Daily Devotional for Thursday, April 4

The Evangelistic Church

“For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing,” 1 Thessalonians 1:8.

A small tribe in the highlands of Papua, then Irian Jaya, first welcomed Bible translators in 1979. Over the next few years, as they heard “words of God” in their language, the Ketengban tribe began to be transformed. They stopped killing each other and no longer feared evil spirits. This change was noticeable to neighboring tribes. A man from a tribe in the foothills to the south heard about their transformation and wondered what these “words of God” could say that would make his neighbors so radically different. He wanted those words for his people. When he had a chance encounter with Andrew, the translator working with the Ketengban people, that was his question: How can we get “words of God” for our people? Nineteen years later, our family arrived in those foothills to begin helping his people, the Yetfa, to have those precious “words of God.”

Paul, Silas and Timothy commended the Thessalonians for living out their faith and sounding out the Word of the Lord to their neighbors. Their radical transformation not only influenced their region and their neighbors to the south in Achaia but also people in “every place…spread abroad.” The Thessalonians were an example of how clinging to and proclaiming God’s Word spoke for itself. It was so apparent, Paul and company did not even need to speak of it.

God’s Word makes an incredible impact on individuals and whole communities. Its transforming power is noticeable and desirable. Pray for communities around the world who have yet to hear “words of God” in a language they understand and experience that transformation.

THOUGHT
We must ask ourselves if we are sounding out the Word of the Lord like the Thessalonians.

Kelli Reynolds