ONE matters

Acts 8.26-40 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road--the desert road--that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 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. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Wow! and Good Day to you~

"If only God would show me His will, then I would do it," I've oft heard expressed. What we really want, though, is a picture of the next few years, so we can relax and just kinda' go with it... God often gives us just the first step, though we don't want to move until we know what the next several steps will be, or better yet, our final destination. ('Reminds me of Bill Cosby's Noah sketch, where Noah talks back to God, and God reminds him, "Come on, you know I don't work like that.") Think of all that Philip was involved in at Samaria; it didn't make sense to pull him out and send him down to God-forsaken Gaza--what was God doing? Obviously, this is where trust comes in--and perspective--He is God, and we are not. He often gives us the first step, but doesn't give us the second step until we have obeyed the first. He sees the picture clearly, and we are called to trust Him--period. If you want to hear more from God, do what He has already directed you to do, and He will lead you further. I have clearly seen this demonstrated in my own life lately, and really, the adventure is very thrilling!

God was in pursuit of the Ethiopian's soul, as we see from this passage, so He sent Philip to explain Jesus and the Gospel to him. One man mattered. Aaahhhh, so-- God is concerned about even ONE? Oh, yes, remember back in Luke 15, we saw three examples of Jesus' teaching where an all-out search was undertaken to reclaim that which was LOST~ The shepherd leaves the 99 to rescue the lost ONE. . . Philip is called from preaching the Gospel to the crowd to go and reach ONE. I love that about God--ONE matters.

The Ethiopian had been to Jerusalem to worship, (the Queen of Sheba had taken Judaism to Ethiopia at the time of Solomon), and was on his way home, when Philip saw him, sitting in his chariot reading. It would have had to be a scroll he was reading, and probably a rather cumbersome one, at that. Step two: "Get over close to him, and stay by him." And so Philip does. From there, you have a sense that Philip's next steps were intuitive--he inquired what the man was reading, and then he knew--he knew that God had brought him to this moment, for this man. . . yes, as we talked about yesterday, 'for such a time as this'. Now, he was on familiar ground--why, he had been explaining the Gospel message for days in Samaria, but now it was just one-on-one! Why? Because to God, ONE matters. . . especially one who is seeking after God, which clearly the Ethiopian was, since he had made the long pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship. Indeed, ONE matters.

A violent storm battered the beach and left behind hundreds of starfish washed up on the shore. Starfish as far as you could see. A boy walked down the beach and began throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one at a time. Soon a man walked up and asked, "What are you doing? You'll never get all these starfish back into the sea--you're wasting your time! What does it matter?" The boy turned and bent down, picked up a starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned to look at the man and said, "It mattered to that one."

Acts 1.8 - You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In the Greco-Roman world, Ethiopia was considered to be the southernmost extent of civilization, so we now see the Great Commission being fulfilled "to the ends of the earth."

Look for opportunities to follow God where He is working. . .
obey what He prompts you to do. . .
get in the game.
And remember. . . ONE always matters.
Christine (DiGiacomo)

Bill Cosby's Noah sketch, in full: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0KHt8xrQkk