Year of Growth

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. – Acts 11:25-26

The church was growing. Gentiles had joined the movement and the Holy Spirit continued to stir people to become followers of Jesus. Paul was a major player. He had been converted through an amazing experience, and had turned from killer of Christians to becoming one of them. He taught in the temple and brought people to faith in Jesus.

But not in this season of his life. Here Saul meets with the church. For a year. One year. Just to teach the church. That is pretty sobering.

I sometimes wonder if we are getting it done at exchange. So much is going well. So much more needs to be done. It is a little overwhelming sometimes. There is this responsibility to teach people. We baptize several people. Sometimes I feel like we pat them on the back, give them a life journal, and say “welcome.”

Saul and Barnabas spent an entire year with these people, teaching them the new way of life. Certainly we need to take responsibility for ourselves through scripture study and daily devotions (Life Journaling), but I wonder if God would have us do more.

God, more than anything I want to be part of a healthy group of followers. In everything that needs done, please continue to allow me to hear the things of your heart, the things that you would have done. If we needs some deeper teaching in the lives of new followers, may you raise that up.

[tags]devotions, teaching, life journaling, Acts, learning[/tags]

Share with

This post has one comment

  1. I was gone all weekend to an InterVarsity conference, so that\’s why I haven\’t commented in awhile :-P.

    Maryland has had an awesome impact on my life, and has been one of the big reasons I Life Journal every day I can on my Xanga account. It\’s been a kind of a dream of mine I think God gave me to start building up this Bible Study type book online for every chapter of the Bible.

    I have every chapter (except one) from Isaiah 59 through 2 Timothy. This week I\’ll be starting Titus. I almost have the entirety of the Major and minor prophets along with the entire New Testament. The dream is to compile a kind of reference for every chapter in the Bible so that when someone reads a chapter and says \”What can I possibly get out of this\” it will help provoke thought for them. I\’d like to be able to add a different translation and a different thought for each time I run through a Chapter so there would be, ideally, as many different entries as times I\’ve read through the Bible with almost every translation. Well, that\’s my dream at least.

    I want to make it online so it\’s free. I just want to help people be able to draw something or have something to think about for every chapter of God\’s Word, since it\’s so integral for us to read, understand, and be able to apply it, I think.

    Well, this is long enough already :-P. Maryland has meant so much to me, if you haven\’t already heard that enough from me. The way you speak makes me want to relearn the basics all over again because… you help God remind me how important and awesome they are, and how even if I feel like I\’ve heard a message a million times before… when you say it I need to pay attention. So thanks.

    God bless,
    ~Scott

Leave a Reply

Start typing and press Enter to search