Author: Brian Burdett

“Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” – Acts 6:1

The growth of the early church was threatened by ethnic inequality in her ministry. While poor Aramaic-speaking Christian widows born in Israel were being well cared for, the Greek-speaking Christian widows born outside Israel were being neglected. This seemingly wasn’t intentional, but it was real and this injustice threatened the health and future of the church. Would the church be a place for all who followed Jesus or primarily a place for those Christ-followers fortunate enough to be born in Israel?

Praise God! The church didn’t ignore the problem, pretend it didn’t exist, try to deny it, rationalize it, explain it away, or justify it. Instead, as a body (leadership AND congregation together) they leaned into the problem and developed an effective solution. They raised up servant-leaders from the neglected ethnic group and gave them responsibility for administering this critical ministry.

Because the church cared for the neglected among them, took seriously the concerns about injustice, and developed innovative solutions that truly addressed the problem, a tremendous period of gospel advance began, as even hardened opponents were drawn to what they saw. Verse 7 reports, “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

That same opportunity lies before the church today, if we can take seriously the problems and concerns that divide us along racial, ethnic, economic, and cultural lines and seek to genuinely heal those divisions through the gospel of Jesus Christ!

“But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.’” – Acts 5:19-20

It’s helpful to be reminded of God’s priorities from time to time! When we’re in a difficult spot, we rightly cry out to God to help us. At all times He hears our prayers. However, because He sees the bigger picture (not only for us personally but for a lost and fallen world), He sometimes calls us to stay right where we are, comforted by the knowledge that He is right there with us. Other times He sets us free and calls us to step right into a more dangerous situation as in these verses.

The mission to which God has called every follower of Christ is to make disciples. This mission isn’t for the faint of heart and it isn’t for our convenience and comfort in this life. While doing the work of God is one of the deepest sources of joy, we must always remember that our ultimate and eternal comfort and reward awaits in heaven. Therefore we must be willing to be inconvenienced, uncomfortable, and even at risk for His sake now.

The Christian life is a call to courage, to boldness, to danger, and to share the good news of Jesus Christ as you go through life. Have you answered the call today?

“But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.” – Acts 3:18

There is profound meaning, power, and comfort in this reality that Jesus the Christ suffered. Though He was fully God, He took on a human body and human nature. As both God and man, He suffered physically and spiritually as He hung on the cross to atone for our sins. He bore our guilt, our shame, and God’s wrath. And He died in physical agony after betrayal, humiliation, injustice, and torture.

We have a Savior Who knows exactly what it means to suffer, to be in agony, to be abandoned, and to experience God’s wrath. When we put our faith in Christ, we are joined with Him, filled with His Spirit, and assured of His continuous presence with us in good times and bad.

When we suffer physically, spiritually, emotionally, whether from disease, disability, deprivation, persecution, abuse, abandonment, or injustice we are accompanied, comforted, transformed, and strengthened in our pain by our Savior who completely understands. As Christians, we’re never alone in suffering – Christ is always with us (even when our feelings lie and claim He’s far away) and He understands.

He hears our cries and our prayers and He’s right there with us and in us. If we lean on Him, He will carry us through every season of suffering, no matter how long or intense, for He is the Christ Who suffered!

“A mocker seeks wisdom and doesn’t find it,
but knowledge comes easily to the perceptive.”
– Proverbs 14:6

We live in the Golden Age of Mockery. We’ve been conditioned to mock others for years by our entertainment, politicians, and media. Social media makes it incredibly quick, easy, and painless to like, share, tweet, comment, post, and repost material that mocks rather than seeking to understand, that drips with sarcasm rather than reflecting a genuine desire to be understood, and that dismisses serious issues through the “witty” application of the trivial and the distracting.

Hopefully you’ve noticed that we live in serious times and face serious issues! This isn’t the time for the people of God to rely on mockery to blind and numb themselves from truly understanding and responding to the grave challenges of this world with Christlike love, wisdom, and truth. Christ did not mock people even when He confronted and corrected their errors and sinfulness. Christ certainly never mocked the weak and the vulnerable – His sharpest words were always reserved for those in power who used that to ignore or distort the revealed will of God.

Take time to review your casual conversations with family, friends, and colleagues; review everything you’ve put out on social media; examine your own thoughts about what’s going on right now. Regardless of what position you take on the grave challenges of race, justice, law enforcement practices, public health, economics, government policy, and more, do your thoughts and words reflect a genuine desire to perceive and understand all sides of the issue and advance the conversation? Or do they simply reflect a reliance on mockery to avoid understanding?

“I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
This will please the Lord more than an ox
or a bull with horns and hoofs.”
– Psalm 69:30-31

At a time when the “usual” means of worshiping God aren’t available or look very different, it’s helpful to remember that our heart of worship is far more important than our rituals of worship. God is pleased when we worship Him in Spirit and in truth wherever that occurs and however that looks.

God cares that we praise Him and give thanks for all of the blessings we enjoy, most particularly our salvation in, and union with, Jesus Christ, His Son. Our heart condition is far more important to the Lord than our ability to worship in the ways we’ve “always done it”.

This is both a comfort and a challenge. The comfort is obvious. Though we may feel a bit guilty or anxious about the changes we continue to endure as we worship and stressed about the decision each person must make about when is best to resume gathering for worship, we are comforted to know that our heart of worship is what pleases God.

However, the challenge is very real too, for this truth requires us to train and discipline our hearts to genuinely sing and praise the Lord even in these evil and unsettled times. Though we may be in shock, angry, or discouraged by all that we see happening around us, we can’t simply retreat into religious ritual – instead, we must consciously bring our heart to truly worship God, in public and in private, even amidst our tears, frustration, and anger.