Simply Follow

Reading the book of Acts always get me going and encourages me to walk more closely with God. It is important not to romanticize the happening in the book of Acts, yet it is important to notice the ways in which the early believers followed God and stayed connected. There is swift action when God speaks, and it seems there was a constant conversation between God and the followers.

The easiest explanation is to point out that our world is very different. In some ways yes, but in many ways there is a strange similarity. As the book of Acts unfolds the number of believers is a relatively small, possibly insignificant percentage of people in the world. Wherever they live, they are in the minority and the majority is trying to keep them quite at best and silence in the goal. There are world superpowers who run the world, and the average person works hard just to get by. Not as different as we would think.

Somewhere along the line, a cumulative effect possible, the followers of Christ began to let the dominant culture push them around. Keeping quite and silencing seemed to be working. There were some who spoke up along the way, still many returned to a life on the sidelines. As I look at the followers in Acts, not once do they consider the ramifications of society, they follow God. Not once do they worry about what the religious leaders say, they follow God. They do not get caught up in the rhetoric of the day, or get side tracked by personal agendas, theirs or others. they simply connect with God, and do what God instructs them to do.

I wonder. What would it be like if we stopped spending all our time try to put our agenda in God's mouth, and put God's agenda in our actions? We must understand and interpret our culture. Yet, we do not need to wonder what is it God is calling us to do, what people group does God show preference to. God prefers people, and wants us to be obedient, moment to moment. Let God figure out all the details, we must simply follow where God leads.