Are You On Spiritual Cruise Control?

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25, NIV

What a great scripture to discuss the importance of community! A thorough reading of this passage highlighted one word for me—that word is “spur.” That doesn’t sound like a comfortable action to me! The very definition of “spur” describes a sharp object that is nudged into the side of a horse to encourage it to go faster. But if we were honest with each other, we’d agree that sometime we need a nudge or two to be encouraged to go faster and further with Christ.

As followers of Christ, we have a responsibility to go faster and further but if we are honest, we don’t always want to. It’s too easy to become complacent and settle (even unknowingly) into a sort of spiritual cruise control. One way we can go faster is by surrounding ourselves with others who will love us enough to push and tell us hard things that build us up. The truth is, real spiritual growth involves pushing the accelerator at times, and at other times putting on the brakes. Community gives us me feedback on my “driving.” I have always thought it to be wise to have friends who love me BUT love Jesus more.

As the author of Hebrews tells us, we need to continue meeting and encouraging each other “all the more as you see the Day approaching.” That is to say, as the world breaks down around us, we have ever more reason for Christian community to surround us. Let us receive this charge and not take it lightly. Ask God to bless you with people that will spur you on to become more like Him and to help you keep your hand off the cruise control.

Brett Coates, Dir. of Church Relations

WHAT IS “A DAILY DEVOTION?”

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common.” (Acts 2:42-44)

When you think of the phrase “daily devotion,” what comes to mind? A “quiet time,” sitting alone privately with God early in the morning and/or late at night? Is it one of those spiritual disciplines that we know we should be doing, yet most of us don’t? Indeed regular private encounters with God are vital for spiritual nourishment, but should we consider “daily devotion” as merely an individualistic experience with God?

Based on Acts 2:42-44, a community’s “daily devotion” can be observed by the following four key elements: 1) hearing the Word of God, 2) having fellowship with other Christians, 3) sharing meals in remembrance of Jesus (that is, the sacrament of “Communion”), and 4) praying together with other believers. Our private “daily devotion” cannot rise above the level of our corporate “daily devotion”—and the opposite is true as well. Daily devotions are both an individual and a group endeavor.

What happens among a community where “daily devotion” is happening? The Bible tells us that everyone feels a “sense of awe” (v43), “many wonders and signs take place” (v43), and the members have “all things in common” (v44). Signs and wonders cannot be legislated into existence any more than sharing material possessions can be forced. These Spirit-produced miracles occur as the result of “daily devotion” to the Word of God, fellowship with the body of Christ, communion, and prayer.

What does Regent University need in order for “daily devotion” to occur among our beloved community? Have you devoted yourself both individually and corporately today?

Submitted by Darren Shearer, M.A. Candidate, School of Divinity

Community - A Gospel Reality

“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” – Acts 4.32-35 ESV

In the midst of the world we live in, we are all looking for some sort of place of connection. Whether we realize it or not, we center our lives around connecting. We believe if we can find the right people, then we will be able to create an environment in which we will thrive beyond our wildest imagination. Just consider this: We join gyms & athletic leagues, pledge fraternity/sorority, attend church, frequent book clubs, sculpt our Facebook pages. We just want a place to belong. However, we rarely think that these things will work out. We quit the gym, pull our hamstring, graduate college, church hop - all because we rarely believe that community is a reality. It is just some idealistic human goal.

We might try to find some sort of assistance in Scripture to discover community and we get descriptions such as Acts 2.42-47, where this glorious community is founded upon the teaching of Christ and is roofed by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Did I mention that everyone shared in everything? That community is the “ideal” house we want, where “your stuff” that I covet becomes mine through the miracle of Christian generosity. But in the end, perhaps we are still reticent to believe this is really possible? Was it only possible for them and not us? And yet, this idealistic picture is in our Bible, causing us to wonder….

In Acts 4.32-35, we hear an echo of Acts 2.42-47, where “all the believers” were: unified in heart and mind, sharing everything, testifying of Jesus’ resurrection, God’s grace upon them, and no one was needy in any way. I easily tend to write off this passage as I did with Acts 2, however, I found something that encouraged me greatly within it. There was a different point of centricity for this community that I failed to realize before. Verse 33 highlighted that this community found its core in Christ and his ability to connect lives, not our attempts to formulate life together.

One can find many cultural insights here, whether the writer of Acts is highlighting the Greek ideal of friendship where friends are “one soul dwelling in two bodies” (Aristotle). Or perhaps the Hebrew ideal of how true shalom (fullness) is occurring due to obedience to God, there would be none in need (Deut. 15.4f). But as I read this passage, the transcendent idea is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it says, “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all” (v.33). That power makes the impossible possible!

I know that we live in a world that seems to be full of negativity and criticism, often thwarting things we see in Scripture as rosy religious idealism. But what I see in this passage is that community “is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 30). Skepticism melts in the face of the apostles’ life of generous, gracious living created not by our ability to hold people together but by the gospel of Christ alone. When we face an ideal in Scripture that seems unattainable, begin to testify of Jesus Christ and watch how grace via His Spirit will take an ideal and create a reality. “For by Him, all things were created…and in Him all things hold together” (Col.1.15-17).

Submitted by Jason Peaks, M.Div. student, School of Divinity.