Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
The
passion to evangelize
“The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned
to the Lord.”
It
is said that the blood of the martyrs makes for the most fertile ground for the
growth of the church. Although this is a macabre statement to make, it was true
in the time of Christ and continues to be true today. Even though there are
increasingly fewer numbers who identify themselves to be Christians in western
nations such as the United States, France, the United Kingdom, etc…,
ever-growing numbers of people in countries such as China, North Korea, Iran
are coming to Christ despite persecution from state authorities.
The
believers reacted to the persecution written about in this passage
counter-intuitively, at least if seen by the eyes of an outsider. They
did not stop their activities, but traveled even further to spread the good
news of the Kingdom. Persecution had merely poured kerosene on the flames of
evangelization. Some of the believers only went to what was familiar to them –
they went to the Jews
However,
others went to a people vastly different from the Jews – they went to the
Greeks. Much of Greek thought and culture had permeated and informed that of
Rome. The Roman gods were simply Roman names put over those of Greek gods i.e.
Jupiter was Zeus, Mar was Ares, and so on. Many of the teachers in Roman
schools were Greek or had been taught under the Grecian system. So the
believers were in effect spreading the gospel to the people who had taught
their Roman oppressors. The friend of my enemy is normally my enemy but what
Christ had put into the hearts of his disciples had turned this norm of
thinking on its head.
At
its core, the Gospel is not exclusive but inclusive. It can adapt to any people
or to any culture in any era. The apostle Paul, who, if he had continued his
path before he met Christ, would have become a respected leader in his Jewish
community, was transformed on the dusty road to Damascus, moved out of his
comfort zone, became the one who argued most strenuously for the inclusion of
non-Jews into the church and finally ended his days under a Roman sword holding
on to a fervent belief in a man that he had never met except in a vision.
The
transformation of those who first followed Christ infected others to the extent
that millions continue to put their faith in a way that had been lost till
Jesus began to teach a group of fishermen to cast their net for humans instead
of fish on the Sea of Galilee almost two thousand years ago.
Prayer:
Dear God we praise you for your son Jesus who transforms us every day. Amen
Thought
for the day: Move out of our comfort zones.
Philip Varghese, St. John’s MTC, New
York.