It’s always good to get updates from the children we support in other countries. This month, we have had letters from Bedline in Haiti (who will be 10 in 2020) and from Innocent in Uganda.

Bedline asks for our prayers for the forthcoming year, especially for her progress at school. She talks about the weather in Haiti, which is a mixture of rain and dry weather.

Innocent (who is 15) writes of his interest in sport (basketball and baseball) and dancing. He talks about new teachers at school and their celebrations of Independence Day on 9th October.

Please continue to pray for these young people, and for Amshika in India, and don’t forget to continue to save change and give donations to help pay for their schooling and healthcare.

Have you ever had a bad day? Some days start badly (the alarm clock fails to go off; you oversleep; it’s a constant rush from the minute you get up) and then progress from bad to worse (everything seems to break down; the milk is off; the car won’t start; the kids are arguing). Some days seem like a nightmare from which you cannot wake up.

Most of us are familiar with that scenario, but the good news is that God never has a bad day! God never gets grumpy or irritable. He is never exhausted from lack of sleep or worn down by squabbling. He is never moody or capricious. God never changes, and because of this, we can face today with a sense of relief and security and stability. No matter what goes wrong, no matter who shouts at us, no matter how bad the news gets, we can rest secure in God’s unfailing love and know that His mercies are new every morning. (Lam 3:22-23)

Acts 8:26-40 gives us an overview of the gospel, though it is described very briefly as ‘the good news about Jesus.’ (Acts 8:35) Philip starts with explaining the verses the eunuch was reading from Isaiah 53, showing us the importance of Scripture in explaining the gospel. Scripture is the foundation on which we build and makes us wise for salvation (see 2 Tim 3:15). He obviously covers a great deal in his conversation, because when the eunuch sees water, he stops the chariot and asks to be baptised. (Acts 8:36) This is another record of water baptism in the early church, and in this instance, the fact that he went down into the water and then came up out of the water (Acts 8:38-39) gives us more details about what form baptism took.

In our church, we baptise those who believe in Jesus Christ by full immersion. Going down into the water represents Christ’s death for us and thus the removal of our sins and rising up from the water represents Christ’s resurrection and victory over sin and death (see Rom 6:3-14). We long to see more people baptised, because this is part of the fulfilment of the Great Commission. It’s telling that even in this relatively short encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, so much theological ground is covered. May we be as effective in communicating the good news as Philip was!

I’ve just been reading Ezra, and in that book are listed the names of the Jews who returned from exile. (Ezra 2) It’s a long list of difficult-to-pronounce names, and like most lists of names in the Bible, we tend to skim over them with a glazed expression on our faces, desperately hoping the preacher won’t ask for these parts of the Bible to be read aloud in a church service! Most of us find lists and genealogies boring and meaningless, but clearly God doesn’t. God values each individual, and these lists of people remind us of the worth of each person.

There are many unnamed people mentioned in the Bible, but we can see from Acts 8:25-40 that even the unnamed ones have value. We don’t know the name of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well (John 4:1-24); we don’t know the names of many of the people converted after Pentecost. Sometimes, however, God gives us a glimpse into the lives of unnamed people and we see from Philip’s conversation with the Ethiopian eunuch how God orchestrates events to reach someone whose name we never know.

We live in a society where individuals may not matter to everybody. God knows each one of us by name, however, and His knowledge is deeply personal and attentive (see Ps 139, Matt 10:30). If He cared enough to send Philip to the Ethiopian’s chariot in order to lead this man to a sure knowledge of salvation, He cares enough to work in the details of our lives and to use us, like Philip, to reach out to others. Who knows how we can spread this message of love if we are truly convinced of the value of each individual? Let’s be open to the leading of God’s Spirit as Philip was.

Let’s start by inviting people to our carol service and praying for them to respond to God’s message of salvation and go on to demonstrate practical love and care for those people we encounter on a regular basis – family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues and so on. God knows what each person needs and we can be partners with Him in sharing the good news of Jesus.

Acts 8:26-40 is a classic example of God’s role in evangelism. Earlier in the chapter, we have seen something of people’s role: ‘Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.’ (Acts 8:4) God wants us all to be messengers of this good news of the gospel; it is not something reserved for an educated few, but should be the passion of every one of Jesus’s disciples. God also calls some people to the work of an evangelist (see Eph 4:11) and undoubtedly those with the gift of evangelism are a great blessing to the church. Nonetheless, this passage shows us something that is often overlooked in our understanding of evangelism, namely the role of God Himself in this work.

Divine intervention is the name of the game in this chapter. God sends an angel of the Lord to Philip with specific directions (Acts 8:26); the Holy Spirit gives further instructions (telling Stephen which particular chariot to go to and what to do when there, Acts 8:29) and then moves him on when the job is done. (Acts 8:39) There can be no doubt that God is at work, directing, leading and inspiring Philip and connecting him with a specific person for a specific purpose. When evangelism is inspired by God in this way, the outcomes will truly be miraculous.

This kind of divine intervention, as well as ‘making the most of every opportunity’, feature throughout the book of Acts. Peter is divinely inspired to go to Cornelius; Jesus appears directly to Saul and then Ananias is divinely inspired to go to Saul. There is also the less spectacular job of preaching, debating and gossipping the gospel, which nonetheless remains under the power of the Holy Spirit. In this passage, we also see the role of Scripture in bringing someone to faith. All of these factors are hugely important in evangelism, but none more so than God’s role in bringing the messenger and one in desperate need of the message together by divine appointment.

Acts 8 gives us insights into both the message and methods of evangelism. In this chapter, we see Philip (later given the title of evangelist, see Acts 21:8) reaching out with the good news of Jesus Christ to the Samaritans and to an Ethiopian official. At first glance, it looks like these two groups have little in common: the Samaritans were considered half-Jewish, half-Gentile and were generally hated by Jews, whereas the Ethiopian official seems to have been attracted to Judaism, but not necessarily a convert (the fact that he was a eunuch would have prevented this at that time.) What Philip is clear about is that everyone needs to hear this good news and therefore it doesn’t matter who the person is or what they already believe. Every encounter provides an opportunity for evangelism. The same is true for us today.

The message of the good news of Jesus Christ does not change (see Acts 8:12, 35) and we need to be clear to proclaim to people, as Philip did, this good news. Our methods may well have to adapt, however, depending on our audience. Paul said, ‘Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.’ (1 Cor 9:19-22) The key to Philip’s success as an evangelist was his ability to adapt; John Stott writes, “It is this combination of change (in relation to context and methods) and changelessness (in relation to the gospel itself), together with the ability to discern between them, which is one of Philip’s abiding legacies to the church.” (The Message of Acts, P 164) We too need this ability to discern between change and changelessness and live accordingly.