It's clear in the book of Acts that the DNA of the early church was built on three ideas that got them in lots of "good trouble."
They spoke truth to power with the assertion that "Jesus is Lord." They confronted prejudice with the radical inclusion of gentiles. And last, but not least, they fanned the flame of religious controversy with the conviction that Jesus rose from the dead.
Why was the resurrection peculiarly controversial? Because Jesus came along during a pre-existing religious argument. Pharisees believed in the afterlife (the "resurrection of the dead") and Sadducees did not. I often joke that "that's why they were 'sad, you see'."
They tried at times to pull Jesus into their religious argument. And they continued to do so with Peter and the early church, even chasing Christians around from place to place to shut the movement down.
Once you see it, you can't "unsee" all this in the book of Acts.
Let the power of the resurrection be more than personal devotions for you. Fathom how much "good trouble" it brought the early church that we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Still today, no matter what the world brings, that's where our hope comes from. Our God who raised Jesus from the dead can make all things new.
