MODUS OPERANDI
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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Lord God, for the love that you have made known in and through Jesus, your Son. Thank you, Father, for making your love known to me.
Read ACTS 14:1—7
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Acts
Acts 14
1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.
2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.
4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles.
5 There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them.
6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country,
7 where they continued to preach the gospel.
Reflect
How would you define your work on behalf of God’s kingdom?These verses present us with one of Luke’s characteristic summaries. As the work in Iconium unfolds in much the same way it has in previous locations, there is no need to recount it in detail. One difference is a serious threat arising from leaders on all sides (v. 5), so Paul and Barnabas move on to minister in another area (vv. 6, 7). Given a few sentences, I wonder how we would describe the everyday events of our own ministry, whatever we understand it to be.
Much more than a narrative device, this overview offers insights we can live by. We see the value of a strategy for sharing Jesus (and develop one), we recognize the reality of opposition (and cultivate resilience), and we are encouraged to continue, wherever events carry us. Closed doors may be nudges into a new area. Above all, we are reminded that this is for God, and that the centerpiece is the story of his grace, which he delights to prove in marvelous ways. Doesn’t that stir something in you? We may not be pioneering first-century missionaries, but there are new frontiers in every neighborhood, opportunities for boldness in every office, and countless wonderful ways God wants to reveal more of his person and power to or through us each day.
Apply
Use the lyrics of Charles Wesley’s hymn ‘Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I Go’* as a starting point for prayer.
Closing prayer
Jesus, I’m amazed that I get to play a part in your work in the world. Please show me more of what it means to labor with you.
*’Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I Go’, Charles Wesley, 1749.
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