Passage of the Day - November 23, 2010

Acts 9:19b-22

Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus,

 ²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God."

 ²¹All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, "Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?"

 ²²But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

The problem many of us face is that we fear doing something for God because our reputation precedes us.  For example, we wouldn’t bring a Bible to work, not because our work wouldn’t allow it, or that we are ashamed of being a Christian, but because people might be downright shocked to know that we were a Christian based upon what kind of an employee/person we were a while back.  Perhaps we would feel strange letting our friends know that we want to go on a missions trip because they have seen our foot in the world more than our foot in God’s kingdom.  Where in the Bible do we see someone’s past cause God to say, “Whoops, I didn’t mean you after all.  Upon further review of our records, we found some stuff in your past that makes you useless to Me.”?  Instead, God continually uses murderers like Moses, prostitutes like Rahab, Christ deniers like Peter, those seeking to commit murder and stand by while the innocent get murdered like Saul/Paul, adulterers like David, and those who create golden calf idols to satisfy the public like Aaron.  Do not let Satan grip you with fear and shame and simply be amazed by how God can use you for His glory.