“5 The next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John and Alexander, and all the members of the high-priestly family. 7 After they had Peter and John stand before them, they asked the question: “By what power or in what name have you done this?”

8 Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders: 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man — by what means he was healed — 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene — whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead — by Him this man is standing here before you healthy. 11 This Jesus is

“the stone rejected by you builders,

which has become the cornerstone.”

12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.””

Acts 4:5-12

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The singular approach to salvation that we adhere to in Christ is always going to be under fire. The idea that everyone is going to heaven or that all roads lead to heaven (universalism) simply isn’t true. We cannot be good enough, or do enough, to assure our place in heaven. We can’t just want it enough, or put on a show so that people are impressed enough, that we gain entrance into eternity because of our sterling reputation. It’s not because we followed the rules enough, or spoke a special phrase. Nothing we do saves us. 

It is simply by the power of God at work through Jesus Christ that we can have a living faith, receiving the Gospel message about Jesus, receiving the Holy Spirit and receiving grace by faith in Jesus Christ, being baptized into Him. All things received by us, and not begun by us, but by God, carried out in faith. It is by grace we are saved. And in that receiving, we find power. We must act on and act in that power. He is our strength to speak up. He is the vehicle by which healing occurs. His Holy Spirit moves in us and through us and so we see extraordinary things occur when we release our grip on the controls and let Him lead. 

We cannot let fear or trepidation lead us. We cannot be worried about our reputation, or how people are going to speak about us. We must trust in Him, move with Him, guided by His power, His love, His grace and His compassion. We must live, move and breathe from His power, trusting that He has the best plan, and the wisdom that will guide us through it all. 

Peter, John and the other Apostles lived and moved and were led by the power of Christ at work in them, and so the world was changed, radically changed, through their willingness to submit to His power and authority. 

If you and I were to GoLove with this same abandonment to the will and power of God, and quit trying to ‘play it safe’ all the time, we might actually begin to see some changes in the world around us. The world desperately needs for us to do this, to be wreckless in our faith and completely resigned to the power of Christ at work in us.