There's Good News & There's Bad News

Acts 17:10-15

　
　
"There’s good news and there’s bad news Paul. Which do you want to hear first? The good news is that when you go to Macedonia many people will come to faith in Christ, churches will be started and miracles will happen. The bad news is that you will be arrested, beaten and jailed. Crowds will riot and you will be chased out of town after town. Even in Berea where people will sincerely listen and respond to the Gospel, the Thessalonians will follow and you will be run out of town."

It was only in the last chapter that Paul had his vision of a Macedonian man saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us". There must have been great excitement and anticipation as Paul prepared to go. He might have felt like he was going to burst at the seams as he traveled, impatient to arrive and get started. But was he ready for the adversity?

Going into this trip Paul didn’t know what was going to happen, but he did expect that God would use him to bring others to believe in Jesus. Would he have still gone had he known what waited for him? What was it that kept Paul moving forward instead of retreating and hiding?

First, it was his firm belief and conviction that God had indeed called him to this missionary trip. Secondly, he knew that he was a new creation in Christ. Thirdly, he knew that God was his Father and he was His son. He also knew that his Father loved him, was always with him and would never leave him.

The same is true for us. Like Paul, we’re on a missionary trip. It may not take us to lands unknown, but we are called to be missionaries at work, at home, with our neighbors, at the grocery store. Wherever we go we are an ambassador for Christ.

And when life gets hard, when adversity comes our way, we don’t shrink from it. Instead we keep moving forward because we know that, like Paul, we are a new creation in Christ, created to do His work and that He loves us and is faithful to us no matter what happens. That my friend, is good news, with no bad news.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%2017%3A10-15&version=NIV;MSG
http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Acts.17.10-Acts.17.15