In Acts 15 the bible talks about God's love not only for the Jews, but the Gentiles as well. The Jews refer to God's chosen people, the nation of Israel, while the Gentiles represent everyone else - US! That also tells us that it is not who we are that we are saved, but who God is. We're only saved by God's grace.
In the beginning of Acts 16, Paul and Barnabas had a quarrel and split up. Despite such a huge loss, Paul continued with God's ministry. In our life right now, are we still able to give God our very best despite losing something important? Paul could. And he went on to become the champion church-planter of his time, spreading God's word far and wide, touching countless lives.
The later part of the chapter talks about Paul's first experience in prison. He and Silas were flogged and imprisoned for driving a demon out of a girl-for doing God's work, yet they could sing hymns to God while in shackles. Their faith and love for God really is amazing. They were then rescued by God miraculously, and in the process, saved the warden and his entire family.
Acts 16:31 ''Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your household.''
This is a verse to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters with unsaved family members. God assures us that He intends to save our family. Take faith, believe and pray! God works in many ways, but i firmly believe that God placed each of us in our respective families as His seed. He wants to save our families through us! All of us would want our unsaved family members to be saved, but it is never easy. In front of our friends we can easily pretend to be someone else, but our family knows us the best. They are the ones who can see God's work in our lives full transparency.
Therefore i urge everyone here to be a good testimonial at home. It's scary. The eternal lives of our parents could actually be determined by how much we help with washing the clothes, doing the dishes and sweeping the floor. Scary. But it's through the little things that we can show God's love to our parents.
God has a plan for our family. Claim it. Be a blessing to your family from now if you haven't started.
Friday, November 23, 2007
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