Making it difficult

I had the chance to listen to a very good sermon on Sunday concerning relevancy in our ministries. I am not sold on the application of the particular passage (Acts 15) to the topic, but I could not argue with the rest of the content. One verse was called out for special attention: "Therefore it is my judgment that we should not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles." (15:19) The context of this verse is the placement of undue burden on the Gentile believers to be circumcised and instruction to keep the law of Moses in order to attain salvation. Is this applicable to making the Word accessible to people in different cultures and different generations? I think it may be a bit of a stretch, but I can see a principle operating here.

I used to gather with a church that had a meeting place that was at least 40 minutes from my house. It is a great body of believers, but it made it impossible for us to invite people and have any reasonable expectation of them actually continuing to gather with us. Only crazy people drove that far to gather with a "local" church body. Gradually, I got the sense that God was calling my wife and I to find a church body that gathered closer to our home. We did and it has been great.

Certainly someone looking for a local body of believers would be "troubled" if this was their only alternative. Is this was Acts 15:19 is talking about or is the trouble an addition to the criterion for salvation? I usually go with the narrower interpretation to be on the safe side, but I need to meditate on this more.

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