God’s Good News is Worth Sharing

Today’s reading: Acts 11:19-26

 Today’s reading makes discipleship sound easy.

^“Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.” (Verses 20-21)

Christianity began with a happy flourish in Antioch. A few men just arrived in town, began talking about Jesus, and people turned to Him, almost immediately it seems.

Boy what a difference a couple of thousand years makes. The Good News of Christ just doesn’t seem to have the same affect today.  I suppose the novelty has worn off.  Talking of God today is more likely to inspire rolled eyes than converted hearts.

I think of these early Christians every time I hear someone thank God for the freedom to worship him openly in our country — and in most of the modern world, in fact. The men who started the church in Antioch didn’t have that luxury. Their teaching was a crime! They put themselves, and all who listened, at great risk with every sentence.

Yet people turned to God anyway. And Christianity became a force.

This is an eternal inspiration for me in my modern practice of discipleship of Christ.

It’s true that I probably won’t be arrested or tortured for talking about Christ these days. But I am very likely to be ridiculed or ignored. And in a worst case, I may be ostracized.

Is that’s all I have to face?

Thanks be to God for His Good News. May I always have the courage and wisdom to carry it forth — even in the midst of indifference.