June 13, 2022

The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:42-45)

If this were the only snapshot we had of life in the early church, we probably wouldn’t trust it—especially if we’ve logged more than a handful of hours in a local church. And of course, it is not. In this book of Acts, we soon witness church people lying and cheating, negotiating bitter divisions, and struggling with false teaching and false prophets.

Still, in our passage, we get a glimpse of some of those magical moments that I hope all of us have experienced at one time or another in a local church: this rich sense of friendship mingled with prayer, this ravenous hunger for the gospel, and the sheer joy of breaking bread with one another, whether we are celebrating communion or divvying up a potluck. I pray you’ve belonged to a place that is animated by the silent conviction that nobody who sits in one of our pews is going to go hungry while the person sitting next to them has a stocked pantry back at home.

Yes, sadly, church does not always work that way. But when it does, as it did in our passage, it is not surprising that God’s unmistakable grace keeps drawing outsiders in (v. 47). May God fill our lives with more of the gracious ‘magic’ that only the Spirit can bring.

[Larry Parsley, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]