A great start to the day, although it may have been greater if I would have slept better. I was awake by 5:15 AM, but didn't need to get up until 5:45AM. I dropped off Douglas at the gym so he could work out with Jacob and crew, and came directly to the office. It amazes me at 6:30 AM how many cars are on the road. I chose to listen to the daily readings online, in the NIV 2010 edition. I followed along at points with the old NIV, and then glanced at Todays NIV. Both were slightly different. I found listening to God's Word helped slow me down. I can read faster than the narrator, so it forced me to slow down and read more carefully. I think this was helpful.
I was particularly mindful of the text "So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers" Acts 16:5
Strengthened in the faith. If the church could be strengthened in the faith, there is an implication of the possibility that the church could remain static in the faith, or even be weakened in the faith. I want to intentionally strengthen our church, and our unit of churches, in the faith. Further - the church grew daily in numbers. I don't look at daily, I look at weekly, monthly, or even yearly. Paul recorded daily. What a vibrant thought! The church he refers to grew not only in maturity of the faith, but numerically - daily. I understand daily may not indicate every single day without exception, or that somehow there was a roll that was being kept (other than the heavenly roll), but it certainly points towards a common and natural daily occurrence - the norm was that the church was constantly in a state of numerical growth. It doesn't seem this was the goal (more numbers) but was the result of the penetrating power of the gospel in the culture and the church's response to the great commission.
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