Killing Kryptonite With John BevereПримерок

[The video portion of this devotional is not available on your device. To view this video, visit your plan at www.Bible.com] It may come as a surprise that my goal for the first day of this devotional is to frustrate you . . . I’ll tell you why. There is a sharp disconnect between what happened in the New Testament church and what is happening in the church today. It would be easy to blame this disconnect on fragmented institutions, ungodly leaders, the culture, and so on, but let’s use this opportunity to examine our own lives.  The truth is, the first-century Christians were the superhumans of their day, and the world stood in awe of them. Here are just a few of their exploits found in Scripture: No one in their communities lacked anything—no one had physical needs of any kind, and there was no one on government assistance (Acts 4:33–35). Entire cities came to Jesus in a moment, and the gospel swept through entire regions in a matter of years (Acts 9:32–35, 19:10).  God’s power operated through them so much they had to convince people they weren’t gods (Acts 10:25–26, 14:8–18)—think about that for a few seconds. They had worship times so powerful they shook the ground (Acts 4:31). And as a result of those things, they had a reputation of being people who had turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6).  What should really challenge us is that God makes it clear in His Word that the Christians of the last days will do even more than these early believers. The question is, why are we not seeing the greater works God promised? I believe that just like Superman had kryptonite, the church—the collection of individuals who claim to follow Christ—does as well.  Kryptonite was a substance from Superman’s home planet. When he drew near to it, he would lose all his superpowers and become weak—even weaker than a normal man. If you look at the church today—with rates of divorce, pornography use, and sexual immorality as high or higher than that of the world—it is clear we have some kryptonite among us.  The state of the church today, which seems so clearly at cross purposes to God’s intentions and purposes for our lives as Christ-followers, should frustrate you.  In these devotionals, we will learn what this kryptonite is and how to get rid of it, but we have to first know of and believe in our potential. You will be unmotivated to tap into any potential you are unaware of.  What will you do now that you know your potential?