COMMUNICATION
by Hubert Mitchell
T here are two words I want to share with you from Acts 8 which hold the key to our Christian opportunity for witnessing. They are confrontation a n d communication. Here in this portion of Scripture we find the evangelist Philip and the treasurer of the queen of the Ethio pians. He has been to Jerusalem, and is now returning to the desert in the chariot. He meets up with another man and, strangely enough, t h e eunuch was reading a part of the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah. God miraculously brought Philip in to confrontation with this Ethiopian. The Holy Spirit moved him to join himself to the chariot (Acts 8:29). The Ethiopian was reading in Isaiah 53 about the lamb’s being slaugh tered. He couldn’t understand what this portion was all about and asked Philip for help. From that very Scripture, the communication was all about Christ. Philip confronted the Ethiopian and then Philip com municated to him. When I was a missionary in Su matra, I had often to improvise my message to fit the needs of the peo ple. Once I came to a tribe of people so desperate that they beggar any kind of verbal description. I sat on a log and told them the story of Christ. It took me quite a while to confront these people. They were scared for they had never seen a pale-skin man before. I was .lying on my back on top of a wooden cross which I had made to illustrate the scriptural narrative. The chief asked, “How was Jesus fastened to the cross?” I told him, “They put nails in his hands and his feet.” The na tive leader wanted to know what a nail was. They had never seen one. This is how primitive they were.
After the meeting was over, we sat down with them to have something to eat. I reached over to my knap sack and took out a little can of mandarin oranges. They had been packed in Tokyo. As I finished I was going to throw the empty can aside when I heard a rattle sound. Beyond all imagination there was the loveli est little nail you ever saw. Right there in the jungle when I needed it to give these people an illustration of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the Lord provided this means. As a re sult, I had the joy of leading many of these wonderful people to a con frontation, communication and sal vation through Jesus Christ. The main thing for each of us is to con front people first of all and then to communicate with them. Philip told the eunuch, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” The man believed and was eternally saved. He commanded the chariot to stand still while they went down into the water to be baptized. You know, it’s amazing how many people there are just waiting for somebody to confront them, some body to talk to them. Do it and the joy and strength of the Lord will be yours. Too many of us are just con tent to go to church, sit in the pews, hear the good news, and pay our dues. The Lord has much for us, however. We as Christians must con front people. Let’s pray that God will give us the courage and bold ness to communicate with spiritually needy men and women. * * * The moreGod has of us, the less we think of ourselves. * * * If you mustwhisper inchurch, whynot whisper a prayer? 19
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