All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.
The University of Jesus is also the Family Universal. Every student of Jesus finds a brother or sister in every other student of Jesus! All believers everywhere in the world are children of God in the Heavenly Family!
Now Paul is on the final leg of his third missionary journey. He finds fellow Christians – Family - in every place he stops on his way to Jerusalem. In the cities of Tyre, Ptolemais and Caesarea!
Christian hospitality is extended. Food and lodging. But Paul finds much more than a meal and a roof over his head every time he meets fellow students of Jesus.
They pray and worship together. There is also genuine concern for one another.
A mutual love that seems strange to those who do not know Jesus!
How can you care so deeply for someone you met only today?
It is a love that can only be explained as the Love of God at home in the hearts of those who know Jesus. And it is this love that changes everything! For the love of God in our hearts causes us to love everyone, especially our friends in Christ.
Here we observe brothers and sisters genuinely concerned over Paul’s safety if he ventures into Jerusalem. A prophet named, Agabus, graphically predicts Paul’s imprisonment in Jerusalem.
When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem…Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."
When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done."
This is what Family is all about!
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