Reflections; Philip Revealed- Our Story: Gods Glory

Greetings Everyone, 

It's been about a month since my last post and boy have a lot of things been happening. I will share some of those things in a later post. For now though I wanted to continue my postings on the series Our Story: Gods Glory.  This post will share some thoughts I had on Phillip. Since I have posted some of these thoughts before I am posting this one as a Reflection. 

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Devotional Reflection

There is a story in Acts chapter 8 that has been on my mind lately. A very powerful story and I really think it can teach us a lot about what we as the church should be doing.

It begins with “a great wave of persecution…sweeping over the church in Jerusalem...” Acts 8:1b. The Believers were forced out of Jerusalem into the regions of Judea and Samaria and a Man named Saul traveled around with one goal in mind, destroy this new church.

Interestingly enough wherever the believers scattered, people heard the news about Jesus and the life he lived. One man named Phillip whom many considered the first evangelist was forced into the city of Samaria and his story is the one I’ve been thinking about lately.

He confidently shared the good news with the people in Samaria and they listened in awe of the stories he was teaching. He performed miracles, healed the sick and drove out many evil spirits. In the end, “there was great Joy in that city,” Acts 8:8.

This one verse made me think, is our church making this kind of impact on the City we live in? The New Testament church impacted people where ever they went and no matter what they were going through, Lives were continually transformed and multitudes were saved on a daily basis.

Here is another question, is this a trend most churches set today? 

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Conversational Notes

Phillip was considered the first Evangelist of the early church aside from Jesus him self of course, we don’t here much about him but he is still pretty important.

When persecution began to sweep the world at a very fast pace he was deep in the middle of it all sweeping through the church in Jerusalem and through to Samaria, he proclaimed the good news to anyone who would listen and is ideally the man that brought some many to Christ before Paul and the Apostles began to preach the message 

He obeyed the holy spirits leading and then seized the day, He was very effective, and kept on going even in spite of all that was going on around him, he was an example to all early Christians and submitted to the Power and guidance of the spirit, and was the first to reach beyond to borders of Judaism.  

We read about him in Acts chapter 8:5-8 (NCV) as well as the rest of the chapter…

Philip went to the city of Samaria and preached about the Christ.When the people there heard Philip and saw the miracles he was doing, they all listened carefully to what he said.Many of these people had evil spirits in them, but Philip made the evil spirits leave. The spirits made a loud noise when they came out. Philip also healed many weak and crippled people there. So the people in that city were very happy.

As we reflect upon our friend Phillip, I encourage you all to remember what he stood for, He was obedient to Gods calling upon his life, and kept Gods word close to his heart, we must also Keep Gods Word Obediently close to our Hearts as well… 

Thanks again for visiting "The Gathering Room"

Stand Strong and continue to believe the teachings given to you... (2 Thes. 2:15b NCV),

M.E.