Inspirational Sunday

"All the believers were united in heart and mind."

Acts 4:32

Rae's Thought: This is a previous post. I'm going to focus on lessons 21st century Christians can learn from 1st century Christians.

Lesson #1: Believers should be united in heart and mind. Somewhere between the first century and now, Christians became divided over the legalities (how to worship God, church laws, what should be worn, etc) of Christianity. Now, we have several groups separated - and sometimes even warring - with each other. But it wasn't always like this. There was a time, in the infant stage of Christianity, when believers were just that...believers.

Christianity was birthed during the first century. At that time, the death/resurrection of Jesus was fresh on believers' minds. Some believed because they witnessed the events first-hand, while others became believers simply because they heard and chose to believe. Either way, the Bible says they were "united in heart and mind." There were no Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. They were just Christians - those who believed in the resurrected Savior, the Son of God. They may have disagreed with each other on certain things, but still they were united.

We, as twenty-first century believers, must become united. Sometimes we get so stuck on whose way is better, on who's the better believer, that we forget that it isn't about us, but about God. When we focus on the differences, not only do we become divided, but we also take the focus off of God and put it on us.

The Bible later tells us that "God's great blessing was upon them all" (Acts 4:33). Do you know how much more God would bless us if we move our focus of off us and put it on Him? Do you know how big of an impact we can have on this world if we were united in heart and mind. We live in a dark world, thirsty and desperate for light. WE can be that light. But first, we need to get over our differences and realize that, under all the legalities, we're all believers who love and believe in Jesus, the Son of God and the resurrected Savior.