Last week an ecumenical group of gals hosted its monthly "House of Grace", an evening of worship and praise for women.

Several gals standing ahead of me, raised their hands in praise as they sang. I am not much of a 'hand raiser', but watching them I thought of the difference between people raising their hands when asked by police officers or being held at gunpoint by an intruder.

Both groups of people raise their hands. The difference:  my Christian friends 'surrender' by choice and not by force.

It tells in the book of Acts of 'believers meeting together constantly and sharing everything with each other, selling their possessions and dividing with those in need (Acts 2:44 & 45), and 'everyone was sharing' (Acts 4:32).

My Bible Commentary tells 'The early church was able to share possessions and property as a result of the unity brought by the Holy Spirit working in and through believers' lives. This is different from communism because 1) it was voluntary sharing; 2) it didn't involve all private property, but only as much as was needed; 3) it was not a membership requirement in order to be part of the church. The spiritual unity and generosity of these early believers attracted others to them. This organizational structure is not a biblical command, but it offers vital principles for us to follow."

The difference between raising hands in worship or sharing of our owned goods or accepting to follow Jesus as Christian?

It is never required; always voluntary! We are given the choices!!