Read Acts 8:26-40. An angel (from the Greek “angelos” meaning “messenger”) tells Philip to go to the Ethiopian eunuch who is in a chariot heading back to Africa after worshipping in Jerusalem. Philip finds the eunuch—a high ranking royal servant—reading the scroll of Isaiah and struggling to understand the prophecies in chapter 53 (“He was led like a lamb to the slaughter…”).
Philip explains everything to the eunuch, and the African official repents and is baptized. Then the Holy Spirit sends Philip elsewhere.
Two key thoughts: First, God obviously loves the Ethiopian. He loves this black man and has prepared Him well with knowledge of the scriptures so that He can take the gospel with him back to Africa.
God loves people of all colors, all races, all nations.
“He is not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to the knowledge of repentance,” 2 Peter 3:9. The Bible does not support racism in any form. (In addition, this 2,000 year-old story also disproves the claim that Christianity is a “white man’s religion” and that being black means being Muslim (as Malcolm X and others once claimed). Islam did not even exist until nearly 1,000 years after God sent the Ethiopian eunuch home to Africa to share the gospel.)
A second point: God can use anyone! He can use you. The eunuch is one more among dozens of people in the Bible who cannot have children. He would never be anyone’s Daddy. But God made him the spiritual father to thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. Imagine that. Here’s a man who thought the only value his life would ever have was as a royal servant. But now he will also be serving King Jesus, and his life will bear so much fruit for God. The new joy and hope and sense of purpose will bless him more than being a father ever could. Once again, God brings so much hope and joy and fulfillment to those who have nothing, but who give their nothing to Him.
Pray. Give God your hurts, your emptiness, your “barrenness.” Ask Him to help you bear fruit for His kingdom. Ask God to give you purpose, to fill you with the gospel message and the skill to explain it to others. Ask Him to take away your self-centered mindset and help you think of others first, to have an outward focus, to be a servant to others. Ask God to fill you with His message of hope and grace and to give you a passion to share that with others. Thank God for loving all people and all races and ask Him to help you love all people too. Finally, ask Him to give you a love for His Word, to make you curious like the Ethiopian eunuch, and to make you want to study it. Ask Him to help you love His Word.
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