Pastor John Wright

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August 3, 2005

A Respite in the Story: Please Inhale

If the word has spread to me correctly, it might be good to take some time to digest what we have read and discussed together. Rather than trying to "apply" the readings so far, discuss how you have found yourselves in the stories so far. What has surprised you about these people who eventually became known as "Christians"?

Stories that we find ourselve in have a way of shaping us. After my grandfather Wright died, we shared stories about my grandfather. My grandfather was usually a very calm man -- I don't know if I ever saw him angry. But that day my father told me a story of how grandpa Wright had driven his family to his father's farm. Upon return the had a big bowl of apple butter in the middle of the front seat between my grandmother and grandfather, with my dad, his sister, and the family dog in the middle of the back seat in the old 40's car. For some reason, my grandfather had to step suddenly on the brakes. The dog flew out of the backseat and landed in the midst of the apple butter and then proceeded to shake itself all over the car. My dad laughed deeply as he told that grandpa got down right mad at the situation -- the most upset he ever saw him. Through the story I found out what it was to be a Wright, and how to laugh at things that at the time seem like a disaster, but really aren't.

With whom have you most identified in Acts? When have you experienced the continuation of this story? What virtues does one need to continue this story?

Spend some extra time in prayer this week, as well as sharing your experiences of engaging in the works of mercy. What is the greatest obstacle from engaging in such works?

Next week we'll continue into chapter 5 of Acts, a summary of the continued growth of these Jewish messianic believers and maybe dip into chapter 6, the response of the authorities to the practices of the believers.

Posted by johnwright at August 3, 2005 2:01 PM

Comments

Wow, we managed to get all through last week's lesson and this week's.

Ananias and Saphira died because they were dishonest! That is heavy stuff! We kept trying to find the place where it said that God struck them down, but as you were pointing out, and as we found, it just wasn't there. Maybe that's why they had "fear"? I'm like 51% convinced that they had some super psychosomatic bout of guilt and fear of letting everybody down that their hearts just stopped beating. People laughed when I suggested that, but it sounds crazy enough to be true.

When we talked about the kind of obstacles we face in engaging in the works of mercy, people brought up the fact that sometimes there doesn't seem to be enough to do, or that we think there's not enough to do. That might sound weird, but sometimes we don't always go to Bread of Life because we're told that there's too many people there already helping out or when we are there, there's too many bodies in the room. But, like what Tiana mentioned, there's much, much more than just helping with the condiments or serving food. You can actually serve by just being there with them and talking to them. It's sort of a false sense of complacency that we're doing everything "right" but forgetting about actually communing with our sisters and brothers.

We also talked about two different types of fear: one that makes you fear punishment, and one that makes you respect or be in reverence to someone or something. I think we mostly agreed that it was the latter that the early church was going through here in its/our beginning.

We didn't visit Dave & Larry tonight, although we plan on definiting doing so next week.

Posted by: Eric Lee at August 3, 2005 11:51 PM