Devotional Guide
For the week of April 17, 2005
THE FRUIT OF FAITH
Deciding church matters and town matters
To Read: Hebrews 1-3
To Know:
"In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was
in all about a hundred and twenty), and said, 'Brethren, the scripture had
to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of
David, concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus.' And they
prayed and said, 'Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of
these two thou hast chosen to take the place in this ministry and
apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place.'" (Acts
1:15,16,24,25)
The church meeting is arguably the single most important component in
American history. The original settlers brought an abundance of enviable
personal qualities and social innovations to these shores. The Puritans were
men and women of great faith. These early modern men and women were
convinced that Jesus Christ lived in their midst by his Spirit and they
loved one another to please him. The 20,000 that migrated to Massachusetts
between 1630 and 1640 were the most highly educated folk on earth at that
time. The townspeople in the original Massachusetts Bay Colony were led by
over 100 Cambridge and Oxford educated men. To secure the survival of the
colony, John Harvard gave his library to be the first building block in the
university founded to protect the colonists against being taught by
illiterate clergy. An obvious strength in the American spirit is initiative.
It took incredible initiative to board a tiny ship, brave 3000 miles of
angry ocean, and carve communities out of a howling wilderness. This spirit
sparked our industriousness as well as made our citizen soldiers nearly
invincible on battlefields home and abroad. The church meeting was an
experiment in democracy. Unlike the ancient Greek democracies, the men and
women of Massachusetts were one, not because they lived on the same soil,
but because they shared the same spirit.
When the choice was made for the successor of Judas, the decision was made
at a meeting of the brethren. Congregationalists decided church matters at
church meetings and town matters at town meetings.
04185$-04185
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