Acts 8:4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Just like the apostles in yesterday’s reading, the “ordinary believers,” on being scattered by persecution, continued to do the very thing that had provoked the persecution! The pressure just deepened their conviction that the truth they had experienced was more important than their comfort or even their physical life. After all, they had eternal life! That attitude is all too rare today, particularly in “comfortable” countries like the US or Japan. That’s why the very public martyrdom of Charlie Kirk had such an impact. It showed millions of people that God’s truth is worth dying for, which is the opposite of the effect desired by the gunman. Young people today live in what would have been unimaginable luxury not that many years ago, and they are hungry for something to give it all meaning. There is no deeper or higher meaning than being a child of God! Once you accept that God is your Father and Jesus died for you, rising from the grave to prove what He has provided for you, everything else fades into insignificance. It has rightly been said that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” The forces of evil made a huge tactical mistake when they shot Charlie Kirk!

I’ve never liked the idea of suffering, particularly, but martyrdom itself has never scared me. Maybe that’s easy for me to say, because I’ve never been particularly persecuted for my faith! The point for me is to be like the believers mentioned in this verse, constantly sharing the Gospel wherever I go. In a little over a week Cathy and I will be going to the annual meeting of the Japan Cockayne Syndrome Network. Not only will I have interaction over three days with the families and doctors who will be there, I will have two formal opportunities to share, once with parents of children who have already died, and once with the whole group in a memorial service for those who died in the past year. I am to seek God’s wisdom in all of that, but be totally unrestrained by worries about how I will be seen or received. We are already loved by most of the people in that group! However, my sharing of the good news of Jesus isn’t to be limited to when I’m out of town. I’ll be having my feet and legs massaged today by someone who is not yet a believer, and she’s another real opportunity. Tomorrow I will be seeing a man I’ve been working with for several months, as well as getting a haircut from my regular barber. Both of them are targets! I am to recognize the opportunities the Lord gives me and make full use of them, so that the family of God may continue to increase, one person at a time.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me be an effective communicator of Your Gospel, not being afraid of man but being bold in You, so that Your Word may have its full work through me, (Isaiah 55:11) for the salvation of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!