From the Pastor
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Acts 2:42
This past week during Worship, as part of my ongoing sermon series on
the Biblical book, The Acts of the Apostles, I stated the above quoted
verse
would be our memory verse for the summer. It is my belief that this
verse
not only summarized what the early church saw as its priorities, it helps
us to understand how each generation can prepare itself to be used
by God's Holy Spirit to minister to a world in need of salvation.
More than memorizing a verse, however, I am asking that each of us consider what it is to devote ourselves to each of these marks of the Church. The first of these marks is a devotion to the apostles' teaching. In the early church, I am confident this was accomplished by individuals gathering around the very people that had been with Jesus since the beginning. These first witnesses, the Apostles, would tell others what Jesus had done and what He had taught them while on earth. In addition, these Apostles would use the scriptures, the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament) to show how God had acted throughout history and had planned from the beginning that Jesus would be the Savior of the world.
We don't have those Apostles to gather around. We do, however, have their testimony and teachings passed down to us in our holy scriptures, the Bible. Reading the Bible (much less understanding what we read) can be challenging, but certainly is possible, and should be encouraging. Faith comes to us through hearing the Word of God. It is for this reason that we should read it often and engage in the study of scripture with others in the Church.
The ELCA has launched a new initiative to support us as individuals and as a congregation in our commitment to re-familiarize ourselves with the Bible. For those of you with internet access, I encourage you to go to www.elca.org and type in "Book of Faith" in the search engine. Here you will find out more details about this initiative and ways in which we can get more involved together. While you are there, you might want to browse more of the website for other helpful aides to your spiritual life.
In addition, consider joining the adult Bible study every Sunday morning at 9:35am in the Social Hall. Currently we are studying the Book of Acts. Or, pick up a copy of one of our daily devotional books in the Narthex - these are wonderful resources that give you an inspirational thought for the day and help focus your thoughts around what is usually a single verse of the Bible.
If you have any questions about how you might deepen your relationship with the God's Word, or if you need advice on what type of a Bible to use or where you can get involved in Bible studies, please don't hesitate to speak to me. Let us walk this journey together!
Sincerely,
Pastor Steve