Stand Up Together

READ:  Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say." (Acts 2:14)
 Recently there was a popular metaphor, the gas station metaphor. It is different for the Israelites: first someone opens a gas station, then someone sells bread, then another sells coffee. They could sell anything and avoid cut-throat competition with each other. For us, if you open a gas station to make money, I have to open one too. You open one, he opens one, and the result is a vicious competition and finally we lose everything! Why do we have this result? Jews look at a whole tree’s growth and development. We look to satisfy only ourselves because we cannot control our fleeting desires. All will be ridiculed because of disunity.

What about Christians? While we serve the Lord, do we sometimes fight with each other because of our own intelligence? There is a servant of God who was greatly used by God. Every time he went out to preach, there were many brothers and sisters praying for him. Not only praying for the Spirit of God to fill this brother, but praying for God to clean the environment and prepare the good soil to let God's word successfully grow and bear fruit, even a hundredfold. The brother goes around preaching and his brothers stand together to resist the enemy's attack. They are Christ's spiritual elite, steadfastly supporting in prayer! What impresses us the most is a brother saw in a dream that God’s workers were in hard work. But he did not see co-workers, even the people who prayed were scarce. From that point on, the brother began to pray and keep watch for the kingdom of God! 

We live in an age of increasingly advanced technology, an era of rapid changes. If we are not careful we will fall to temptation without being aware of it. Not that we do not love the Lord, nor that we want to see the Lord empty-handed, but because Satan is always troubling us to make us feel frustrated, even to the point of making us wonder between the world and the church. We always have plenty of excuses, but never listen to the Lord teach repeatedly: do not judge people. How you judge people, you will also be judged! You say we are bold?! The Lord is our life, the treasure for tens of thousands! If you believe this is true, why let your inner beauty be covered by earthly things? Why not let the light of God's love shine in front of people? 

Every preacher brother is your brother. You should stand with them, and not care about your own ambition. Are you remembering that when others preach Christ, you are also a part of it? Are you encouraging and comforting your brother in the same way that the Lord would? Although Peter was preaching by himself, five thousand people were saved. What made so many people repent from sin and turn to the Lord? It is by all the members of the Holy Spirit working together in one accord! The Lord's precious co-workers, put away the unworthy personal feelings. Understand and treasure your spiritual status and identity. Go back to the church, stand with the preacher, and do the things you should do as an evangelist.

May God bless you!