Friday | God can use anyone who is willing...




	Daily Devotional: Friday, Oct 2 Speaker: Ben Sigman Theme: Religious Baggage Weekend Music links on iTunes: My Savior Lives by New Life Church; Majestic by Lincoln Brewster; How Can I Keep From Singing by Chris Tomlin; Today is the Day by Lincoln Brewster. Read: Acts 9:18-31 Think: This week, we've been looking at spiritual baggage, the legacy of bad encounters with church people and wrong thinking about God that we've all experienced. In his sermon, Pastor Ben pulled several examples from the Bible of how God can use anyone who is willing, even the insecure, the unlikely, and the broken. One additional example came to my mind of someone who really had to drop some serious spiritual baggage in order to be used by God - Paul. Paul, known as Saul before his conversion on the Damascus road, was a leader among the Jewish people in first century Judea. Not only was he a Pharisee, he was also a radical who participated actively in hunting down Christians to kill them. As a new believer in Christ, he found himself stuck between the skeptical Christians he had been persecuting and the extremist Jews who wanted to kill him. Talk about spiritual baggage! But Paul was cared for by Christians who overcame their fear. They protected him and cared for him. Nurtured within the church in Damascus, he was able to lay aside the baggage from his past and become an incredibly powerful witness for Christ. God used him not only to preach to thousands in the course of multiple missionary journeys, but also to write the first works that came to be included in the New Testament. I think this story challenges us in two ways. First, having let go of the bad stuff in our spiritual past, are we willing to be used by God like Paul? Would we take the risks he did? ‘Yes' is easy to say, but hard to do. And, second, are we ready to help other people deal with their spiritual baggage when we encounter them? We all know the name of Paul. But what would have happened to Paul if it were not for the unnamed ‘disciples in Damascus'? Do: Think of someone you know who is dealing with some spiritual baggage. Commit now to helping them when they need it. Pray: Lord, it's intimidating to me that I'm supposed to act like Paul, or even like the disciples in Damascus. But I know that you've forgiven me of my sins, and taken away my spiritual baggage just like you did for them. In gratitude I say, ‘use me', God. The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.




	Timberlake Church \| 4505 236th Ave. NE • Redmond, Washington 98053 • 425-869-4400 • info@tlcf.org