Acts 18-19   Paul continued to go from city to city preaching the Word of God.  He "felt pressed by the urgency of the message.." ( v5)  He added men and women to his company,  sometimes leaving them to work in the churches and sometimes taking them along with him.   God was working powerfully through Paul and through others. The name of Jesus and the message of the gospel spread throughout Asia and into Europe.

Ephesus was the place where some Jewish exorcists tried to use the name of Jesus to cast out demons and the evil spirit said, "Jesus I know. And Paul I recognize. But you? Who are you?"  And the man with the  evil spirit beat them badly. This incident caused great fear.. but it also brought a change on those who had professed faith but were still practicing the occult.  "Many of those... came and admitted publicly their evil deeds; and a considerable number of those who had engaged in occult practices threw their scrolls in a pile and burned them in public." 

" Thus the message about the Lord continued in a powerful way to grow in influence."

And.. the opposition grew too.  A riot broke out when the silversmiths who made objects for the worship of Artemis realized that they were losing money because of people turning away from the idol worship.   It was the wisdom of a city clerk who finally calmed the crowd and sent people home.

In the book of Revelation we find 7 letters from Jesus to His church.  The first of these is the letter to Ephesus. Jesus commends them for their deeds and perseverance , but warns them of the need to repent  because they had "left [their] first love."   He tells them that they will be removed unless they repented and turned to the love they had at first. Love that led to confession and complete submission to the only True God.  Love that denied themselves and took up their crosses and followed Jesus. 

Father in heaven, You alone are worthy of our love and devotion.  May we not lose our passion for Jesus Christ and just go through the motions of christianity.  Direct our hearts into Your love, Father. 

Fill us with Your Spirit and ignite our hearts with Your love. We sense the urgency of the message, Lord.  We want to faithfully serve You by sharing Your love and the good news of Jesus Christ with those around us. Grant us the words to speak and the boldness to speak up.  We ask this in the name of our Loving Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.