The book of Acts in the New Testament chronicles the actions of some of Christ's apostles, carried out through the power of the Holy Spirit, during a time immediately following Christ's ascension. This book essentially outlines the birth of the church, but in some places, it reads more like an adventure novel than historical reference.
God used the eighth chapter of this book to speak to me recently, and I’ve spent several days trying to understand exactly how to share and explain what I felt the Lord say to me through this passage. First, let me outline some of the events that take place in Acts Chapter 8. We see Saul making “havock of the church" and believers fleeing from persecution. God used their persecution for good because the scattering of Christians meant the spread of the gospel. This by itself was a blessing to read, because I am awed by the courage of the early believers. They certainly experienced something real to make them flee one place for preaching, only to continue preaching somewhere else. They could have gone into hiding- kept quiet, kept safe. But the Holy Spirit urged them on and they obeyed.
One of those brave believers was a deacon named Philip. He traveled to Samaria and preached there (even a sorcerer was converted under his ministry!), until he received a new assignment directly from the Lord. Verse 27 says, “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.”
So, Philip obeyed, and when he reached the road to Gaza he saw a man from Ethiopia sitting in a chariot, and he heard the man reading aloud from the book of Isaiah. This man was a eunuch, and he was a man of great authority who served as treasurer for the Queen of Ethiopia. Philip asked the man if he understood what he was reading and then proceeded to reveal Christ to the man through the Old Testament scriptures. The man believed Philip's words and was saved. One remarkable thing about this story is how much God loved this man from Ethiopia, that he sent the good news of Jesus directly to him. The man already knew of God, but he had not experienced the gift of redemption. And so it is with all believers, because the Holy Spirit has called to us specifically, personally. It is also exciting to think how this one encounter helped to spread the gospel into other parts of the world, as the Ethiopian man most certainly went home and told everyone what had happened to him. God’s plan was not only to save the man that Philip met on the road to Gaza, but the generations of people after him that would choose to believe. The Bible indicates that Philip was traveling in the man’s chariot with him when they came to a body of water. They stopped and Philip baptized the man. And this is the part that really jumped out at me. Verses 39 and 40 say, “And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.” Azotus is the modern-day city of Ashdod, which is probably about an hour-long walk away from where Philip had been. The text describes that the Holy Spirit supernaturally transported Philip to another city! Philip teleported! That might not be the right terminology from a spiritual standpoint, but I think that’s the best word in our natural vocabulary to describe it. The scripture doesn’t tell us the reason Philip was caught away, but it does tell me this: God can move me where He wants me to be, when He wants me to be there, by any means He chooses- when I seek to follow HIS will.
I’ve had a few dreams in my life; one of the biggest was to become a mother. Before I was married, I was concerned that the dream of a family wouldn’t happen “soon enough” and I would “run out of time”. As it turns out, my husband and I were married only six months after he proposed, and seven months after the wedding we found out our first child was on the way. In a relatively brief span of time I had gone from being single, to being married and expecting a child. Now I have three wonderful children! Some days I’m amazed by where I am on life’s journey.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the future and what new dreams may come to fruition. Reading the story of how Philip was “caught away” gave me these three ideas:
How exciting it is to serve a God that can do what many say is impossible! He loves us and will accomplish His will through those that allow themselves to be used.
You never know when you might find yourself saying, “How did I wind up here?”, and thanking the Lord for His help along the journey.
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What does it mean to bless someone? When you bless someone, it means you are speaking good things into existence in their lives. Did you realize you have that kind of power? The bible says in Proverbs 18:21 that “life and death are in the power of the tongue”. We bless people by claiming a promise from the Bible for them, and God works through that.
In the Old Testament, God gave the priests of Israel a specific blessing He wanted them to use to bless the people: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”’ “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6:23-27 Even though this blessing was for Israel, the Bible teaches us that through Jesus, we are adopted into the family of God and all the promises that God gave to Israel are for us, too. So we can use this same blessing for others. Most weekdays, before we head out to face the world, I try to speak something like this for each of my three kids: “The Lord bless you and keep you and give you a good day, in Jesus’ name.” (My nine-year-old says, “It helps!”) Speaking blessing is a lot like praying. But, instead of asking God for something, we are claiming something He already promised us. A blessing has to line up with the Bible. We know God is not a magic genie that grants wishes, so I wouldn’t say to someone, “May the Lord give you a million dollars.” The Bible doesn’t promise us a million dollars! But it does promise good things like “peace” when we need it. So, I could say, “May the Lord give you peace” and that is a blessing that God will honor and work through, because He’s already promised it. At the close of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he wrote: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” He was blessing them with that statement. Some blessings are very simple. We often say “God bless you”, especially at church. Sometimes it can even become habit, and we say it without actually thinking about what it means. But, any time we use the name of God, we should use it purposefully, with intention. Think about what you’re saying next time, and really mean it! “God bless you!!” I think when we have faith that God will actually bless someone, meaning He will help them and give them what they need, those three words can be very powerful! Practice speaking blessings to someone in your life today.
Have you ever been reading the scriptures and a verse, or even just a couple words, really stands out? Like it leaps off the page (or screen) and says, “Hey! Look at me! You need to get this!”
It’s so interesting to me how a verse of scripture that I’ve read or heard so many times before can suddenly take on a new meaning or importance. I attribute this to the work of the Holy Spirit. How humbling it is to realize that as we read the Word, we have a partner, a helper, a translator, that guides us through that sometimes daunting undertaking, when we truly seek understanding, and whispers insight that our natural, earthly minds might not be able to glean otherwise. I’m so slack in my reading. I hate to admit it. I’m very inconsistent in my study and I’m constantly aware of my need to dedicate more time to the Word. Especially now as we have entered Holy Week, I’m trying to commit to regular Bible reading, and I decided to start again at the beginning of the New Testament. So, sitting at my desk at work, I took a moment to read (www.blueletterbible.org is my go-to online Bible), and I came to Matthew Chapter 4, which starts out right after Jesus has been baptized. The first verse says this: “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” Okay. This is a very familiar story. I know this one. I can probably just skim it since I’ve read it so many times before, and I know I’ve heard it preached at least half a dozen times. Jesus went out into the desert and Satan came trying to tempt him to sin. But, wait a minute….. What did that say? He went to the wilderness TO BE tempted? Why have those two words never seemed so important before? Jesus went to the wilderness with the specific purpose of being tempted! He didn’t go there to meditate and happened to be tempted while he was there. He wasn’t going just to fast and pray then Satan suddenly showed up. He went there TO BE TEMPTED! This has probably always been an obvious point to most people, but to me it felt like a revelation. I really had to stop and take it in for a while. The Lord of all creation, in an earthly body, subjected himself to real temptation. This is so difficult to grasp! I want to rationalize that this time of testing Jesus endured really wasn’t much of a test, because Jesus is divine and holy. He has all the power in the universe, so resisting the devil must have been an effortless task. Right? Not quite. While on this earth, Jesus was 100% God and 100% man at the same time. I know the math doesn’t work, but it’s still true. His temptation in the wilderness was a deliberate surrendering of His divinity, just like He did on the cross when He became sin for us. He supernaturally slipped on the mantle of natural flesh, so he could relate to me and you in our struggles with temptation. The Holy Spirit explained it for us, through the writing of the Apostle Paul in the book of Hebrews (2:18): “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.” The ESV says it this way, “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” There is so much to learn from the story of the temptation of Christ. We could talk about the example of how to withstand temptation by being spiritually prepared through prayer and fasting. We could talk about the example of fighting the devil through the power of the Word. Those are great, important take-aways! And I haven’t even talked about the physical and spiritual intensity of the test He endured! (For more study on those points, check out the Study Guide by David Guzik: https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide_Mat/Mat_4.cfm?a=933001) But what the Holy Spirit wanted to impress upon me, during this specific reading, was that Christ was tempted purposefully and willingly, and that He did it for me. The temptation of Christ was part of the redemptive plan, just as was the work on the cross. I still can’t fully explain “why” he had to be tempted, since I believe His sacrifice on the cross would have been just as complete without His temptation. But I believe it was a selfless act of love toward mankind. He wanted to know His creation so intimately that He became flesh and endured the feelings of temptation as a man. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Hebrews 4:15 If anybody has some insight to share on this topic, I’d love for you to leave a comment! |
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