Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. (Acts 5:42, NIV)
It wasn’t long ago that I enjoyed a round of golf with a few Christian brothers I have known for years. In the past, they have supported Links Players in a few of our events and one of the guys comes occasionally to the Links Fellowship.
A lot of people find it easy to slip into retirement mode, but I think God wants to refire many of them to proclaim the good news and share it with their friends.The conversation together included much more than golf. Almost immediately, we were talking about our grandkids, kids, wives, and then friends. We even took time to pray for a friend we know who just lost his child to an illness. Of course, we got the usual golf heckling in, too, but when at the end we said we needed to do this more often in 2017, it wasn’t the golf that was on our minds. It was the friendship that came with the common understanding about what really matters in our lives.
Later, I was reflecting on that comment: “We need to do this more often.” I realized this is actually something we do every week in my Links Fellowships. Whether or not we play golf together, we talk about things that are so much more personal. These things are just bigger.
In Acts 5, John and Peter were a twosome going out together sharing the good news of salvation through Jesus. It was a speaking tour, we could say, but it’s not like you’re thinking. I mean, these guys even went to jail together!
But when I came to verse 42 in my reading, it hit me. This life they were living and these conversations they were having were so much like what our Links Fellowships are doing—some meet in houses, some in restaurants, most in golf clubs. And when we sit together, we talk about big news, good news.
Maybe you’ve been involved in small groups of the Links Fellowship kind for a number of years. And maybe it’s grown stale for you. I hope not! We should never grow tired of talking to people about Jesus; this is true whether the people we’re talking to already know him or are just getting introduced.
I am always excited to see what God is going to do in our Links Fellowships. But when a new year rolls around, I take the chance to go around fanning the flames in the Fellowships in my region, making sure that the men and women meeting there are excited. In 2017, I even have a special word I plan to use: refirement. A lot of people find it easy to slip into retirement mode, but I think God wants to refire many of them to proclaim the good news and share it with their friends.
If you recognize your own need for refirement, I’d encourage you to read the entire book of Acts this year. When you see what the men and women of the early church were doing in their cities and towns, you’ll have no trouble getting refired for the Lord!
—
Dereck Wong
January 17, 2017
Copyright 2017 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.