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. Acts 8:30-31
David Mosley, who is a member at another congregation in the Atlanta area, was recently telling me about his Ethiopian eunuch. He saw this guy at work on a break reading his Bible. That got David’s attention. David asked him, “Are you reading that or is that just for show?” And with that a conversation was started about the Bible that resulted with a new brother in Christ later that afternoon.
Sewell Hall wrote an article about when Jeb Reeves was reading his Bible on a plane. Looking for an opportunity, Jeb asked the man sitting next to him what he was reading. The man answered and then returned the question. Jeb told him about what he was reading about in the Bible and a Bible discussion was started. Before they left each other in the airport, they exchanged numbers and some time later that man was baptized.
I was not looking for lost souls as I read my Bible the other day. I was just trying to catch up with my daily reading while I waited for new tires to be put on our van. But though I was not looking for it, sure enough, the Lord presented me with an opportunity! The man sitting next to me asked me what kind of Bible I was reading. I told him about The Daily Bible by LaGard Smith and how it was arranged chronologically and broken up into daily readings. As we talked I found out that he moved from Cincinnati recently and is presently visiting different churches. I told him about Embry Hills, we exchanged emails, and who knows how this story will end?
So what do we learn from the Ethiopian eunuch?
Good things happen when you read your Bible in public. I could tell you another story about a sister down in Tampa, Florida who went to a Subway sandwich shop every day at lunch to read her Bible. Why did she go there where there was a lot of noise and distraction to read? She hoped someone would notice. And some did. The workers there got to know her and when one of their friends had a crisis in her life, guess who they sent her to talk to? You guessed it! God gained another daughter as a result.
People who are reading their Bibles tend to be good prospects. We sometimes lament the fact that we can’t find people who are genuinely interested in spiritual things. We wish we could just find the souls out there who are really searching for the truth. We pray that God would bless us, like Philip, with good and honest hearts, like the Ethiopian. “Where are they God?” is our despairing cry. To which God might be saying, “Why don’t you start over there with that guy reading his Bible?”
God uses the Bible to bring the seekers together with the preachers. Who knows how many stories like the ones we’ve related could be told over the last two thousand years? God is still involved in the business of evangelism. Let’s not forget His role. As Paul said, “we are God’s fellow workers.” (1 Corinthians 3:9)
So with that I would make a couple of suggestions:
#1 Read your Bible in public. Take your Bible with you wherever you go. When you’re at the doctor’s office waiting room, when you’re on your lunch break at work, whenever you’re around people and have time on your hands, pull out your Bible and read it. You never know who might be watching.
#2 Look for people reading their Bible. “But what do I say?” Just ask them what they are reading and see where the conversation goes from there. It might just be you’re talking to an Ethiopian eunuch that God has brought your way!
~ by David Maxson