Skip to main content

Acts 8:26-40: On the Road to Smithers...

Let me tell you a true story.  I was helping with The Salvation Army’s forest fire relief program in BC. Myself and another person, Chris, were posted to Smithers to give The Salvation Army ministry lead there a bit of a break. Our job was to support the staff, volunteers, evacuees, and the people who were at the reception centre. People who were evacuated needed to come there to register and we would offer them food and emotional and spiritual support as it was required.

We were staying at the Salvation Army Mountainview Camp between Houston and Smithers and we would drive in every day.  On this one particular day as we were driving back from a day’s work in Smithers we were so engaged in our conversation or something that we drove right past the camp and right into Houston before we realized what we had done. We thought it was an accident but the truth is that we had a divine appointment. Just like the Ethiopian picked up Phillip from the side of the road, Chris pulled over and we picked up a firefighter looking for a ride back to Smithers. And just like the Ethiopian was reading the Scriptures; so was Lukas, the fellow we picked up from the side of the road. He was reading from the book of Mark. And just like the Ethiopian asked Phillip to explain to him what Isaiah meant; Lucas, when he heard we  were providing spiritual care for people, hauled out a little New Testament Bible that he had just been reading by the side of the road and flipped through Mark, asking us to explain whatever we could from his gospel: what does it mean to hide your light under a bushel? How about the parable of the mustard seed? And what is the yeast of the Pharisees? Phillip explained Isaiah to the Ethiopian, building on whatever had happened before and then he stopped by the side of the road, baptized him and was on his way. We were blessed to explain excerpts from Mark, after he had had an initial conversation with some medics and picked up his Bible. As we reached Smithers we prayed with him as we let him out of the car and we continued on our way. I have had this passage in Acts 8 going through my head ever since. I don’t generally pick up hitchhikers and if I were to, I wouldn’t expect them to have a Bible in hand asking me to explain it to them. But this is the grace of God.

God loves us so much that He has saved us. He promises that He will be with us through tough times – like losing our homes in a fire or any other such trouble – or good times – like meeting new friends and praying with and for them. And we never know when God will give us a chance to do just that. So like Susan encouraged us last week to share our testimony, I encourage us to pray and read our Bible because who knows when God may send someone into your path like the Ethiopian or Lucas who just wants you to explain the love of God to them

 More daily blogs at
More articles, sermons, and papers at
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psalm 147:7-11: Does God Prohibit the Kilt?

  7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;     make music to our God on the harp.   8 He covers the sky with clouds;     he supplies the earth with rain     and makes grass grow on the hills. 9 He provides food for the cattle     and for the young ravens when they call.   10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,     nor his delight in the legs of a man [or ‘the warrior’]; 11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,     who put their hope in his unfailing love.   Psalm 147:10 : “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man.” I thought this was an appropriate passage to look at on Robbie Burns Day. For Christmas one year Susan bought me some Bible Commentaries on Psalms. In one of these books the author, Peter C. Craigie, from Scotland, writes:   …. It was the custom in Scotland for boys to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Poor No More! Count me in! (Mt 26:11, Mk 14:7, Jn 12:8, Dt 15:11)

Matthew 26:11 (Mark 14:7, John 12:8) Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 15:11 in saying, “the poor will always be with you”   As this is the case, Ignacio Ellacuria says, in essence, the great salvific task is to evangelize the poor so that out of their poverty they may attain the spirit necessary first to escape their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third to be used to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth, where sharing trumps accumulating and where there is time to hear and enjoy God’s voice in the heart of the material world and in the heart of human history. [3]   I think that is very important. We need to evangelize the poor. We know what the word evangelize means, right? It comes from the Greek word ‘euangelion’, which means ‘good message’ or ‘good news’. [4]  We need to share the good news with the poor. Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4:18, in his very early sermon in the synagogue in his very own hometown quoted the prophet Isaia...
Post a Comment
Read more

Resurrection and Frankenstein's Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17 and Revelation 21 3b-4)

 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  We went to see Frankenstein the Ballet last night. If anyone knows that story. The beginning is like the book. Dr. Frankenstein makes a creation out of the parts of corpses who had had terrible things happen in their lives - and then he brings life to the new creation and it becomes whole - with a whole new lease on life. A new chance to live. No matter all the awful stuff that had happened before. Now - the book actually ends poorly after that but the ballet does not. The ballet includes a story of Giselle. This bride, who herself suffered a horrible fate, learned forgiveness and is resurrected. She meets Frankenstein's creation; they fall in love - and start off again, this time living a transformed life. Revelation 21:3b-4: God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or ...
Post a Comment
Read more