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Home Listen Church as it was Meant to Be What are you building your life on?
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What are you building your life on?
Church as it was Meant to Be 3.0
Acts 4:1-31
by Eric Stillman
September 16th, 2007

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When I was the youth pastor at NewLife a few years ago, I used to have one of the students share their testimony every week in youth group, either a story of how they came to know Jesus or just a story that would help people understand who they are.  One that I’ll never forget was by a kid named Bill, because it was sort of a reverse testimony.  He had not grown up in any religion, and was exploring what it meant to follow Jesus in our youth group.  He shared how he had recently begun praying, but that since he had started praying, things had really taken a turn for the worse.  His grades were suffering, his mom found out she might have cancer, and things were not going well with his girlfriend.  Bill told us that he had stopped praying, and his grades improved, his mom found out she didn’t have cancer, and things got better with his girlfriend.  I thought it was great to hear this “reverse testimony,” because it illustrated an important truth about following Jesus.  Sometimes opposition and hardship doesn’t really happen until you decide to follow Jesus.  Because there is an enemy who does not want people to follow God, when people don’t care about God there is no reason to attack them, but as soon as they want to follow Jesus, often that is when the opposition kicks in, as Bill found out.

I believe we’re in a season of opposition and suffering and attack as a church, where many people who are responsible for prayer and pastoral care in our church are experiencing difficult situations.  We had an excellent prayer & worship time last Sunday to pray for each other and ask God to help us stand firm and continue moving forward after him.  You can be sure that if you follow God, persecution and opposition will happen.  It may take the form of people hating you, or spiritual opposition from the enemy, but it will happen.  How you respond, and how a church responds, is often the difference between a mediocre spirituality and a church made filled to overflowing with the power of the Holy Spirit. 


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