My Daily Pause

The Baptism of the Eunuch – 1626 –
Rembrandt (1606–1669)

The account of the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-39) is a reminder of how rich the Bible is in content. We could spend a lifetime in the book and not master the lessons it is able to teach us. Take a look at just some of the takeaways that this passage gives us about Christianity:

Christianity is learned

The Eunuch asked, “How can I unless someone guides me? (Acts 8:31)

It’s true. God meant for is word to be studied, but most importantly – taught. One of the key verses I pivot a lot of my posts on in this blog is 2 Timothy 2:2. In that one verse, four generations of teachers are described.

Let’s face it, while the basic gospel plan of salvation is simple to follow, the Bible has some difficult content that needs to be learned and then taught. The essence of the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20) is Teach – Baptize – Teach.

Christianity has been the plan from the beginning

Philip found the Eunuch reading from the book of Isaiah. (Acts 8:32-33 = Isaiah 53:7-8) A passage talking about the crucifixion! The Jews missed it then and today’s Jews still deny that passage is about Jesus.

We know from John 1 that God’s word was uttered in the beginning and Christ became that word.

We might not ever fully understand the full impact of that, but God’s plan is and always was in full effect.

Christianity cannot wait

Once the Eunuch understood what was required for his salvation, he asked to stop and fulfill it at the very next opportunity. (Acts 8:36-38)

We are not promised tomorrow…

Almost saved still equals lost …

Something to keep in mind whether we are currently the teacher or the student.

Christianity is a joy

After the Eunuch was baptized, he went on his was rejoicing. He understood in that moment that the blood of Christ had paid for his sins. What’s not to like about that?

Keep studying!

As we continue building a habit of reading and re-reading the Bible, remember to look deeper and deeper into the passages for more of what God was trying to tell us.

Stoning of St Stephen – ~1435 – Paolo Uccello (1397–1475)

Acts 8:1 says Saul approved of the execution of Stephen.

He thought he was doing God’s will – all the way up until he met Christ in a vision on the way to Damascus in Acts 9

At any given time on our Christian walk, there is more we need to know. No matter how mature in the word we think we are, there are corrections to make and more understanding we can gain.

There are many “versions” of God’s word being taught in the world, but only one we will be compared with at the judgment.

The way to find the right one is go to the source.

Study it then review it.

Repeat.

Bible Study. The way to find the truth (Acts 17:11)

They didn’t take time to find out where Jesus was born. (John 7:42)

They said no prophet ever came from Galilee. (John 7:52)

When I read about the crowd dividing over who Jesus was, (John 7:40-52) I can’t help but think how people are still the same. Why is it that so many choose sides on an issue without doing an actual investigation?

Since the Pharisees involved in this account knew that the Christ was supposed to come from Bethlehem, (Micah 5:2) we can tell they were only making an assumption that Jesus was born in Galilee. They also forgot that Jonah was from Galilee, (2 Kings 14:25) so we can see their logic was faulty from the beginning.

Using that faulty logic, they concluded that Jesus could not be the Christ.

We have hundreds of denominations of Christian churches. We have thousands of congregations within the denominations further dividing the Scriptures in incorrect ways. All of these based on incorrect conclusions from study or lack of study.

Christianity is not a religion we are born into. We have to hear it and believe it. (Romans 10:17) We have to study it diligently. (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV) We have to verify what we are taught. (Acts 17:11)

Yes, Christianity is a lot of work. The reason we have so many that are missing the mark, honestly or not, is because we have failed to give it the diligence required.

From Paul’s writing, we can see that division in the church was never intended. (Ephesians 4:1-6) If our task is to read and understand God’s word, why would we allow divisions among Christians to stand without proper and honest Bible study together?

We have a bad habit.

Without thinking about it, we have gotten good at hearing only what we want to hear.

Here’s a picture I drew as a joke:

Our habit of listening and repeating looks something like this

Jesus once quoted Psalm 110:1 to the Sadducees to make the same point. (Luke 20:41-44, Matthew 22:41-46, Mark 12:35-37) How can the Christ be both David’s son and his Lord? Christ was calling them out because they were choosing ignorance of the scriptures for their own convenience.

In all three accounts, Jesus follows up the discussion with a warning about the Scribes. They had gotten a little too used to their lifestyle so they were ignoring God’s word and hoping it would go away.

Christians and non-Christians alike have carried that tradition all the way until now. If we spent more time with the Bible, we would not have so many various “truths.” By doing a better job of reasoning what the Scriptures say, we could all eventually come to the same conclusions.

Jesus never made any bones about it: we are responsible for all of God’s word. Sometimes we have to make hard decisions. Sometimes we have to relearn what we were once taught.

But … so many debates could be eliminated with everyone taking an honest approach to the Bible!

Challenge: Pick one typical day in your life and consider whether each action you take would harmonize with God’s word. If you don’t know, make a Bible study out of it.

Make a connection with an actual Bible and put its contents to memory!

In our world of search engines, we have the ability to search the entire Bible in seconds.

In our world of smartphones, we can do it anywhere and any time.

I know it is a little bit “old school” – but give me a chance on this:

Bible memory work is still a very valuable part of our growth and maturity in the faith.

Sometimes it seems a little “old school” to even carry a Bible to church. The Scriptures used during the service are often projected on a screen making it seem unnecessary to open one at any point in the service.

In order to get to know the scriptures – to get to the point where we know where we stand, we need to get better connected with what it says. I cannot think of any way better to get to know what it says than to memorize the Bible.

Here’s a few thoughts on why. Memorization will …

• Clarify the text – When you memorize, the nuances of the text start to appear. The Bible is FULL of great truths that we miss through skimming and mere devotional reading.
• Grow our faith – If faith comes from hearing God’s word (Romans 10:17) then committing it to memory can’t help but make stronger Christians
• Clean our mind – Our mind returns what we plant in it. Fill it with the good stuff (Philippians 4:8)
• Make us ready – We are to be ready in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2) What better way to be make a convincing response than to be able to quote the scriptures?

All of the cool devices in the world would have a hard time providing these benefits. They make great supplemental study tools but …

They don’t connect us to or help us fall in love with God’s word!

Challenge:

• Take an inventory of Bible scriptures you either know or once knew by heart (There are more than you think!)
• Try to think of passages that you know where to find if you need them, but don’t really have memorized.
• Work on memorizing everything on the two lists.
• By the time you have done this, you will have discovered more passages you want to add to the list. Memorize those too!