Luke’s description of the Church in Acts is 2,000 years old. That said, the model for a Christian community Luke lays out in this short passage is just as relevant today as it was so long ago. If the Church wants to live out the call as a community of believers, then it ought to examine Luke’s words in Acts 2:42-47.
This week there will not be a Next Steps document.
Sometimes it feels like we are stuck in a rut, or even at a dead end. The people with Joshua had felt it several times before. At the edge of the Red Sea, when food ran low, when what direction to go was fuzzy. In each instance God moved, God worked, God did something in and around them to show and remind them of his faithfulness. What are our stories that we can look back on and remind one another about how we have seen God at work?
Grit, doing hard things, perseverance are words that I hear often. What about when it gets challenging, when the pressure is on and when emotions run high? Rahab models a faith in God, that believes who God will be today is connected to who God has been before. That while faith still is hard, we ground it in who we know God to be, and trust what he will do.
What does it look like to be strong? There are lots of images of strength we know from our families, books, and our world. As Joshua steps into a major leadership role, God charges him to be strong, and to live with courage. The passage also names and qualifies that the kind of strength that Joshua is being invited to is not one that comes from within him, but relies on God, and grounds itself in his word.