Day 53 — Building Bridges

Acts 8:26-31
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch… This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ Philip asked. ‘How can I,’ he said, ‘unless someone explains it to me?’ So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him…

At the beginning of lockdown, like many others, I set up a WhatsApp group for my street. Excited and encouraged by the response of my neighbours, my mind went into overdrive about how this had the potential to be a brilliant evangelistic opportunity. I could send them the link for the online gatherings. Or if that was a little too ‘in your face’, I could slip into the occasional conversation who I worked for and then they might google ‘Gas Street Church’ and watch anyway! Boom - evangelism strategy sorted. Quite quickly I felt God say, ‘Just love them. Don’t have an agenda except to meet them where they are.’

I love this story of Phillip and the Eunuch; not only was Philip listening to God’s voice so he knew to ‘go’, he also met the man where he was. He climbed up into the chariot and talked to the Eunuch about what he wanted to talk about. He didn’t have his own agenda. He wasn’t fixated on inviting him to a meeting. He just listened to the man and answered his questions.

Over the past few weeks I have loved being involved with ‘Love your Neighbour’ and have at times felt really moved to hear of the impact that a simple food parcel has made. All we have done is respond to people’s needs and meet them where they are at. No invitation, no agenda, except to bless them with food.

I once heard J.John the evangelist speak about sharing his faith with his neighbour. He said, ‘I build a bridge from me to him so Christ Jesus can walk over’. We don’t know how long those bridges are going to take to build but let’s pray that, over time, Christ Jesus will walk over.

That may happen through you inviting someone to watch an online gathering or by joining an Alpha group. However it may happen as you meet the person where they are, and as you listen to all they want to talk about. You never know, they may invite you to climb into their chariot where you get the privilege of introducing them to Jesus.

Prayer: Thank you for all the opportunities that will unfold today. Please open my ears and eyes to hear and see where you are working so I can join in with all that you are doing.

Mary Grinham
Leadership Team