" And great fear came upon the church ..." Acts 5:11

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have the atmosphere discussed in Acts 5:1-11? Ananias and Sapphira lied and then they died. There must have been some  heart searching going on inside the church and at least some respect outside the church. In verse 17 , we see the continued attack on the church. It was an unsuccessful attack,  as the prisoners that are put in prison are not to be found in their cells . When this kind of attack happens, our testimony must be Peters', " We ought to obey God rather than man." In the last portion of this text it  seems like things are turning for  the positive, and they do for the apostles. Gamaliel gives advice that ends of helping the disciples, the problem with the advice is that it implies that one can be neutral when it comes to commitment to Christ. There is no neutrality with Christ. Christ says, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."(Matthew 12:30)  So how is it that we as believers can profess Christ with our lips or with our casual Sunday attendance , and at the same time be fearful in speaking boldly for Him? Is it possible that without knowing it, we have taken Gamaliel's bad advice and applied it to our Christian lives? We live our lives in a state of neutrality, we do not actually have to  live for Christ, we just have to say some prayer at an emotional church service and we think we are good. My prayer today is that I would be like these first century apostles and I would see myself living in a way that recognizes the "oughtness" of living for Christ.