“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” – Acts 16:31

Scripture reading: Acts 16:25-34

Most Reformed Christians confess the Biblical doctrine of the Covenant, which includes parents and their children. Reformed Baptists and other Evangelicals have different views of the covenant and claim that only adults who confess their faith in Jesus Christ, may be baptized. Acts and the Epistles witness that when adults confessed their faith, they were baptized as well as the members of their household. The former believe their practice of infant baptism is proved in this text and in I Corinthians 1, where Paul mentions, along with the two adults he had baptized, Crispus and Gaius, that he baptized the household of Stephanas.

We are not told exactly what they sang. Could it have been Psalm 67? It is likely; since it manifests the desire of God’s people to see “all nations” come to a saving knowledge of the true God. In one hymnbook, this Psalm is sung to the tune of “Missionary Hymn.”

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.  Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let all the peoples praise, O God; let all the peoples praise you! The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him.”

Suggestions for prayer

“Shall we, whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high? Shall we to men benighted, The Lamp of life deny? Salvation! Oh salvation! The joyful sound proclaim, till earth’s remotest nation, has learned Messiah’s name.” – Reginald Heber

This daily devotional is available in a print edition you can buy at Nearer to God Devotional. Rev. Bassam Michael Madany has served as a missionary in Syria, and in 1958 he began a 36-year radio and literature ministry to the Arab world. After retirement Bassam & his wife Shirley began an Internet ministry, Middle East Resources, to provide a “Christian Response to the Global Challenge of Islam.”