When I was a boy I heard the story of a village in Lanarkshire, Scotland where so many people got saved that the local pubs and ale houses had to close down. The men of the village where turning to God and giving up their old drinking habits. They had found something better. Something that satisfied. Something that drink could never complete with. This was true in the case of my grandfather as well. He had gone to sea as a boy of 14 and had spend 27 years sailing the oceans of the world. He had seen life and knew how to take his drink but it never satisfied him. One time he was home from the sea my grandmother, who was a believer, took him to a meeting to hear a missionary from Africa preach. That was the night my grandad got saved. He never drank again. You see he had found something that really satisfied and he didn't need the drink any more.
The second conversion story in Acts 16 is about a girl whose life was a mess because of sin. It would seem as if she was trapped in her lifestyle. She was also demon possessed. The men she worked for were making money out of her. Paul and Silas were on their way back to the prayer meeting we talked about yesterday. On the journey this girl met them. Somehow she recognised that they were men who served God so she started to shout about it. For days this went on until Paul commanded the demon to come out of her. She was freed immediately.
The men who had enslaved her were not too happy about her liberty and freedom. They had lost their source of income. Salvation from sin frees a persons and brings them into present and eternal blessing. That however doesn't mean that other people will be happy about it.
Paul and Silas end up in Prison as a result. Tomorrow we will discover that God has allowed this to happen for a reason.
Have a good day,
Stephen
Acts 16
16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:17 the same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. 18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, 20 and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, 21 and teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. 22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. 23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: 24 who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
KJV - Acts 16:16-24
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