Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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 Remember the Little Ones

Acts 4:32-37
 
Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
           
Among the Gospel writers, Luke is unique and exceptional in providing a masterful account of God’s plan of salvation for humanity; first through the life and ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke; and then through the lives of Jesus’s disciples and Christians in the Acts of the Apostles as they proclaimed the Gospel—the good news of the reconciliation between holy God and sinful humanity through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)—following Jesus’s Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).
Acts 4:32-37 describes an extraordinary time in the life of the Early Church—the ecclesia of Jesus—when the believers shared their resources with one heart and mind. God’s grace worked powerfully among them as the believers testified the resurrected Christ with great power. Believers sold their possessions and brought the proceeds to the Apostles for meeting everyone’s needs. The possession-sharing practice of the believers in Acts 4 was a continuation of the fellowship of believers recorded in Acts 2, following the Pentecost Day miracle of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that fulfilled Jesus’s promise (Luke 24:45-49), with three thousand believers communing in fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers (Acts 2:41-42), selling their possessions, and dividing them (Acts 2:44-45).
As the Church grew, seven men—including Stephen, martyred for his faith in Jesus—were chosen to serve the physical needs of the people, while the Twelve disciples met the spiritual needs through prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:1-4). As Paul emerged as the Apostle to the gentiles—directed by Jesus (Acts 9:15)—for preaching the Gospel, helping the weak and poor became central to his ministry, detailed in his emotional farewell address to the Ephesian elders, where he exhorted them to follow Jesus’s teaching of Giving as more blessed than Receiving (Acts 20:35).
Meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people—particularly the least and the little—has remained the hallmark of Christianity through the centuries, typified by the outreach ministries of various Church denominations, including the Mar Thoma Church’s Light to Life project. We may be the only Jesus that many may ever encounter, as we follow His command to love others through actions.
 
Prayer
Lord Jesus, help us to serve the Least and the Little.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)


Dr. Cherian Samuel
Immanuel Mar Thoma Church, Virginia.
       

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