Daily Devotions - February 1

Devotion by Mike Butler
Scripture Reference: Acts 2:43-47 Acts 4:32-35

If you haven’t had a chance, you should rent the movie Coach Carter. This is a great story about a High School coach who takes on a group of rag-tag basketball players in Richmond, California. When Coach Carter first arrives, he basically cleans house, sending several players home. One of the players, Timo Cruz, decides after the season kicks in that he wants to return. So he approaches the Coach during practice and makes his plea. After being ignored, Coach Carter allows for his return, given he can fulfill certain requirements. These requirements amount to line drills. The catch, he must complete them before the end of practice at the end of the week.
Realizing that it is nearly impossible, Timo sets out to fulfill the task. At the end of the week, Timo is nowhere near completing the requirements.
At the end of practice, Coach Carter asks the trainer what Timo has completed. Upon realizing that he has not fulfilled the requirements, Coach Carter tells Timo that he needs to leave. He tried, but he failed. There is no alternative. It is here that an interesting thing happens: his teammates step up and offer to help him finish by doing it for him.
This is the essence of the body of Christ. The beauty of the example given in Acts is that it paints a picture of a body of believers who step up and carry the burdens of the other believers. No one considers himself to be better than the other. They simply recognize that they are where they are by the hand of God and his mercy. For no other reason are they in the grip of his grace.
A 20th Century English theologian named G.K. Chesterton called the love of God “a raging, furious love”. It is this never changing love that the Church seeks to express in ways that imitate the love they have been shown by their Father in heaven. It is this love that was seen in the book of the Acts that allowed the community of believers to truly be “little Christs.”


Discussion Questions
1. In what ways have you seen the Church act as a team “who step up and carry the burdens of other” teammates?
2. How can you display the “raging, furious love” of God more clearly?
3. What can the modern church learn from the book of Acts about how a faithful church lives in community and serves one another?

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