Someone To Guide Them

Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert.  So he arose and went.  And behold, a man of Etheopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning.  And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.  Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."  So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"  And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?"  And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.  The place in the scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth.  In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation?  For His life is taken from the earth."  So the Eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?  Then Philip opened his mouth, and begining at this scripture, preached Jesus to him.  Now as they went down the road, they came to some water.  And the Eunuch said, "See, here is water.  What hinders me from being baptized?"  Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may."  And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."  So he commanded the chariot to stand still.  And both Philip and the Eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
Acts 8: 26-38 NKJV

Our Lord may at times ask of us things which we may feel are utterly impossible.  However, I assure you that with God nothing is ever impossible{Matthew 19:26}.  The bible is full of examples of the great men of faith who had their own moments of doubt in what God was calling on them to do.  From Moses, Abraham and Gideon to our infamous friend doubting Thomas, many whom God has called have faced doubt in what God called them to do.  However, in each of these examples, our heroes of the faith ultimately followed the path which God had placed before them.  What resulted was seeing the wonders of our Lord performed through His servants.  Now, could God have accomplished what He was asking these men to do on His own?  Absolutely, but oh the testimony of he whom God works His wonders through!  Now, we may sometimes feel like a modern day Abraham when we come to that realization that God is asking us to do something on His behalf.  You want me to do what, God??  We can rest assured in one truth, christian.  That being, if our Lord is indeed needing to do something through us, we will have all the strength and courage that we may need to face such a situation.  We also know that we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us {Philippians 4:13}.  However, I'll take this just one step further.  For not only can we do all things through Christ who strengthens us, it is Christ Jesus Himself WHO IS our very strength!

Preach the word!  Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exort, with all longsuffering and teaching.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for  themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
2 Timothy 4: 2-4 NKJV

In Acts 8, as Philip is instructed to approach the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch, he does so with gusto!  There is no turning back for Philip here.  If he had any doubts, we're not told of them, he just went.  It is interesting that we're told that this eunuch was reading from thhe prophet Isaiah and had come to Jerusalem "To worship."  We can only assume that the seed had already been planted by someone else in his heart.  As Philip asks this Ethiopian if he understands what he is reading, the eunuch gives his response which should be a rallying cry for any today who wish to share the gospel of Christ Jesus.  This eunuch responds to Philips question, "How can I, unless someone guides me?"  Just how many of us who have known the call of Christ Jesus on our hearts have been the one guide someone else into this truth?  Jesus Himself has spoken to us of the great need for those to guide others to His gospel.

Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
Matthew 9: 37-38 NKJV

We are those laborers, we are that guide who will tell others of the truth of Jesus.  For if not for our friend Philip, the eunuch may have gone his entire life without knowing of Christ Jesus.  Yes, Philip heeded Gods calling on his heart to share this truth, he made himself available for our Lords task.  If we ever find ourselves wondering just why there are not more people who have come to know Jesus we can ask ourselves one simple question.  How can they, unless someone guides them?

~Scott~