Focus
Pay attention to the tension in your body. Let go of it and any expectations to do anything other than God’s will today. Prepare yourself to hear God’s word.
Read
Reflect
Paul and Barnabas healed a man, and in response, the crowd began to worship them as gods. This was a completely different culture than Paul and Barnabas was used to. They would normally arrive at a town and go straight to the synagogue, but evidently, there was no Jewish presence. They saw a need; they filled it. Paul discouraged the crowd by preaching about the living God.
Paul found that he had to change the method of his delivery and even begin in a different place with his message. He did not speak about the Jewish Messiah or the Ten Commandments as he would with fellow Jews. Paul developed a theology of evangelism in his first letter to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 9: 19-20, “19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might gain all the more. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to gain Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might gain those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not outside God’s law but am within Christ’s law) so that I might gain those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I might become a partner in it.”
I go to a church that is struggling. When I ask people why they think we struggle, they say, “Well everyone left the neighborhood.” I would point out to them that there are no for rent or for sale signs in the neighborhood and they would say, “Well, those people don’t care about church. The neighborhood has changed and we do not fit anymore.” I admit this frustrates me. If the neighborhood has changed, why hasn’t the church? Is it too much to become all things to all people that we might save some and partner with the mission of God?
Pray
God, help us to love people and to share the gospel with them with word and deed. Amen.
Go with God.
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