Acts 5:12-16

Acts 5:12-16
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Can you imagine the sense of expectation that followed Peter?  It must have been incredible to see the people draw closer to him, expecting something miraculous, waiting for the sick to rise up in health.  It's hard to imagine, and yet day after day it must have happened in such frequency that the people were lined up in the street.  The church was the place where lives were changed.
  What does the church mean to us now, today?  What does the world expect from the church?  I think it's safe to say that in most of modern America, people aren't lining up on the streets waiting for miracles.  The church is part of society, which is good in many ways, but it is often tame, isn't it?
  So what does it mean for the Spirit to break us out of our molds, to teach us to love radically and serve with selflessness?  It's hard, I know that.  I don't like to be uncomfortable, but God calls us into uncertain places.  I don't know if people would be lining up on cots in the streets, but let us pray for the church to be the hands and feet of Christ with such a commitment to selfless love that people see the church as the place where lives are transformed.