Every Place Along The Way

 ACTS IN 90 DAYS

A reading for Tuesday, September 1, 2020: Acts 21:1-16.

"We looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven days."

Most who read the book of Acts no longer recognize the names of the cities. Paul and his companions are now traveling back from the Gentile world to the Jewish world, and each city and village has significance as they get ever closer to the Holy City.

In each place, notice there are believers and Paul as his troop are hosted, fed and given rest. The Kingdom of God has grown into all parts of the Gentile and Jewish world. This journey is not Paul's to take alone, and we can see the care and even concern each community of Christ has for Paul's ultimate welfare. They are worried about their evangelist.

There was a time in America when itinerant preachers would travel from place to place, depending on the hospitality of others for their care and even concern. I personally have had this experience on missions in Honduras and Guatemala, being hosted and fed and given rest when traveling by the believers who lived in cities with unrecognized names. It's a similar network of believers seen in the earliest days of Christianity.

If we take a moment to look up and even look out to the horizon, like Paul we are comforted by the fact that believers in Jesus exist in every place where we travel, and there is no place we can go in our world today that has not been touched by God's grace in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God!