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DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

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Acts 17:13-15

13 When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

NIV

What is it with this guys from Thessalonica? Couldn’t they just be satisfied they had run Paul out of their area? Now they had to come to Berea and cause trouble. It seems we will always find some that are so opposed to our message about what we believe to be true, mainly because it is true. But will we encounter those who will hunt us down just so they can discredit our message? Of course they are people today we agitate the crowds stirring them up against the message of Jesus Christ. They are stirring up the crowd when they pour out the propaganda about evolution, or climate change, animal rights, gay rights, hate speech and pro-choice. These are all anti-God sentiments. Instead if after to run after us from town to town as they had to do in Paul’s they now have the use of multi-media and social networks to spew their hatred for the truth of God and stirring up support for their cause from the low information portion of society. Those ideologies entrap, ensnare their followers with false information which sounds good but has no truth. God will set people free, the truth actually set people free from the bondage of sin which causes death, a spiritual death. Yet we will always have people who will hate the truth so much they will try any tactic to shut the truth up. There may be some day when we will actually be hunted down, and if that happens we need to be prepared to take our stand against the forces of evil. Yes, Paul escaped the crowds, to preach another day, but in fact he was standing up for God. The message would reach many more people and the church will be build and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. As Paul was a messenger, so we are as well. We are all called to take out stand. The world might try to discredit our message, but we will continue on.