Planting Seeds

Acts 16:29-34

29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.”

So, who was the “man of Macedonia” in Paul’s vision?  I think the “man” in Paul’s vision was Lydia, the dealer in purple cloth, Lydia’s household, the slave-girl who was healed (even if Paul’s motive was not pure), the prisoners in the jail cell, and the jailer and his family.  I think the “man” was everyone in Macedonia who came into contact with and was helped by Paul and Silas.

God gave Paul a vision of a man, then put two unusual women in his path; he used Paul’s annoyance to heal, and his imprisonment to save.

During Paul and Silas’ time in Macedonia, the seeds of the Philippian church, the first Christian church in Europe, were planted.

God works in ways that we do not understand, yet it all comes together…

and it is beautiful to behold.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Suffering

1Samuel 20:1

“Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”

I once knew a man who devoted his life to the service of God.  He gave selflessly and sacrificially and he loved unconditionally.  Yet he suffered.  And I thought, at the time (and still do), that he did not deserve his suffering.  

David, chosen by God to be the next King of Israel, felt persecuted, unjustly. He had served his King, he had won victories over the King’s enemies, he had brought honor to Israel, yet King Saul was trying to kill him.

Sometimes our sufferings make no sense.  Good and innocent people suffer and die while the not so innocent prosper.

David overcame his suffering and became a great king.  In his reign as king, his sufferings seemed always in the back of his mind.  They shaped and molded his reign. 

Our sufferings make us the people that we are.  They will either make us or break us; strengthen our faith or cause us to question it or lose it.

The man I knew loved until his last breath.

God’s love is like that.  

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)