Monday, January 25, 2021
The Man Who Went Looking for God
“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him” (Acts 8:35 NKJV).
He was a government official, a VIP. He oversaw the treasury of Ethiopia, which was a powerful kingdom at the time. But he didn’t find what he was looking for in the religions of his culture.
He’d heard about the city of Jerusalem, the home of the Jewish people—the people who had a relationship with God. So he went to Jerusalem in search of God, but he didn’t find Him there.
Sadly, the Judaism of the day consisted of a lot of rituals and regulations. But he did obtain a scroll of Isaiah, one of the books of the Bible. And as he rode through the desert in his chariot, he read aloud from Isaiah 53.
Meanwhile, God directed Philip to go and wait for this man in the desert. And then Philip saw this VIP riding along, reading aloud from Isaiah 53.
Acts 8 tells us what happened next: “So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him” (verses 30–31 NKJV). He wanted to know whether the prophet was talking about himself or someone else.
Then the Bible says that “beginning at this Scripture, [Philip] preached Jesus to him” (verse 35 NKJV).
Like this man from Ethiopia, sometimes people don’t know what to make of the Bible. They need someone to show them the way. And that’s exactly what Philip did. He told him how to have a relationship with God.
So the Ethiopian official believed in Jesus, and Philip baptized him that day.
How long does it take to become a Christian? It doesn’t take years, months, or even hours. It can happen in an instant. You can have your life changed in a moment.
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