Paul took three missionary journeys, mostly through the eastern Mediterranean region. Today we begin to consider his first trip.

Believers had migrated, and the Word of God had spread. The time had come for Paul to check things out and see how God’s people were doing spiritually, so he did two things: He visited them and he wrote letters.  Accompanying him for a while on his travels were Barnabas and John Mark.
 
     During Paul’s first journey, the threesome traveled to the island of Cypress, where they encountered the sorcerer Elymas. Their hard-nosed dealing with Elymas impressed the Roman ruler so much that he accepted their teachings about the Jesus.
 
     In the town of Perga in Pamphylia (now south-central Turkey) they went on Sabbath to the synagogue. The worshippers asked Paul and company for a “message of encouragement,” and the resulting message focused on two things:
1.    Recounting the history of God’s leading in the past.
2.    Reconfirming the message of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus alone.
 
     Their listeners loved the message and invited them back again the next Sabbath. That time the Jewish religious leaders got jealous and incited influential people against Paul’s preaching. The result was that Paul and his friends preached to the Gentiles, offering them free access to the message of salvation.
 
     There is something to be learned here: no matter who the believers are, it’s important to recount what the Lord has done in the past and to reaffirm the reality of salvation through Christ alone now. That is the calling that gives focus to my life. Imagine what might happen if we all were committed to reminding and reassuring everyone in our lives of God’s leading and His forgiveness.
 
     Rich Carlson is campus chaplain at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. "God is Faithful" is adapted from the email devotionals he writes regularly for the Union College family. Rich enjoys filling his life with God, his family, and especially his five grandchildren.