We're supposed to be CRAZY

If you've read the book of Acts you'll probably start to realize that the members of the early church were freaking CRAZY. I mean this group of people would stop at nothing to spread the gospel and share the love of Christ. People like Peter, and Paul, and Stephen. People who were killed, tortured, and willingly sold everything they owned for the cause of Christ and the encouragement of fellow believers. How on earth did the early church pull this off? During the years of Acts the church was spreading with a ferocity that is certainly not present in the United States today, nor was it, in my opinion, present in the last thousand years. 

So what made these people so special? What did the early church have that we lack? What's the problem? Is God the problem? Or is it simply OUR problem. I think it's foolish to believe that what the early church accomplished is impossible in today's world. If we truly believe that God can do anything then why would we even suggest this? Now I'm not saying there aren't exceptions to this trend. There certainly are and have been people who have taken following Christ seriously, but it seems there is a definite lack of mass enthusiasm for living for Christ.

 God didn't send his only son to earth so that we could just chill out here until he came back. "Oh, thanks, God, for the sacrifice and everything. I'll go watch tv now and then Sunday I'll go to church." I feel like we've so oversimplified "being a Christian" that anyone truly seeking "followers of Christ" would be truly lost in America.

Now I don't want to just sit here with a high-and-mighty attitude banging on the American church and acting as if I have the answers to all of life's questions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead I want to encourage the reader to take a serious look at the early church in Acts and in the writings of Paul and James and others, and ask yourself "Am I living even remotely as a should? By these standards would others recognize me as a Christian?" I don't mean to sound legalistic, and I am fully confident that we are saved by God's grace alone and there is nothing we can do to achieve that, but f we truly believe the things we say we believe, why don't our lives show it? Why do we simply fade into the crowd instead of boldly proclaiming the name of Christ? No wonder we are called hypocrites!