Acts 19:17&20 ….and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
At one stage of his travels through Asia, the Apostle Paul touched down in Ephesus and began preaching J.C and baptizing in His name. He spent about two years there spreading the Word throughout all Asia. During this time, God also worked miracles through him; healing the sick and lame. This seemed to provoke certain renegade Jews though, who took it upon themselves to drive out evil spirits from the mentally ill by calling on the name of Jesus by whom Paul preached. The story goes that one man, Seeva, a chief priest, had seven sons, who tried that. However, unfortunately for them, the evil spirit they were trying to drive out, retorted that he knew J.C and Paul, but not them. Then the man with the evil spirit attacked them and they fled out of the house naked and wounded. Served them right. Obviously, that news soon spread all over Ephesus, scaring the inhabitants ‘…and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.’ How fitting! Although it seems that we can’t accept and believe until something happens that scares us. But the story does not end there. The scriptures claim that many people who believed came and confessed their sinful deeds. Also, many of them who dabbled in other forms of worship, brought their books and burnt them before their brethren, and when the price of the burnt stuff was added up, it came to a grand total of fifty thousand pieces of silver: a decent chunk of change anytime, anywhere. And ‘So, mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.’ What an intriguing story! Friends, most of us cannot perform miracles, and should certainly not try to drive out evil spirits, but each of us has some little gift given to us by Our Father, and in our small way, we can all say and do something to magnify Him, so that others will want to come to Him and accept the wonderful gift of salvation He so freely and generously offers. Let’s try to ramp up our efforts in this area please. Much LOVE, and hopefully, much spreading of The Word!
At one stage of his travels through Asia, the Apostle Paul touched down in Ephesus and began preaching J.C and baptizing in His name. He spent about two years there spreading the Word throughout all Asia. During this time, God also worked miracles through him; healing the sick and lame. This seemed to provoke certain renegade Jews though, who took it upon themselves to drive out evil spirits from the mentally ill by calling on the name of Jesus by whom Paul preached. The story goes that one man, Seeva, a chief priest, had seven sons, who tried that. However, unfortunately for them, the evil spirit they were trying to drive out, retorted that he knew J.C and Paul, but not them. Then the man with the evil spirit attacked them and they fled out of the house naked and wounded. Served them right. Obviously, that news soon spread all over Ephesus, scaring the inhabitants ‘…and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.’ How fitting! Although it seems that we can’t accept and believe until something happens that scares us. But the story does not end there. The scriptures claim that many people who believed came and confessed their sinful deeds. Also, many of them who dabbled in other forms of worship, brought their books and burnt them before their brethren, and when the price of the burnt stuff was added up, it came to a grand total of fifty thousand pieces of silver: a decent chunk of change anytime, anywhere. And ‘So, mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.’ What an intriguing story! Friends, most of us cannot perform miracles, and should certainly not try to drive out evil spirits, but each of us has some little gift given to us by Our Father, and in our small way, we can all say and do something to magnify Him, so that others will want to come to Him and accept the wonderful gift of salvation He so freely and generously offers. Let’s try to ramp up our efforts in this area please. Much LOVE, and hopefully, much spreading of The Word!
SCRIP-BITS 