Sunday 19 Oct 2008

Sunday Reading: Acts 21:27-32
 
Key Verse: Acts 21:27
27  And when the seven days were about to be completed, the Jews who were from Asia, having seen him in the temple, stirred up all the crowd and laid hands on him,

Devotion:
How many times have you seen people being stirred up in the name of religion? We see it all the time nowadays on television where certain religions have people who stir up the congregations to a frenzy so that they do things which do not seem lawful. Here the Jews from Asia stirred up the rest of the Jews to the extent where they all tried to come upon Paul, grabbing him and taking him outside the temple and then started beating him up. It seems a familiar sight to see crowds of people beating up another because of some difference in their views...

Paul used to be one of them. He used to be one of the men that were now beating him up. He used to be one that would stir up the crowds to beat up Christians and the like... just because they were saying something different to what they wanted to hear! We read our Old Testaments and we know we are looking at the same Law and scriptures that those Jews were trusting. We compare what happened in the days of Christ with various scripture references and we can clearly deduct that Christ is our Saviour... Yet there are still Jews who continue to refuse to believe this one fact. There are other religions who will also say that Christ is not our Saviour but simply a prophet.

What our bibles do not say is that we should treat all other people who do not believe the same as we do as objects that we can beat up! What our bibles teach us is that we need to love others as we love our God. We need to tell others of our God and the things that He has done for us. Yet Jesus also tells us that we need to make sure that we are not a stumbling block against others that will prevent them from coming to know Him. We need to lead by example, love and mercy just as Jesus would want us to them a part of Him. Let us go forward in peace and love and not in vanity and strife.

Points to Ponder:
How often do you see others argue over religions?
 
How often do you show them God’s love through what you do?