The governor invited Barnabas and Saul in, wanting to hear God's Word firsthand from them. But Dr. Know-It-All (that's the wizard's name in plain English) stirred up a ruckus, trying to divert the governor from becoming a believer. But Saul (or Paul), full of the Holy Spirit and looking him straight in the eye, said, "You bag of wind, you parody of a devil—why, you stay up nights inventing schemes to cheat people out of God. But now you've come up against God himself, and your game is up. You're about to go blind—no sunlight for you for a good long stretch." He was plunged immediately into a shadowy mist and stumbled around, begging people to take his hand and show him the way. When the governor saw what happened, he became a believer, full of enthusiasm over what they were saying about the Master.
Acts is the record we have of how the Church began. Because their only way of spreading the good news was word-of-mouth or first-hand experiences, it's the stories like this one from chapter 13 that caught the attention of all the people who didn't know the Lord and wanted to find out more about His love and power.
Because we have developed so many advanced methods of communication, shouldn't be be using them as much as possible to spread the news of what God is doing and is capable of? What is my excuse for not sharing more stories? Even if I don't e-mail or blog or create websites, has the original method (word-of-mouth) lost it's appeal or attraction? I don't think so. In fact, just like with any other "juicy" or exciting news, I always want to tell my family, friends, coworkers, about what I've heard. Let's do the same thing with God's activity in our lives.
Whether it's a bible story that you've rediscovered (for me, it's been Tamar and Jacob recently), or God touching someone in a powerful way (one of my coworkers is coming back to her faith and seeing her family join her, it's awesome!), or just an encouragment from your own heart - take the time to spread the news and build up His Church!!
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