Throughout history, God has grown and moved his church as his people scattered to diverse locations geographically. This pattern has not changed and believers are still called to grow and expand as a church today, whether we move across national boundaries, ethnic and cultural boundaries, or do church planting in our immediate communities. Beginning with the first generation of believers in the book of Acts, we hear of Phillip, who was emboldened and changed by the power of God as he moved out in obedience to spread the Gospel. Despite severe persecution, great joy descended on those who received the truth that came with power. In this present age, we have the account of the phenomenal growth of the church in China. In 1949 all Christian missionaries were evicted leaving less than one million indigenous believers behind. They faced relentless bloodbaths and eradication. Yet the church grew in the midst of that persecution when determined believers scattered and went underground. The challenge to believers today remains the same—to be willing to be moved out of our personal comfort zones, to walk in faith, to make personal sacrifices, and most importantly, to trust God for our personal well-being and needs.
Text: Acts 8:4-8God uses catastrophe and disasters to scatter the church so that His word can be spread to all parts of the world. We can become comfortable and content in our lives, but God in His sovergn nature does things we are not used to.
Text: Acts 8:1-4What would it cost Jesus to be the Savior of the world? He paid for our sins with the price of his own blood. Jesus is just one week old, and already he enters into the pain of human existence.
Text: Luke 2:21“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against […]
Text: 1 Peter 2:11-12As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like […]
Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave […]
Text: 1 Peter 2:1-3I have three things on my mind that I want to talk to you about. These are really three different […]
Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when […]
Text: 1 Peter 1:13-16“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe […]
Text: 1 Peter 1:8-9On April 5, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo for his resistance to the Nazi regime […]
Text: 1 Peter 1:6-7