Sunday morning worship (really), so it is a way for me to make it through a busy, stressful week. Figuratively, when I am going through a hard time, or am confused about a situation, I tell myself that it is part of God's plan and that I will eventually find purpose and meaning.
I would feel lost and confused, I would probably be much less grounded. I think I would find myself filling my life with other things, worldly things, just to find that I still felt empty or unsatisfied.
Being a Christian does not mean that I never have sinful thoughts, of want or malice- I have them more than I should, probably. If I didn't believe I think that I would be consumed by these thoughts in a much higher intensity. I think that every bad, painful or negative thing I feel as a believer would just be multiplied if I were a non-believer. I would notice the pain, but never fully experience the joy that comes when you believe.