Sixth Day of Advent

Friday, December 6, 2019

The Wonder of What God Has Done Through His Son:

An Advent Devotional Guide

And the statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.  Acts 6:5

This little verse is often just passed over as having little or no significance when we read this chapter of the early life of the church. But, oh, how clearly it gives guidance to us today!

The church was growing in number, and the disciples, the ones whom Jesus had personally trained, had their hands full! They had to preach and teach, take care of the spiritual needs of the many people who were coming to Christ in faith. They just did not have time to take care of the business of looking after widows and feeding the poor. So they called together a group of believers and told them to select men to do this work, while they continued to attend to proclaiming the verbal message of Jesus.

And that’s what they did. They chose the ones listed above to do what we might think was less important than proclaiming the message. But look at the qualifications they brought to their jobs: they were men “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” And one of them was not even a Jew by birth but a proselyte!

Howe appropriate for us to look at what each of us does in the church. All cannot preach. All cannot teach. All cannot counsel. But we can do the church’s work, gathering food for the needy, feeding the poor, managing the financial affairs, serving on committees, organizing and directing the church’s work, reaching out to neighbors. All we need to be equipped for this work is to be people of faith, filled with the Holy Spirit!

Father, faith is a gift from you. Fill us with faith and your Spirit so that we can be effective workers for you. Amen

The Wonder of What God Has Done Through His Son:

An Advent Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Winter 2009
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator