These last few weeks, we have been talking about the different ways leaders engage with God and work inside of his mission.

We learned from Nehemiah that "Burdens Break Us for the Mending of Others"

Last week, we learned in Jeremiah that Jesus guides on down a path of repentance surrounded by his remaking of our life.

We are finishing up these conversations this week with a story from the book of Acts about a man named Philip and his interactions with a traveling stranger. Both of these people are intently seeking God and wanting to experience him. They are from wildly different backgrounds and have a diverse level of experience among the two.

As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, "Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27 So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and walk along beside the carriage."

30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

31 The man replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

32 The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:

"He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. 33 He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." 34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?" 35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

36 As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look! There's some water! Why can't I be baptized?" 38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea. Acts 8:26-39

The biggest question this story leads us to is how each of us are expecting to experience God? Do we think it is going to be an accident? Or does it happen because we place ourselves in a posture that is actively calling, seeking, working, and directed ourselves towards the presence of God?

Let's have that conversation.