20070520

If only we can travel back in time and have a visual glimpse into the life of the early Church in Jerusalem.  Actually we can, by looking into the pages of the Bible.  The book of Acts contains the Holy Spirit’s authoritative account of the origin of the Spirit-filled Church.  What was the pattern of Church life then?  The believers were devoted to: 1) Teaching, 2) Fellowship, 3) Breaking of bread, 4) Prayer and 5) Exercise of spiritual gifts (Acts 2: 42-43).  These activities were present in the early Church and the outcome was that the LORD added to their numbers daily.  Wayne Grudem, a Bible teacher/commentator, explained “that it is through the activities of the church that God uses to give more grace to us.” This leads us to appreciate that God’s grace can be seen, felt and made known through the lives of the believers today.  Without us actively living out and expressing God’s grace how will the LORD add to our numbers, like He did in the early Church?  Grudem asked the next important question and that is: “Whether there are certain means through which the Holy Spirit works to convey blessings into the life of the believer?”  To answer this we look to the letter written by the Apostle Peter.  He viewed gifts as a channel through which God blesses His believers and instructs that: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various form.  If anyone speaks, he should do it as speaking the very words of God.  If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 4:10-11).  Grudem clarified that “God’s varied grace” (RSV) in Greek “poikilos” means “having many facets or aspects; richly varied; having great diversity.”  In this way we see the pattern of Church life being practically formed in the way believers exercise their different God given gifts for the good of others in the Christian community and ultimately for God’s glory.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a great Bible teacher/writer, made this statement: “True Christianity is charged with life and power and abandon because it is the action of God.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit of God sent into the church in order to bring about God’s purposes in the world.”  God wants to act in a powerful and dynamic way and the Holy Spirit is ready to equip believers.  Are we in BKC willing to submit our lives to God’s master plan in which each and every one of us with our gifts has a part to play?  When this happens, God will move many to turn to Christ and this will result in positive church growth both in believers’ maturity and numbers for BKC.