Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
They are heady stories, the stuff of action movies and thrillers, the Acts of the Apostles. They are the tales of people in prison and people persecuted, of 
people fearlessly sharing the Good News and making converts among Jews and Gentiles wherever they go as they travel and travel and travel.
How did they do it? How did they establish a Church that has withstood nearly relentless persecution, internal scandal, and more than the occasional bout of apathy among the faithful? We find the answer in Acts 14:27 after Paul and Barnabas arrive in Antioch: “They called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (emphasis added).
You see, Paul and Barnabas knew it wasn’t them. It was the Lord. They were privileged and humbled to be His vessels. And after their time with the disciples and at the Council of Jerusalem, they and others were back at it again, telling the world about Christ. He calls us to do no less.
