May 01

Daily Devotional

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH?

The Called-Out Ones!

The term “church” derives from the Greek ekklēsia (ἐκκλησία), literally “the called-out ones.” In the New Testament this word denotes the assembly of those summoned by God from the world into covenant relationship with Christ. Far from a building or hierarchy, the church began as a dynamic, Spirit-empowered community. Its history is the story of this calling—repeated, contested, and renewed across two millennia.

The church was born in crisis. After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection (AD 30), his followers—initially a Jewish sect—gathered in Jerusalem. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended, and Peter proclaimed the risen Lord (Acts 2). Within weeks thousands were “called out” of old loyalties. Persecution scattered them; Saul of Tarsus, later Paul, became the chief missionary to Gentiles. By AD 100 small house churches dotted the Roman Empire from Spain to Persia. Their distinct ethics—monogamy, charity, refusal of emperor worship—marked them as aliens in a pagan culture.

Three centuries of intermittent persecution tested the called-out ones. Yet the blood of martyrs proved seed. Constantine’s Edict of Milan (313) ended official hostility; the Council of Nicaea (325) clarified Trinitarian faith. The church moved from catacombs to basilicas, yet the calling shifted. Monasticism arose as a new “calling out” within Christendom itself—desert fathers and Celtic missionaries preserved learning and evangelized Europe.

The medieval West fused church and state. Popes crowned emperors; cathedrals embodied civic pride. Yet corruption bred protest. In 1054 the Great Schism divided East (Orthodox) and West (Catholic). In 1517 Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses ignited the Reformation, insisting the true ekklēsia is the priesthood of all believers gathered around Scripture. Calvin, Zwingli, and the Anabaptists multiplied the calling: Lutherans, Reformed, Baptists, and later Methodists and Pentecostals each claimed to embody the authentic summons.

By the eighteenth century the church had become global. Jesuit and Protestant missions carried the gospel to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The nineteenth-century “Great Century” of missions and the twentieth-century Pentecostal explosion in the Global South swelled the ranks to over two billion today. Vatican II (1962–65) and the ecumenical movement sought renewed unity amid secularism.

Yet the calling remains costly. In many lands the church faces persecution or cultural marginalization once more. Its history testifies that whenever it forgets it is “called out,” it grows complacent; whenever it remembers, it flourishes. The ekklēsia is not an institution to be preserved but a people continually summoned by the living Christ—yesterday, today, and until He returns.

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If you have questions, please call the 24-Hour BGEA Prayer Line at:

(855) 255-PRAY.

CONTINUE:

Let us Praise Him Daily!

A good way to learn to Praise God is to memorize the first 6 Verses of Psalms 148:

1 Praise the Lord, O heavens! Praise Him from the skies!

²Praise Him, all His angels, all the armies of heaven.

³Praise Him, sun and moon and all you twinkling stars.

⁴Praise Him, skies above. Praise Him, vapors high above the clouds.

⁵Let everything He has made give praise to Him. For He issued His command, and they came into being;

^{6 H}e established them forever and forever. His orders will never be revoked.

PLEASE read the last 6 Chapters of Psalms: 145-150 so that you will learn how to Praise God like David did!

If you don’t want to get your Bible, Here they all are, just click on each Chapter and I will read them to you:

PSALMS 145 PSALMS 146 PSALMS 147 PSALMS148 PSALMS 149 PSALMS 150

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JESUS IS:

THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH,

THE LEADER,

THE ORIGINATOR,

THE LORD & MASTER,

THE SUPREME LEADER,

OUR HOPE,

1ST BORN FROM THE DEAD WITH AN IMMORTAL BODY TO NEVER DIE AGAIN,

THE 1ST FRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION,

HE IS OUR FESTIVAL OF HOPE,

OUR PARDON,

GIVEN 1ST PLACE IN EVERYTHING,

HAS BEEN EXALTED AS SUPREME OVER EVERYTHING,

IS ENOUGH,

THE FULLNESS OF GOD DWELLS IN US THROUGH JESUS,

JESUS HAS BROUGHT US INTO HARMONY WITH GOD,

HE HAS BROKERED A PEACE TREATY BETWEEN GOD & MAN,

YOU WERE BORN ON THE WRONG SIDE, BUT BY ACCEPTING JESUS

YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE NOW,

YOU ARE BEYOND REPROACH,

JESUS WAS THE SOLUTION BEFORE YOU HAD A SIN PROBLEM,

NEVER GET OVER WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR YOU!

NOW:

THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH:

TO TEACH US TO LEAD OTHERS TO CHRIST!

AMEN!

(You might want to copy those down and memorize them!)

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DAILY BIBLE READING:

>1. Chapter for the DAY in Proverbs;

>2. PLUS: 1 NEW Chapter from the Old Testament AND

>3. PLUS: 1 NEW Chapter from the New Testament Daily:

Chapter 30 in Proverbs for today: (APR 30 (MT) (ESV)

30 The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.^[a]

The man declares, I am weary, O God;
    I am weary, O God, and worn out.^[b]
²Surely I am too stupid to be a man.
    I have not the understanding of a man.
³I have not learned wisdom,
    nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.
⁴Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
    Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
    Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
    Surely you know!

⁵Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
⁶Do not add to his words,
lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

⁷Two things I ask of you;
    deny them not to me before I die:
⁸Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
    give me neither poverty nor riches;
    feed me with the food that is needful for me,
⁹lest I be full and deny you
    and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
    and profane the name of my God.

¹⁰Do not slander a servant to his master,
lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

¹¹There are those^[c] who curse their fathers
    and do not bless their mothers.
¹²There are those who are clean in their own eyes
    but are not washed of their filth.
¹³There are those—how lofty are their eyes,
    how high their eyelids lift!
¹⁴There are those whose teeth are swords,
    whose fangs are knives,
to devour the poor from off the earth,
    the needy from among mankind.

¹⁵The leech has two daughters:
    Give and Give.^[d]
Three things are never satisfied;
    four never say, “Enough”:
¹⁶Sheol, the barren womb,
    the land never satisfied with water,
    and the fire that never says, “Enough.”

¹⁷The eye that mocks a father
and scorns to obey a mother
will be picked out by the ravens of the valley
and eaten by the vultures.

¹⁸Three things are too wonderful for me;
    four I do not understand:
¹⁹the way of an eagle in the sky,
    the way of a serpent on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
    and the way of a man with a virgin.

²⁰This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats and wipes her mouth
and says, “I have done no wrong.”

²¹Under three things the earth trembles;
    under four it cannot bear up:
²²a slave when he becomes king,
    and a fool when he is filled with food;
²³an unloved woman when she gets a husband,
    and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

²⁴Four things on earth are small,
    but they are exceedingly wise:
²⁵the ants are a people not strong,
    yet they provide their food in the summer;
²⁶the rock badgers are a people not mighty,
    yet they make their homes in the cliffs;
²⁷the locusts have no king,
    yet all of them march in rank;
²⁸the lizard you can take in your hands,
    yet it is in kings’ palaces.

²⁹Three things are stately in their tread;
    four are stately in their stride:
³⁰the lion, which is mightiest among beasts
    and does not turn back before any;
³¹the strutting rooster,^[e] the he-goat,
    and a king whose army is with him.^[f]

³²If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,
    or if you have been devising evil,
    put your hand on your mouth.
³³For pressing milk produces curds,
    pressing the nose produces blood,
    and pressing anger produces strife.

Footnotes

Proverbs 30:1 Or Jakeh, the man of Massa
Proverbs 30:1 Revocalization; Hebrew The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal
Proverbs 30:11 Hebrew There is a generation; also verses 12, 13, 14
Proverbs 30:15 Or “Give, give,” they cry
Proverbs 30:31 Or the magpie, or the greyhound; Hebrew girt-of-loins
Proverbs 30:31 Or against whom there is no rising up

CHAPTER 148 IN PSALMS for today: (APR 30 (TLZ) (ESV)

147 Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
    for it is pleasant,^[a] and a song of praise is fitting.
²The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
³He heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
⁴He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
⁵Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.
⁶The Lord lifts up the humble;^[b]
    he casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
    make melody to our God on the lyre!
⁸He covers the heavens with clouds;
    he prepares rain for the earth;
    he makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹He gives to the beasts their food,
    and to the young ravens that cry.
¹⁰His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
¹¹but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.

¹²Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion!
¹³For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
¹⁴He makes peace in your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
¹⁵He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
¹⁶He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
¹⁷He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
    who can stand before his cold?
¹⁸He sends out his word, and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
¹⁹He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statu

148 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
²Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!

³Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
⁴Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!

⁵Let them praise the name of the Lord!
For he commanded and they were created.
⁶And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.^[a]

⁷Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
⁸fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!

⁹Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
¹⁰Beasts and all livestock,
creeping things and flying birds!

¹¹Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
¹²Young men and maidens together,
old men and children!

¹³Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for his name alone is exalted;
    his majesty is above earth and heaven.
¹⁴He has raised up a horn for his people,
    praise for all his saints,
    for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the Lord!

Footnotes

Psalm 148:6 Or it shall not be transgressed

Revelation 15

for today: (APR 30 (NN) ESV)

15 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.

²And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. ³And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and amazing are your deeds,
    O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
    O King of the nations!^[a]
⁴Who will not fear, O Lord,
    and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
    All nations will come
    and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

⁵After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent^[b] of witness in heaven was opened, ⁶and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. ⁷And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, ⁸and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

Footnotes

Revelation 15:3 Some manuscripts the ages
Revelation 15:5 Or tabernacle

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Please Remember:

“CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS

AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD!”

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The Steps to Salvation:

> Repent: Repentance means that you are turning away from sin to turn to Christ. It does NOT mean that you will be perfect.

> Believe/Receive: Salvation is through Faith in Jesus and by the Grace of God. Believing means putting your Faith in Jesus and receiving forgiveness of sin.

>Walk in the Newness of Life: Jesus died so that we might live. We walk in the Newness of Life being Born Again by His Blood.

Additionally, if you feel you need someone to Pray for you,

please call the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,

24 Hours/Day, at: 1+855 255 PRAY (This is the same as: 1+855 255 7729).

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GOD THE FATHER IS THE SOVEREIGN KING
AND CREATOR OF THE ENTIRE
UNIVERSE AND BEYOND!

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