I love to read an old text with new eyes and see things I have never seen before. Acts 8:26-40 provides one of those “new eyes” experiences. If you are a student of the Bible or have heard any sermons on this text you know the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch. The great evangelist Philip made a tough journey to a remote place, chased the man down in his chariot, and taught him about Jesus.
To me this story has always been about the character of the man who obeyed the Gospel or the one who taught the Gospel. Recently my “new eyes” saw something else.
Philip went to the chariot and taught the Ethiopian about Jesus. That is what we usually see. What may have been missed is that before he taught him Jesus, he heard him read the book of Isaiah. After hearing him read part of Isaiah 53 Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading.” (Acts 8:30)Only after asking that question was he able to teach him about Jesus. I call that the “Reading Isaiah Moment.” It is the event that happens that opens the door to someone hearing about Jesus.
Evangelism is not about cold calling and knocking on doors like someone selling magazines. Evangelism is not about grabbing someone by the shirt collar and making them listen. Evangelism is about finding those moments when someone is reading the book of Isaiah or doing something else that opens the door to a conversation about Jesus.
I have participated in those door knocking campaigns that try to find strangers. It did not work well then and it does not work well now. What does work is finding someone in a “Reading Isaiah Moment” and opening a conversation about Jesus. Once the conversation starts then you can do exactly the same thing Philip did. “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” (8:35).
A “reading Isaiah moment” happens in all of our lives. Don’t miss it when it does. A soul may depend on it.
Lonnie Davis
While reading a blog the other day, I came across these words:
“I have decided that every Monday I will post a Faith lesson, it will be appropriate for families with children, and hopefully adaptable to other circumstances too.”
The problem is that the resolution was dated 15 months earlier and was not followed by any more postings. As a preacher I have great empathy for that want-to-be writer. I have made many public resolutions that simply faded into the landscape with nothing being done. It is a terrible feeling. I guess we all do that in some areas of our life. Sometimes it is inconsequential, but sometimes it is not.
Paul reasoned with a governor named Felix. He spoke to him of “righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come.” Upon hearing Paul, he was “afraid and said, ‘That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you” (Acts 24:25). Sadly there is no record or indication that Felix ever sent for him again. Perhaps he just did not find a convenient time, but I imagine it was because he did not like what was heard.
You can put things off that are not really important, but for matters of faith, we must make time. Do not look for a convenient time to study the Bible, to pray to God, to worship, to teach your family about God. Make time!
An old man was told by a friend that he would do something when he had time. He responded, “I suppose you have all the time there is. It is just a matter of what is important to you.”
Is faith important to you? Then spend some time on matters of faith.
Lonnie Davis
We’ve all heard the old adage, “Slow and steady wins the race.” This truth is the theme of the old fable about the tortoise and the hare. If you are like me, you first read about the tortoise beating the rabbit when you were in grade school. Back then that was just a story about running a race with a rabbit or a turtle. Today this story could be used to measure a person’s maturity. The person who is able to start a task and stay with it is more mature than one who starts and quits, starts and quits and never accomplishes anything.
Six or more years ago, the tech guys at Southwest church started posting our sermons on line once a week. At first there was one sermon on the internet. It was soon two, then three. Before I knew it there were hundreds of Southwest sermons online. I sat down a few weeks ago and decided to pull down those sermons to my computer and save them for posterity.
The task was so daunting that I quit and haven’t gone back to it yet. It was certainly harder to put the sermons online than it is to pull them down, but the sermons were posted because slow and steady wins the race. They have not been saved to my computer because big tasks are hard to complete.
3,000 years ago, Solomon told us this when he said “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned.” (Ecc 9:11).
Admittedly Solomon says that “Time and chance happen to all,” but I will add that sometimes it is because some people have the power to stick to the task. Some people know that “Slow and steady wins the race.”
Lonnie Davis