Share Your Faith

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Bill Crowder, and I titled our reading, Share Your Faith. In 1701, the Church of England founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in order to send missionaries around the globe. The motto they chose was transient adieu vanos, Latin for come over and help us. This has been the call to gospel ambassadors since the first century, as followers of Jesus take the message of his love and forgiveness to a world in desperate need of it. The phrase come over and help us comes from the Macedonian call described in Acts 16. Paul and his team had arrived at Troas on the west coast of Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. There, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us. Having received the vision, Paul and his companions got ready at once to leave for Macedonia.

They understood the vital importance of the call. Not everyone is called to cross the seas, but we can support those who do with our prayers and finances. And all of us can tell someone, whether across the room, the street, or the community, about the good news of Jesus.

Let's pray that our good God will enable us to cross over and give people the greatest help of all, the opportunity for forgiveness in Jesus name. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Acts chapter 16 verses 1 through 10. Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer, but whose father was Greek. The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, though they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey, so the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to, so they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us.

After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Let's pray. Loving Father, You sent Your Son for our rescue and forgiveness. Equip us to be an agent of Your great good news that forgiveness and freedom are available to whoever will receive Jesus by faith. Thank You, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Bill Crowder, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.