Rev. Ray and Pat Amos

Alone

He was traveling first class, and even though there were servants at his disposal; he was lonely. Reading the scriptures made him desire a life that he thought would never be. There is a lot of artificial life for a person like him. “How are you doing? – It is soooo good to see you;” the insincere words would come at him like artificial honey; but when it came to real friendship they just were not there.

There was a day that changed everything for him. It was the day that a preacher showed up saying that God had sent him. “I see you are reading the Word of the Lord; do you understand it?” How he wished that he did because it was about people like him having hope for a chance at real living. The scriptures said that someone suffered to make it possible. He asked the preacher, “Do you know who he is?”

“Oh yes, His name is Jesus. What He has done for others, He will do for you. Will you believe and be baptized?”

“You don’t know me do you? They call me successful and an important man, but how can anyone know the price that I have paid to be who I am. Now I am empty within and have no one to call a friend; and no one to go home to. I just want to belong. Here is much water but when you find out who I am, you will tell me that I can’t be baptized, that even Jesus does not want someone like me.”

“Oh yes He does! It doesn’t matter who you are, what you have done, or how tangled the life you are living; Jesus cares for you. That can be the hardest thing to believe: that God loves you like that; enough to die on a cross to give you what this world cannot offer at any price. God offers you a new beginning, and a family; He gives you a Friend in an eternal kingdom where nothing is artificial, and life is real. Will you believe with all your heart?”

“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God… Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him… and he went on his way rejoicing.” Read Acts 8:26-39

Grace and Peace, Rev Ray (1/19/2019)