Day 113: Reasons People Believe

Acts 19:1-20; Judges 10:1-11:33; Job 39

God's message, Jesus Christ, is powerful and people are going to believe for all different types of reasons or be convinced in all different types of ways.  Some people will accept salvation without really understanding what it is or how faith works.  Others will accept Jesus out of fear; while others will believe not because of the goodness of the message, but because of the evilness around them.  Paul's story shows these different types of people.  Now, is it wrong how some of them made their decision?  Is their faith real because of the way they believed?  I don't know that I can make that call.  The first group who had believed but didn't understand was baptised again because now they understood (I think of my brother).  Then, others believed out of fear, but who is to say that that is wrong except for God?  The fact that the message is being heard and people are being saved, that s what matters.

Family can sometimes be wonderful, and sometimes brutal.  Jephthah had been rejected by his family and sent away because of his father's decision and his mother's profession (prostitute).  Instead of welcoming him in because of their related blood, they kicked him out because they found him undesireable.  He ended up saving them in war.  I hope that we can be loving and accepting of our families because God gave us them for a reason.