Everything You've Been Looking For

CONSIDER THIS

Back in the day we had the Sears catalog. Today there are countless store catalogs, each one has page after page of circled items that our kids desperately cannot live without. So the presents pile up. Excitement grows. On Christmas morning, shrieks of joy can be heard throughout the land. Alas, not long thereafter, the magic disappears and the once much-desired toys are tossed aside. What happens when we get everything we ever wanted and yet still experience emptiness, dissatisfaction and angst?

There’s a guy in the Bible who understands this. A distinguished official. Powerful. Wealthy. Countless regrettable sacrifices, including the delicate matter of castrating himself. No wife. No kids. No joy. He travels over a thousand miles from his native Africa — seeking, searching, pursuing yet dissatisfied, desperate, disillusioned. 

Now meet Philip. A food bank worker. A traveling evangelist. Poor. A simple refugee, banished from Jerusalem. A great family with four daughters. Loves Jesus — has everything he needs. 

The lives of these two fellows could not be more different. Barriers — ancient and high, and seemingly impenetrable — separate them. But God has other plans, a divine appointment. Philip doesn’t hesitate and obeys God, courageously and with great effort. The result? The Ethiopian official has a real encounter with Jesus and is now on his way — rejoicing! He discovered everything he had been looking for.

You see? God’s family has always been for all people. No barrier is impossible to overcome.

What barriers might be in your life? Here we stand on one side. And on the other? Someone we choose to ignore, perhaps even despise. The person with different political views. The guy with tattoos, the gal with piercings. The know-it-all, the bully, the bore, the manipulator, the smelly, the victim, the whiner…whoever it might be, they all need Jesus. Stand up. Be courageous. Blast the barriers. Tell them the good news!