God's Amazing Grace #5

42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. (Acts 13)

In this account, Paul and His missionary team have set out to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the Roman world.  When they first came to a city, they would start in the synagogue, with the Jews who had some background with worshipping the true and living God. In the verses before this, Paul was invited to preach, so he went back in their spiritual history to Abraham, Moses, the Judges, and David. Then he talked about the Promised Messiah, the descendant of David who would come, and how Jesus had fulfilled those things through His death, burial and resurrection. In the verse before the ones above he challenged them to not be like those prophesied about in the prophet Habakkuk: “‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’” As we see in our verses above, many people responded to the challenge, and followed Paul and Barnabas to learn more. Listen to Paul's call: "Continue in the grace of God". There is this temptation to trust in God's Grace in Christ, allowing Him to do the work we cannot do, but after awhile, begin to trust in our own strength again, thinking we have become good enough on our own to make decisions and take actions without His guidance and strength.  Paul warns: Don't fall into that. Today, let's ask God, in Christ, to help us Continue in the grace of God, living life doing what we cannot possibly do on our own. We need His amazing grace.