Castlemaine Church of Christ

In our ‘Table talk’ group last Sunday night we looked at a passage from Acts 8. It had some very interesting things taking place as we saw people scattered because of persecution after Stephen’s death. One person within that chapter stood out, it was Philip. He was one who ended up in Samaria where he preached the gospel message to the Samaritans. As we remember, Philip (a Greek speaking Jew, full of Holy Spirit and wisdom) was one of the seven chosen earlier after a dispute broke out when the Grecian widows were overlooked (by the Hebraic Jews) in the daily distribution of food (chp 6:). Philip’s humility and willing heart to serve in ministry was evident. Originally serving on tables, he was now, (in chapter 8), being used by God to be a vessel to bring the Samaritans the good news of salvation.

As I thought more on this, I know God sees and knows the heart of each person. With Philip and with us, he sees if we are willing to do the sometimes ‘mundane’ jobs within the community of faith. He sees if we are committed first to the areas in which we have said we will minister, and in seeing this God is then able to use our availability for future ministries of his choosing. From serving on tables, God then used Philip to not only proclaim the good news of salvation, but to do the miraculous! As the scriptures say “the crowds saw the miraculous signs he did……with shrieks evil spirits came out of many and many paralytics and cripples were healed (7).” As we read proclamation of the gospel together with the miraculous, drew people into the kingdom of God!

Jesus is always our best example in servanthood. He took the hard road, with its ridicule and rejections and yet he stood the test of time not deterring from his calling, then God glorified him to the highest honour in heaven and earth.

I read once that ‘serving is living’; ‘serving is the pathway to greatness; and ‘you are great when you serve’.

Thank you to those who serve so faithfully on the many rosters we have, and the many roles of ministry we have in this church. God Bless the commitment, time and effort you put in, you are greatly appreciated.

Julie

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