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Years ago, police in Connecticut looked for motorists obeying speed laws. They stopped them and gave them a “thank you ticket.” They did it to encourage drivers to keep obeying the law. In the book of Acts, we read about a man named Joseph. The elders nicknamed him Barnabas because he encouraged people so much. Every time we meet him in Acts, he is doing something to encourage others. He sold a field and gave the money to help the poor; he went to Antioch and encouraged the new believers to stay true to the Lord. After Saul stopped persecuting the church and began preaching about Christ, believers in Jerusalem refused to believe he had changed. Barnabas convinced them that his conversion was genuine. We read in Acts chapter 9 that he “brought Saul to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.” Later, when Paul chose not to take Mark on his second mission trip, Barnabas took Mark and mentored him for a later ministry of writing and evangelism. So Barnabas was an encourager, and he did it. We should exercise whatever gift God has given us.
