{Your Heart Here} Week 5

February 12, 2012

Acts 8:27-31

Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.  Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”  So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

A Heart that Shares Love

The Ethiopian was a strange man from a strange land.  He was not like everyone else.  He didn’t fit into the normal patterns of worship and life that people were used to.  He was an outsider.  Yet Philip went to him.  God prompted Philip to go to this man…the outsider.  How willing are we to go to the outsider with the message of God?  For us, the outsider is often the person who is not part of church, who behaves in a way that we don’t approve of, or who we can’t see how God could change their life.  We are surrounded by “outsiders” most of our day.  Often we say little about God or faith in the presence.

Philip went to the outsider.  He went where the outsider was.  He listened.  He spoke from his experience and his knowledge.  He told the Ethiopian the Good News of Christ and because of this the Ethiopian came to know the Lord.  Philip even baptized him.  The outsider went on his way rejoicing and the message of Christ spread.  The heart that serves God is a heart that shares the love of God for all people.  Who is the “outsider” you need to talk to this week?