Category: Devotions

Acts 9:5
“”Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.”

Saul called the voice Lord, not that he knew who this Lord was, but the voice was obviously more powerful than he was.
Can you imagine the shock to find out it was Jesus?!
Saul knew what Jesus meant. He knew that the persecution of the followers of Jesus was the persecution of Jesus.
Friends whatever you go through for your faith you go through it with Jesus.
Jesus is being persecuted all around the world. Where is Christ in all this suffering under the hands of ISIS for example? Well this verse shows us he is right in the centre being persecuted himself. How long will this go on for? For there will come a time when He comes again and this persecution will end as the perpetrators find themselves on their knees before the King of Kings.

He fell to the ground.

I read these words this morning from the Bible, Acts 9:4.
It is of a man called Saul, a leading Pharisee who was persecuting early Christians. In a moment Saul the murderer became Paul the apostle. But it commenced on the ground.
God supernaturally knocked Saul to the ground.

In the gospels there is a story of an evil spirit throwing a young boy to the ground in a convulsion. The story ends with Jesus lifting the boy from the ground fully restored.

Today, June 23rd Elim UK remembers it’s missionaries who in 1978 were terribly murdered in the Vumba, Rhodesia. They fell to the ground.
Peter and Sandra McCann, Philip and Joy…Wendy White… Philip and Suzanne Evans and Rebecca…Catherine Picken…Roy and Joyce Lynne and Pamela Grace…Mary Fisher.
They are an inspiration who with the great cloud of witnesses cheer us on who are here today. They fell to the ground but their act propelled others into a life of service in missions.
They fell to the ground not because of God or an evil spirit, it was man who did this. But their life or their impact didn’t end on the ground.

Also in the gospels is the story of a leper who voluntarily falls to the ground in front of Jesus as an act of worship. The story ends with Jesus saying He was more than willing to heal the man.
Not God, not an evil spirit, not another person, but the man himself falling to the ground.

Today, the U.K. nation goes to the polls to vote either to Remain or Leave the EU. One of the many questions debated angrily by many is whether we will be better off? Are we going to have more money? What are we going to gain? What are we going to lose? You see we must not lose. That’s the main point. We don’t want to fall to the ground. That would be wrong. We want to rise and be something.

Yesterday I spent some time with TearFund discussing many things but mainly the plight of those under the threat of ISIS. We were sharing stories of people who are the epitome of a Living Sacrifice.
Before the meeting I read an email from our worker in the Middle East who has a hidden church 500m from a very dangerous place. We cannot promote him and as a result he doesn’t receive much compared to others, but we do our utmost to support. He wrote this, “…still talking about Jesus and sharing with new people about His saving love, the last person I spoke with about Jesus was yesterday.” He is a living sacrifice. He is a surrendered man. He has poured his life on the ground for God. Spending time with this man you realise how rich he is, but not the riches of this world, a richness that is not of this life.

I have just got off from a Skype call to a missionary and a church pastor. The missionary could today be earning lots of money and have what everyone else has in her generation. The pastor she works for has a church in a slum and he feeds the poor every day. My world is split into 2 parts: I spend part of it overseas and though there are equal examples of corruption and politics to be found in the church in various places, I gravitate towards those who are on the ground and I love sitting with them for awhile, learning from them no matter whether it was God, evil, man or themselves that caused the falling how do they live and serve a surrendered life. The second part I live with those who are standing tall, reaching for the heights, being somebody big or trying to be. I live in a culture that doesn’t do ground work. Everyone wants to richer, bigger, stronger, taller. But I am a better man with the broken.

I am off to vote now.

Acts 9:4
“He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

God has to position people in order to speak to them. If people don’t go to the ground willingly, God can make sure it happens. One day every knee will bow.
Don’t wait for Him to knock you to the ground, get on your knees right now.

Acts 3:9
“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.”

Thank God for His suddenlies! When we least expect Him. When it looks like it is over. When the enemy is pressing in. Suddenly!
God can apprehend the vile, the wicked, the oppressor. He can interrupt anything. A nation goes out to vote and then suddenly! Yes it is possible. Do not say God cannot come suddenly. For He can and He will. He is coming suddenly and it could be today.
Whatever you go through factor in the possibility of suddenly. Don’t be so sure.

Acts 9:2
“He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.”

This high priest is Caiaphas who was ruling during the trial of Jesus. He also charged Peter and John and charged them not to spread the gospel. So with Saul coming for permission to go after the followers of Jesus there was only going to be one answer. Saul would eradicate Damascus from these Christians. It didn’t matter who they were, male or female, they would be taken off the streets.
Of course, his scheme didn’t work.
It is hard to stop the way. The way is more than a direction or a sign post. It is more than a road. The way is more than a movement. The way is Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. Try and stop those who belong to the Way and the Way will continue being the way.

Acts 9:1
“Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.”

Whilst Samaria was in revival and the Ethiopian was being baptised, Saul was causing trouble.
Whilst Philip was evangelising everywhere he went, Saul was trying to destroy the Church.
Yesterday on social media many posted of what God had done in their services that day. Whilst at the same time in other places of the world Christians flee from their homes, Church buildings are being burnt and further threats to those who witness we being made.
Should we assume that God is in one place but not the other? No.
Should we be careful not to be too happy in one place out of respect for the other? No.
Should we judge one place more shallow than the other? No.
You see, meanwhile is just how life is and how God works.
God is working the story of this world.
In one place it is good, meanwhile in another place it is bad. However, God is in control of both. He is working His story on the earth. We will one day look back and see how He wove it altogether.
So what do we do? We rejoice with them that rejoice and we mourn with them that mourn. We realise that whatever is taking place we cannot generalise and say this is what is happening all over the world nor should it, for in the meanwhile, God may be doing something very different and maybe allowing something very shocking to take place as the chapters of this amazing life are being written.

DoActs 8: 40
“Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and travelled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.”

Philip went to all the towns. Would it be possible that every village, town and city in your nation receive the gospel of Jesus again? You may have a great Church and enjoy the services but today look into the next ‘field’, is the gospel preached there? If not you should do what Philip did.
Plot your nation, region and area, decide your destination and between here and there do what Philip did. You may be at work, leisure or at home but in all these places do what Philip did.
The Spirit took Philip to Azotus and you are where He has placed you and it is for a reason, to do what Philip did.
There will come a day when you will reach the end of your story as Philip reached Caesarea and when you look back will you have regrets? Will you wish you had gone? Not if right now you decide to do what Philip did.

Acts 8:39
“When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.”

Using the same phrase as was often used in the gospels, “came up out of the water”, Luke again shows the power of what happens next, “the Spirit…”

Many have decided they know exactly what happened here and I have even heard some say that they expect by the time Christ comes back then we will all be able to move geographically in the power of the Spirit. Although I would definitely be interested in this as it would not only help with the pressure of time but it would also cut drastically my flight costs, I am not so sure. In fact I am so not so sure I don’t want to focus on the fact that as with Elijah, Philip was here one minute and gone the next.
What I want to focus on is this: when we concentrate on doing what we can do ie gospel presentation and the baptising of disciples then the Spirit will be and do what only He can.
If we want the move of the Spirit then lift Jesus high!

Acts 8:38
“And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him.”

Sometimes it’s now. There are times when you just need to stop the chariot, to stop the wheels turning as they usually do at breakneck speed. Command order in your life. Take back control. Wisdom is knowing when the time is right to give those orders.
If you are going to follow Jesus then it won’t just happen, it will be instructed choices.

Sometimes it takes both. There are times when we don’t just cheer someone on but we go down into the challenge with them. We stand with them, we stand with their fear, we commit to being there whatever they go through.

This is the story of the 2 men.

Acts 8:37
“And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”

In answer to the question ‘why shouldn’t I be baptised?’ Philip says you may if your heart is right.
But the verse isn’t there. We jump from v36 to v38.
Verse 37 does not appear in the oldest manuscripts and so is not included in the modern translations. (You will probably see it in a footnote). I think the verse was only starting to be inserted in the copies from 500 AD onwards.
It could have been inserted to show that actually baptism isn’t what brought the Ethiopian to faith but it was his belief in Jesus Christ.
In our generation we don’t need verse 37, certainly not in some places of the world.
On Tuesday evening I attended an event where I listened to an old missionary share of his experiences in Iraq and Iran. He showed a film testimony of a man who described how and why he changed his religion to become a Christian and he did it by baptism. I was so moved by the dedication and high risk element of this. The missionary described the many Jesus followers who he had personally baptised who entered the water shaking with fear because they knew what leaving the old life was going to mean for them. It would potentially mean death, it certainly meant hardship of a scale none of us in the west have ever known. I recalled the baptisms I did a couple of years ago in a small lake in an Islamic country. I have never seen such determination on a baptismal candidate. They approached me in the water as if they were going to swim a mile not simply go under.
In these places belief isn’t enough. Belief without baptism is not an option. They MUST be baptised and the sacrifice that this calls for is everything and it moves me deeply and to tears even now as I write this.
Of course belief is enough and if you haven’t been baptised for whatever reason but believe in your heart Jesus is Lord and confess this with your mouth, then you are saved. But for those in other parts of the world, well, a Jesus follower doesn’t need verse 37 to prove they are saved, for baptism is everything, it is the sign of death to their religion and their life.