“For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” – Acts 4:20
In my career as an administrative assistant, I was tasked with communicating information to employees. I created bulletin board postings and e-mails, designed closed circuit TV content and newsletter articles, prepared home mailings and posters.
Some employees only looked at the bulletin board. A few actually read their e-mails. Many threw away the home mailings or didn’t attend staff meetings. There was no single method to communicate with everyone. We learned if we needed to distribute important information, duplicating the message on all communication devices was the best possible method.
Friends, we have important messages to share! We need to be using all the communication methods to reach the lost for Christ. Some attend church, but many don’t. A few faithfully read their Bible, but many have never owned one. Searching souls listen to the radio or read online magazines, yet thousands are still lost.
How can we make sure the best news of all time reaches the ends of the Earth? The commission Jesus gave hundreds of years ago is still valid today. How do we go and preach the gospel? How can we be His witnesses to those in our world?
Think about what you do when you read a great book, try a new restaurant, find a huge sale. You tell someone! We can simply tell those around us what the Lord has done for us.
Recall the account in Acts where Peter and John healed the crippled man at the temple gate (Acts 3). All who knew this man were filled with wonder and amazement. Word spread fast! A man who had been crippled from birth, who was over 40 years old, was now walking and praising God.
The Sadducees also noticed and were disturbed. “By what power or what name did you do this?” they asked. (Acts 4:7b) When credit was given to the resurrected Jesus, the rulers were even more disturbed and commanded Peter and John to stop teaching in the name of Jesus.
How courageous of Peter and John to take a stand, even when threatened. Can we be so bold? We still live in a time where there is great freedom to speak. The days are fast approaching when we may also be silenced. Until then, let’s call on the power of the Holy Spirit, as Peter and John bravely did, and tell the world. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Thank you, Jesus!
