Sooo… I hope no one minds but I’m taking the iniative to start this. I don’t know how you were doing this before but from what I understand we read a chapter a day and if anything jumps out at us we can share it here and perhaps get a discussion going.
I understand that the month of August is the book of Acts.
I just wanted to share a little bit about the title of the book. God has been speaking to me about faith a lot lately. I will post my testimony and how God called me to the race on my blog soon but to give you a heads up I came out of a lot of legalism. I followed the rules. I believed what the Bible said and I was determined to work my way up God’s ladder and into a position of power and authority. Apparently there is no ladder to climb when you’re living out a relationship with God and the power and authority just naturally comes out of that relationship.
My belief that God operated through a chain of command perverted my understanding of faith. I really thought that faith was the litmus test to see how strong you were. If you had strong faith, gritted your teeth and endured then God honoured you and if you doubted Him then you failed. God is defacing that lie and teaching me what real faith is. That leads me to Acts.
I have been coming to understand that faith is an action word and, like the book title, we must act out our faith. If we ask God for something but never reach out our hand to recieve it how can God give it to us? I was thinking about it in relation to the world race. I have wanted to be involved in missions for years but never taken real steps towards acting out that desire. When it came to the World Race everything in my life lined up, I felt God urging me to apply but nothing actually happened until I sat down, filled out the application, sent in the fee and pushed the send button. I had to take action in faith so that God could honour it.
If God had told me to apply and I believed it by faith but didn’t take action then nothing would have happened. I wouldn’t have recieved a congratulatory phone call inviting me on the world race. Faith doesn’t work that way. When I believe that God loves me I will respond to him in faith and take action knowing that no matter what God take care of me. That is faith.
Faith is an action word. This August we are reading the book of Acts. The stories of the actions taken in faith by the members of the early church. Since we’ve all taken a step, possibly a leap, of faith in applying for the World Race I thought that I would share my observations and where God has been guiding me lately.
Now I guess I’ll pray and let this thing get rolling…
God I thank you for the opportunity for us to read your word and pursue you together, as a squad, even before we’ve had the chance to meet each other. I ask for encouragement and insight over the next month and that our ears, hearts and eyes would be open to learning what you need us to learn to grow closer to you. Give us clarity of thought as we read and help us to begin to build relationship with each other as we seek to deepen our relationship with you. Thank you Jesus.
In your name we pray, Amen.
