Focus on Eternity

Overcoming Obstacles        While Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke gathered by the riverside, an obstacle was placed in their path.   Scriptures tell us that these men repeatedly encountered a slave girl who was possessed by a spirit of divination that was providing revelation on who they were .   “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” [1 ] (Acts 16:17 ESV) Why do you think Paul grew tired of this pesky spirit speaking words of truth?   Was it due to annoyance over being interrupted, or could Paul have understood that this spirit had something else up its sleeve other than truth-telling?   What we can draw from this account is, Paul was aware that this spirit was not of the flesh and required the weapons of spiritual warfare, “F or though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to d...

What Next, Waiting on God's Response     Paul was eager to serve the lost, both Jew and Gentile, on this his second missionary journey.   He has already retraced his steps going from Derbe to Lystra to Iconium, and then on to Antioch outside Pisidia.   Paul has just received a message from the Holy Spirit that his plans to enter Asia have been thwarted , and not long after we see specific locations that he is not allowed to go:   Mysia and Bithynia.   So what conclusions might Paul have made when he received these repetitive ‘no-go’ messages?   What questions might you have when obstacles replace opportunities as you set plans for your future?   One might question, as I have, why would a loving God close doors and not allow His redemptive message to be delivered to these specific people?   Underlying my question was a false assumption.   God wasn’t preventing His message from arriving, but Paul’s timing was not in sync with...

Introduction      There was a time when I failed to recognize why Paul would call us to be imitators of him (1 Corinthians 4:6 and 1 Corinthians 11:1), but it was only for lack of knowledge about him that caused me to miss the relevance of his request.   Now that I’ve taken time to study his life and his commitments to the gospel, I have a much deeper understanding and more defined impression of why he made this request.   I find him to be an excellent mentor for my walk of faith.   Today we will look at an example found in Acts chapter 16.   Although this story is concise, I will break my writing into multiple parts because of the wealth of information I gathered from this story.   I hope you will find mutual benefit from reading my review.   We will take periodic breaks in the retelling of this story to ask questions and pause for personal reflection. Heading Out in Faith      In this chapter (Acts 16), ...

  This weekend I had the assignment to teach a portion of the apostle Paul’s journey to my fifth grade Sunday School class.  As I prepared the lesson, I focused on the diversity of believers that existed in each leg of the apostle Paul and Barnabas’ expedition.         T hen, beginning with their departure from the church of Antioch (in Syria) where the Holy Spirit instructed the elders to send Barnabas and Saul out on their first missionary journey, I charted each territory, church plant, appointment of elders, healings, triumphs, and trials.  We illustrated both region and city and the population diversity of Jew, Greek, believer, non-believer, false prophets, and city leaders with various colors on the chart.  This visual representation not only showed the path traveled but the obstacles these apostles faced in each location.  As I reviewed the details found between Acts 13 and Acts 15 in pictorial form, I now had a new set of...