One Little Girl In Philippi

ONE LITTLE GIRL IN PHILIPPI

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Acts 16:16-18, "And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour."

Here was a young girl, probably barely in her teens if she was that old. But she isn’t in a comfortable home with loving parents. This girl was on the streets, trying to get by the best way she could. May she had gotten into trouble and ran away from home, or maybe her parents were taken away or killed somehow. Nothing is ever said about them. Even if they were around, they had very little impact upon her life.

The point is that she had no one who really cared. There was no one that she could lean on in times of pain. No one was there to hear her cry in the night. I wonder how many nights she would lie awake and cry out for help? No one heard her, no one cared, - no one but God!

It is obvious that this girl was abandoned by her family, but she was demon possessed and was also a slave to the merchants who used her for their own gain.

I look at how many of our youth today are wandering the streets, out on their own. Some who I have talked to have been on their own since they became teenagers. Mom and Dad don’t have time for them anymore. No one cares where they are or what they are doing. The sad thing is that these kids become prime targets for the devil to use them.

They are searching for answers; searching for someone to care, someone who will just show them a little love. When the church fails, and family fails – the door swings wide open and that’s when the devil walks in.

We live in a society that has by-in-large abandoned its children to the wiles of the devil. Most parents don’t care what their kids watch on TV, or see on the Internet, or who they are running with, as long as they don’t bother the parents. It seems that many parents don’t care at all what their kids are into until they are suddenly interrupted in their daily routine by a phone call from the law, or the hospital. We live in a world that is totally focused on self, and people simply through caution to the wind and live only for the moment with no thought of the consequences of their actions.

There is a story of a young woman who brought seven little boys into the doctor’s office. They ranged in age from 3 to 10 years old. When the nurse asked their names for the records she discovered that they were all named John. The nurse asked their mother, "Doesn’t that cause some confusion for you?" The mother said, “No, that it was actually very convenient because all I have to do when it’s supper time is just call for John and they all come at the same time.” The nurse asked, "But what do you do if you only want one of them to come for something? How do you tell them apart?" The mother said, "Oh, that’s real easy, they all have different last names…"

Sometimes you wonder if some people just are too dumb to figure out why babies come along. They certainly don’t use good judgment. I’m not against large families but I am saying that we need to be responsible for them too.

A little boy asked, "Mom, marriage makes you have babies, doesn’t it?" The mom hesitantly answered, "Well, not necessarily. Just because you are married doesn’t mean that you will have children." The boy continued with a question that most parents dread to hear. "Then how do you get babies”, he asked. His mama was a little embarrassed and not sure what to say next. She said, "Well, kind of hard to explain." At this, the boy thought for a moment, then he tilted his head a little to the side as he looked his mother straight in the eyes and said, "You really don’t know how it works, do you, Mom?"

I have sometimes wanted to ask that of some parents. Do you know what causes babies? If you are going to have them, then love them, care for them and be responsible to raise them. Either that, or just stop having them.