August 20th - Acts 14:2-3

Acts 14:2-3 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. Paul and Barnabas were having an amazing time on their first missionary journey. A large number of people were accepting their message and becoming followers of Jesus. At the same time, they were meeting fierce opposition. At Iconium, in central Turkey, the mob was stirred up against them and, after a while, the situation became so dangerous that they fled the city. There was every possibility that they were going to be stoned to death. But I love the fact that amid the intensity of the opposition, their message was one of grace. It must have been very tempting for them to turn on the crowd and deliver a message of judgement and condemnation, but they chose to speak about the grace of the Lord. Grace is a dominant theme in Paul’s ministry. He taught that there is nothing that we can do to gain salvation. It is completely outside our grasp. But, because God is so incredibly generous, He was willing to do for us what we could never do for ourselves and set us free from our sins. We Christians have many things that we would like to say to our society but, above everything else, we need to ensure that we are declaring boldly the grace of the Lord. Question In what way would you explain the grace of God to someone who had never heard about it before? Prayer Gracious God, thank you for Your generosity to me. Help me to always speak to others with grace. Amen