A symphony is an excellent experience; nonetheless, the warmup doesn’t sound like a concert. While musicians are tuning and practicing each of their parts, it will probably sound like a trainwreck. Yet when the conductor steps to the stage and everybody plays their part, it creates something beautiful. So, it’s with the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our churches shouldn’t be doing their very own little performances. Instead, we should always be trying to the conductor–the Holy Spirit. We should align ourselves to His rhythm.
The word together in Romans 15:6 makes me consider Acts 4:24. After Peter and John heal the lame man, they’re arrested and beaten. It could be the primary time that persecution got here upon Christians. After being released from prison, Peter and John went to a prayer meeting. The church prayed with such power that Acts 4 says the place by which they prayed was shaken by the facility of God. Acts 4:24 tells us specifically how they prayed, “together they lifted their voices.” The Greek word for together is symfonía. This is where we get our English word, symphony.
Can you see the great thing about this biblical word picture? When God’s persons are in alignment, and we lift our voices in prayer, it is sort of a symphony within the ears of God. Isn’t this a a lot better strategy to live? Rather than being a divisive and indignant one who is at all times arguing and quarreling, I might slightly be at peace and in harmony with others. Rather than living solo, I might slightly join my heart to God’s people for God’s glory.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Finn Hafemann
Chad Roberts is the founder and lead pastor of Preaching Christ Church. He is the creator and Bible teacher for Awakened to Grace. He has authored Calling on the Name of the Lord, Awakened to Grace, and He’s within the Waiting. He has traveled through forty countries, sharing the Gospel, and training leaders. When the unexpected storm of blindness slammed into Chad’s life in 2018, he had a choice to make. He could resign to the lifetime of disability or he could go forward trusting God with the unknown. He couldn’t have continued on without the support of his amazing wife of over fifteen years, Sadie. Their 4 children, Piper, Emmy, Hudson, and John Mark, are their best joys. They live just outside the Great Smoky Mountains in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Chad’s pastoral profession has not been defined by blindness. Rather, it’s his clear, biblical teaching that continues to grow an audience. He has traveled through forty nations, training pastors and strengthening churches.
Today, Chad teaches people to trust a God they can’t see. His days are stuffed with the things he loves most: leading, speaking, writing, and after all, coffee! He is a spiritual content creator. By God’s grace, he’s emerging as a trusted spiritual voice in people’s lives. Chad can have blindness, but blindness doesn’t have him.