Daily Devotional for Thursday, December 8

The Growth of the Church in Jerusalem

“The place was at the end of the only road running the length of the peninsula, far from any population center. It was a barren and sad place situated below the bluff and behind the mangrove at the very edge of the water. High tides would often erode the sand beneath the foundation stones of the tiny huts causing them to settle deeper into the mud flat. This was a village that was home to a people who were scorned by all others around them. They were truly outcasts. And immorality was rife.” —Memoirs of a Missionary, Glen Knight
To most people, there would be no reason to stop at Tubaon. It was a village of poor people, drunkards, thieves, prostitutes, gamblers and even one murderer on the run from authorities, up-island. The landowner had long attempted to drive the squatters away, turning all the neighboring towns against them. Even when Nativa dropped her anchors off their coast, local officials refused at first, to allow us to work among them. Despite opposition however, we initiated our ministry at the behest of a man in a blue shirt, whose name I never knew and face I never saw again. And the village changed. The people took to the Word of God immediately upon introduction and they continued in it. They built their simple meeting place and planted a church. And the village name was changed to Bethany. I happened to meet with the landowner some time later while in the city. He related to me how he did not understand what happened. The people previously despised, had become the best workers on his plantation. And I smiled!

AN AMAZING TRUTH: The greatest force for good among any people is their devotion to the Word of God.

Glen Knight