Tues., 1/26/16 Devotion (Acts 26:28, 29)

Today's encouragement comes from Acts 26:28 & 29, which says this:

"Then Agrippa said to Paul, 'You almost persuade me to become a Christian.' And Paul said, 'I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me to-day, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.' "

Do we realize that believing Christian churchmen are the only people in the whole world who actually have both the right and the responsibility to urge all other people everywhere to become exactly as we are (with regard to our faith in Christ, and our union with Him and each other in the church)? That is a pretty bold and audacious fact.

But *all* people everywhere also desire that everyone else be "like them," too. This is because all sinners want to justify themselves, as they take com-fort from others who share in their errors. True Christians, on the other hand, want everyone to be "like us," so that everybody can be happy and free (in the truest sense) in Christ.

[Puritan quote of the day: "It is said of Christ and David, that their hearts were eaten up with a holy zeal for God's house.” —Richard Sibbes, in, "The Soul's Conflict with Itself"]