Seeing Grace
A couple of weeks ago I was speaking about Barnabas from Acts 11 in a situation where the early church was going through some growing pains. Some outside of Judaism were beginning to follow Jesus and that made the primary church group uncomfortable. They worked together, listened to God's voice and got it resolved. Shortly thereafter, another rather large group of non-Jews who had begun to follow Jewish customs converted to following after Jesus. Rather than struggle through the conversation again, they sent Barnabas from Jerusalem to Antioch to see what God was doing. He arrived and with joy in his heart challenged them to continue faithfully with the Lord. It was a great time of challenge and growth for the early church. Something struck me since that talk and I thought I'd drop a little challenge your way. The text says that when Barnabas "came and saw the grace of God, he was glad..." I wonder: how do you see the grace of