What are THEY afraid of?
Today we find that there are many people who love the Lord but fear the church. We have people that profess a faith in Christ, but do not engage in a local fellowship of believers. While analysts of many types have sought to answer the "Why" of this modern day problem, I find that this was nothing new to even the New Testament church.
I do truly believe that discipleship cannot exist outside being engaged with a local fellowship of believers, but the more I grow in my knowledge and faith, I find that I am less judgmental towards those who are still skeptical, afraid, or ect. of the local fellowships which are supposed to reflect Christ.
I don't know why this passage of scripture tells us that the people dared not join the rest of the believers. Maybe there is a concrete explanation, but at this time I don't know. But here's what was exciting - new believers were added! They were added to the Lord, and not to a “church” or a person or even a movement, but to God Himself. I believe that is the point.
When your church (or non-church) life is bigger than your "Christ-Following" life, send up the red flags because the focus is off. Let's be added to the Lord and have him be our focus. We'll be pleasantly surprised to see that all the fellowship stuff will fall in line as well because God is concerned about all that stuff too.
Created about 3 years ago
