The other day I listened to the most amazing testimony. About 30 years ago a 24 year old man with a wife and a young daughter, kissed his young daughter and wife goodnight and went upstairs to his bedroom and took an overdose of barbiturate, downed it with vodka and went to bed.
His mind had told him he was not good enough, his mind had told him his young family was better off without him. People around him had told him he was not good enough. Everything around him told him he was useless, the world was better off without him and the only solution was to take his life.
This young man was not the first neither would he be the last in a similar position, the world is full of many people like this young man crying out for help.
In Acts 16:9 we see a man who needed help, we are not told what he needed help for. All we know is that he cried out to Paul in a dream "Come over to Macedonia and help us"
The man in Acts 16:9 knew who to call to, his cry for help was heard by God and so the Holy Spirit restrained Paul from going to the other nations. Instead he had to go to Macedonia.
This world is full of people crying out for help, looking for solutions to their problems. Some will take their lives thinking it is the easiest way to solve their problems, some will seek solutions from false religions, others will seek it from alcohol, drugs and you name it. For most the perceived solutions to their problem comes at a cost.
Yet like the man from Macedonia many are calling out “come to Macedonia and help us!” Where is Macedonia?
Macedonia could be your next door neighbour; Macedonia could be your work place, Macedonia could be your home, Macedonia could be your extended family, Macedonia could be anywhere with people.
The fact remains that there are many calling and the Holy Spirit is looking for the Pauls and Barnabas’ who will swiftly respond.
Act 16:10 - And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
The Bible tells us in 1 John 3: 8 - ... For this purpose the son of God was manifested that He might destroy the work of the devil.
Christ said it in John 10:10 that "the thief has come, to steal, to kill and to destroy" but He, Christ "has come that they may have live and have it abundantly."
When the thief comes he does not only kill, he destroys homes, he steals the joy in families, yet Christ has made us ambassadors to respond to the Macedonian call of our time.
Jesus made an interesting comment in Mathew 9 that the people were like sheep without a shepherd and asked for prayer to be made to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers. Right now here on earth there is not a lack of labourers, but we (the labourers) have become unresponsive to the cry of the lost.
When in Acts 1:8 Jesus promised the disciples power from above, it was for His disciples to reach the lost, it was not for them.
Act 1:8 - But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Some statistics I picked up gives us a picture of the task ahead. Almost half of the world’s population dies every each day as per this statistics, and some of them do not know Christ.
| Birth Rate: | Death Rate: |
| 19 births/1,000 population | 8 deaths/1,000 population |
| 131.4 million births per year | 55.3 million people die each year |
| 360,000 births per day | 151,600 people die each day |
| 15,000 births each hour | 6316 people die each hour |
The young man I started off with survived because he was found by his wife, rushed to the hospital, and was cleaned out. He survived by the grace of God and got to know Jesus as Saviour and Lord. He is now an Elder in his local church and travels all over the country to helping others in need of Christ.
Would you heed the call? I counsel us; please let us heed the call.
