Keep Talking about Jesus!

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled, Keep Talking About Jesus, was written by Allison Keita. In an interview, a musician who is a believer in Christ recalls a time he was urged to stop talking about Jesus so much.

Why? It was suggested that his band could be more famous and raise more money to feed the poor if he stopped saying his work was all about Jesus. After thinking it through, he decided, the entire point of my music is to share my faith in Christ.

No way am I going to be silent. He said his burning calling is to share the message of Jesus. Under much more threatening circumstances, the apostles in Acts 5 received a similar message. They'd been jailed and miraculously delivered by an angel who told them to continue telling others about their new life in Christ. When the religious leaders learned of the apostles' escape and that they were still proclaiming the gospel, they reprimanded them, �We gave you strict orders not to teach in Jesus' name.� Their reply? �We must obey God rather than human beings.� As a result, the leaders flogged the apostles and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus. The apostles rejoiced that they were worthy of suffering for Jesus' name and day after day never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news.

May God help us to keep following their example. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Acts 5, verses 17-21, 25-29, and 41-42. Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. �Go, stand in the temple courts,� he said, �and tell the people all about this new life.� At daybreak, they entered the temple courts as they had been told and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, the full assembly of the elders of Israel, and sent to the jail for the apostles.

Now picking up at verse 25. Then someone came and said, �Look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.� At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force because they feared that the people would stone them. The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. �We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,� he said, �yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man�s blood.� Peter and the other apostles replied, �We must obey God rather than human beings.� And now verses 41 and 42. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.

Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. Let�s pray. Dear God, we thank you for this great example of the apostles and others who were bold witnesses for you. Please give us the same courage to follow their lead. Thank you, Lord. It�s in Jesus� name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening. My name is Rachelle Traube, and our encouragement from today was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.