Immediately following the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, the Church once again saw “increasing numbers” of converts. It is no surprise that God’s removal of the couple from the Church’s midst helped the Church to grow. With Ananias and Sapphira in the Church, they could potentially have ruined the whole mission. But God wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

God’s mission does not depend on us. Salvation is His alone to offer. However, in the book of Acts we see time and again that God uses people to accomplish His purposes. Our participation in the mission really does matter. It is a mystery why God would include us, but the fact is, we know that He does. As we seek to join God in His mission, we can rejoice that salvation does not depend on us and that God will accomplish His purposes.

In what ways do you act as though salvation of others depends on you?