Our devotion today is by BRIAN SMITH who serves at Hillcrest Presby in Durban.
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Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city. Acts8:4-8
I remember having a conversation with a mother who was picking up her child from our last Holiday Club that we ran at our church. It was a conversation about the Holiday Club and how her child had enjoyed it and then this mother said, "I used to come to the youth group at this church." I found out that she had stopped coming to youth and church as her life had become busy.
Is there a huge negativity in society against church and Christians?
I don't think so.
As we come to Acts 8:4-17 we realize that wherever those who had been scattered went they preached the word. Philip proclaimed the Messiah. These early Christian's spoke to people about Christ, they prayed for miracles and signs, prayed for those who had demons and prayed for healing. And the Holy Spirit worked. Again, and the Holy Spirit worked!
Were there people who were against this new message that was being shared? Yes. Go just one chapter back to Acts 7 where Stephen gives a speech to the Sanhedrin. They were not that excited about the message and stoned him!
But that was not true for everyone. As we get to the end of this scripture today we are told what the effects of the sharing of Christ was - "So there was great joy in that city."
As Christ is shared, joy is experienced.
Is there a huge negativity in society against church and Christians?
I don't think so.
There are some who are very closed to Christ and his message of salvation. That is true. But what is equally true is that there are many people, just like the lady I spoke to at our Holiday Club, who are very close to being included in the promises of Christ and getting into church.
I often think we are paralyzed by our own perceptions of how people may respond or what they may say if we begin a discussion about Jesus. More often than not we have not actually experienced this negativity first hand. We have heard only about it.
I believe that we have a role to play in our cities and towns. A role of being bold and sharing Christ and the Good News of his love and grace and salvation. And as we do we will also see what the early church saw, "great joy in that city"
God Bless you.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
