IN OUR ANCHOR SCRIPTURE PASSAGE FOR TODAY, WE HAVE THE STORY of the divine visitation of God to a family in the Macedonian city of Philippi. The good and exhilarating news this morning is this: GOD wants to also visit your home and family and make it brand-new too!
On that fateful day, a Philipian Prison Guard had reported for duty as usual. If any one had told him that he would make an attempt to commit suicide that night, he would not have believed. How would it happen? What would make it happen? But it did happen; showing that only God keeps us from tragedies.
Well, in the course of the day’s activities, the local Judiciary Department sent two gentlemen to be thrown behind bars. Infact, he was instructed to keep them securely. This being so, he confined them to the worst part of the Prison.
However, the two men were completely innocent of the charges laid against them and for which they’d earlier been publicly humiliated and severely beaten with rods. The names of the two men? PAUL AND SILAS.
For hours, Paul and Silas sat in tortuous pain.
At midnight, they prayed and then sang praises to God.
As they were singing, suddenly, there was a mighty earthquake that shook the entire city. The earthquake was so powerful the chains of all the prisoners, the locks on all the doors and windows of the Prison were unlocked and the doors and windows flung open!
The Prison Guard was woken from his sleep by the mighty earthquake and the rumbling noise it created. Upon seeing all the windows and doors open, he drew his sword to kill himself because he thought that all the Prisoners had fled. Just before he could strike himself dead, Paul and Silas called out to him: “Don’t kill yourself. Everybody is here. No one has escaped!”
The Prison Guard came literally trembling. To his amazement, all the Prisoners were indeed there; not one had escaped! He knew it wasn’t ordinary for prison inmates to have such an opportunity and not use it; especially at night. He instantly knew it was God Who kept the criminals from fleeing. He locked up all the doors and windows; brought Paul and Silas out and knelt down before them and said: “SIRS, WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?
They told him: BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU WILL BE SAVED AND YOUR FAMILY. Remember, this was all happening in the dead of the night. But do you know what? The Prison Guard realized that he nearly dropped into the flames of Hellfire that night if not for the compassionate voice of Paul that pulled him off the precipice of committing suicide. With all his heart he was desirous of being saved. What did he do?
Firstly, he obeyed the message of the Apostles and BELIEVED ON JESUS CHRIST WITH ALL HIS HEART. He proceeded to take the two men to his home as our anchor scripture passage records. There, they preached the Gospel to his family and they also believed. The family was willing to be baptized and so the Apostles took them to the waterside THAT NIGHT and they were all baptized!
Who goes to fetch water in the night? Nobody. But when a person is genuinely born again and truly converted, they’re willing to do the will of God at whatever the cost. The Philipian Prison Guard and his family were soundly born again that night and they got baptized the same night too.
Verse 34 of our anchor scripture passage tells us one of the outward manifestations of the divine transformation in that family: THERE WAS JOY IN THE HOME. Not only that, the wife got into her kitchen and prepared a fresh meal for the Apostles to eat THAT NIGHT! That’s not all, her husband washed and nursed the wounds of the Apostles.
Dear Reader, God wants to come to you and your family on a divine visitation. He wants to save all of you, write your names in the Book of Life so that at the end of life’s long journey, you’ll not end up in the fiery flames of Hell but join Him in Heaven.
After his close brush with death in his attempt to commit suicide, the Prison Guard realized the preciousness of Salvation and Eternal Life.
Sir, Ma; you need to be as earnest as the Philipian Prison Guard about getting hold of Salvation and Eternal Life. BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU’LL BE SAVED just like he was saved. And when you’re saved, your love life and family life invariably changes too.
🍷🍗 TAKE-HOME LESSON: LIKE THE PHILIPIAN PRISON GUARD, YOU’RE ALSO ON YOUR WAY TO HELL. MAKE A “U TURN” TODAY! BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU WILL BE GLORIOUSLY SAVED!
💕❤️ TONIGHT’S ONE FLESH ASSIGNMENT IN THE BEDROOM.
Tonight, reread today’s devotional piece. Thereafter, humble yourself, get down on your knees in prayer and receive Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and Saviour. (Read John 1:12)
🍏🍎THE GREATEST REVOLUTION THAT COULD TAKE PLACE IN YOUR LIFE IS THAT OF SALVATION FROM YOUR SINS!🍎🍏
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