This Stuff is GOOD

I have been reading through Acts (now I'm into Romans) with the perspecive of learning how the early church started and how they set out to fulfill the Great Commission (on the direct curtails of Jesus proclaiming it to them).

I've read this book several times in the past, but have recently been reading in The Message translation for a paraphrased view. It has been awesome and completely inspiring.

Did you know that right after Jesus gave that commandment, that the "church" (or Believers in Jesus) sold ALL THEY HAD...their land, their homes, their goods...and pooled all of the money together for Peter (and other first disciples of Jesus) to distribute out amongst the church according to NEED?? And then they used the rest of the money to aid in their efforts of spreading the Gospel to all nations??
Seriously?

I wonder how many people were reluctant to do such a radical thing because they viewed their "Stuff" as belonging to them...or they not dare give their things up because, after all, they had worked hard for those things and deserved them...

Acts actually talks of only 2 such people: a husband and wife. They sold their land and goods like the rest, but only gave the church a portion of what they made - not all of it. Peter called them out to repent and come clean, but they still were dishonest. And you know what happened, the Lord struck them both dead.

That's pretty radical.

I can't help but think of if our current church...my current church...did the same. What f every member who was serious about being a disciple of Jesus and spreading His name among the nations did the same?
What if I were to completely entrust the Elders of our church with EVERYTHING God has blessed me and my family with, to then distribute to people what they needed, and use the rest to further the Kingdom...

Do I trust God that much? Do I believe that advancing the Kingdom of God (taking the last words of Jesus seriously) is in fact a serious matter?

Would I be willing to throw away the mantra of "But we've worked so hard for this! My husband puts in so many hours, so we deserve a better ______!"

I wonder if I would have trusted Peter's guidance of the Holy Spirit to truly decipher what our family "needed"...

In conjunction with reading through Acts, I've also started reading "Multiply" by Chan/Platt.
At MultiplyMovement.com, you can read the entire book for FREE, watch the corresponding videos for FREE, get leader info to do in small groups for FREE...it's pretty awesome to see 2 men not concerned about the commercial aspects and revenue of sharing their giftings, but truly concerned with making disciples.

There's some pretty good stuff on that page. Sometimes I feel like I'm almost drowning in questions and prayers and I try and wade through some of Jesus' teachings on what it means to follow Him...but it's so incredibly addicting.

I have had a crazy number of GOOD conversations with my neighbor recently over a lot of these things. We haven't really hung out in a while and just spending some time with her recently has blown me away how much both of us have changed in the past few years...how God has gotten an absolute grip of both our hearts on these matters. Such a joy to talk about all these things and what God's been revealing and learning from each other...in my experience, those that agree with these radical teachings of Jesus are few.

Y'all, yesterday I sat with a very small group of women and got educated on the Muslim religion from an international who was raised Muslim. While she was sharing about the Muslim faith, I was overcome with "wow - Satan has such a GRIP in that belief system" and it almost felt impossible to ever break through such barriers. I mean, we're talking the wife is allowed (legally) to be murdered for leaving the Muslim faith...in this day and age!

But then...then came Sunday...then this girl shared her testimony, how God revealed Himself to her...how some German missionaries brought Jesus to her village one day...how she became a FOLLOWER of Jesus even though her parents disowned her for converting.
And now she is married, living among the people in Turkey (she is going back within the year), sharing JEsus and starting churches.
Isn't that amazing what our God can do??!!!!!

So check out MultiplyMovement. The intro video is awesome and short.
Check out Acts.
Would love to hear your thoughts.