Great grace ... great fear.

Acts 4:32-33 ... 5:11, Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. ... And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

This scripture is disturbing on a number of levels. Reading this, if it were my own family history, I would probably leave parts of it out. On on hand, we are disturbed by the very idea of a community based on nothing being owned out of love and devotion to the risen Lord; on the other hand we are shocked by the instant death of this couple who set out to pretend to be magnanimous in their giving! There is behind it all the immense power of the one who loved us all enough to give Himself freely to rescue us, and the impossibility of deceiving Him. In His grace alone we can stand before Him who knows all things thought to be secret. Even so, we have the freedom to be transparent before Him!

We want to be transparent before You, resting in Your great grace!

ESV Lectionary