Daily Direction Reading PlanSample

Years ago in the Deep South, African Americans could not stay in hotels. So when visiting ministers came to town, it was customary for them to stay in homes. Stories still circulate of how ministers eating dinner in homes would consume the best part of the chicken. The truth was that God's people who invited ministers into their homes were helping to spread the Gospel. That is what Lydia did for Paul and Silas, as we read in Acts 16. When these two men reached Philippi to share the Gospel, they found the place where a group of women was holding a prayer meeting on a riverbank. One of the women was Lydia, a merchant who sold expensive purple cloth. As she listened to Paul and Silas, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. She then submitted to baptism, along with other members of her household. Knowing she would be helping to spread the Gospel by doing so, she invited Paul and Silas to stay at her home. Not every Christian believer can be a missionary or minister. But God asks each of us the question he asked Moses in the wilderness, "What is that in your hand?" With just a shepherd's staff, God enabled Moses to deliver a nation from slavery. We can use whatever gifts and resources God has given us to help spread the Good News about Jesus. All it takes is our willingness to submit them to God.