Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual journey.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Scripture: Acts 8: 26-40
26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south[a] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”[b] 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip[c] baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Devotional Thought: Running for the Gospel (Philip’s Story)
Philip, along with six others, had been chosen to head up the compassionate ministries arm of the early church. But circumstances had changed. Persecution had driven Philip and the disciples from Jerusalem.
As he flees, Philip recalls Jesus’s final words, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). So, when God tells Philip to go south on a desert road, he goes. Like so often in our own lives, the details were vague. But Philip goes. A chariot passes and God tells Philip to go to it. And when God says, “Go,” Philip RUNS. Philip RUNS to the chariot without hesitation, without knowing the bigger plan. Philip observes and listens. He discerns that God had been preparing the man for this moment. Philip shares the Good News of Jesus by answering the man’s questions. The man believes and is baptised. Then God carries Philip away to another place where someone else has already been prepared to hear the Good News.
Like Philip, God calls us to various people and various opportunities.
To what or whom is God is calling us?
Are the details vague?
No worries. This is often the case.
The important thing is our response.
What will we do when God says go?
Let us do as Philip did.
Let us RUN!
Prayer:
Lord, teach us to see others, to listen, and to discern your hand working in their lives. And teach us to run in response to your Spirit’s leading.
Linda Stargel
NTC Academic Dean
Nazarene Theological College