Exposed to the Truth
Friday, July 22
Exposed to the Truth
A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollars. Acts 19:19
The New Testament mentions two major movements in which the church heard the Good News of Jesus and began to respond. One such occasion is written in Acts 19:18-20 ‘Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.’
It started with the believers who began to clean up their own lives, who came and revealed their hidden practices, confessing what they were doing in private. Obviously, these were relatively new Christians and perhaps prior to being exposed to the light they had never thought that anything was wrong with these practices. But as they sat under the teaching of the apostle and saw the kingdom of God and how God longs to set people free, they began to see that what they had been doing — the astrology, the reliance on horoscopes, the belief in the influence of the stars, and all their other superstitious practices — was actually a weight which had held them in bondage. These were the reasons why they remained weak and fearful, upset and distressed within themselves. So, they began to confess all this and therefore to be free from their bondage. The unbelievers around them in the city began to take a second look at their own practices. Many of them who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them when they became Christians under the influence and power of the gospel, and thus they were set free from their own deadly delusion.
This illustrates how light breaks forth through the church. It is the church that is the light of the world. We too can experience this and be set free from anything that is holding us bondage. There are strongholds like this all around us today, bastions of darkness. But the message of the Savior remains the same. He longs to deliver people from these strongholds, and he has given the church this power. When the church begins to straighten out and clean up its life, and act and live as God has called people to do, then the world will begin to see itself as it is, and see what is wrong, and start straightening up and be free.
Prayer for today: Father, there are powers of darkness holding onto Your people, locking them into misery and heartache, superstition and fear, anxiety, depression, hostility and emptiness. Lord, help me to understand that this is a very strategic time to live and to give myself to this exciting, glorious encounter against these powers of darkness. Help me to live as a child of the light showing others the way to Your saving grace. Amen