Day 03 - Central Turkey: Pisidian Antioch, Colossae

The Importance and legacy of a name remembered.

Names are important.  There is power in a “name.”  Remembering someone’s name can make the difference between “friendship” and “relationship.“ In history there are individuals whose names are forever lost to time and some whose names are often remembered as footnotes for the wrong reasons. Then, there are those whose names are remembered with righteous honor. 

Luke  10:20 “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

The Lord smiled on us today.  Cooler weather and a cool breeze blowing in from the mountains that seemed to make our spirits ebullient. Walking the ruins of Pisidian Antioch, I could not help but wonder about Paul and Barnabas and their journeys.  They may have come here at the behest of Sergius Paulus, the Roman Pro-Council at Cyprus, who as a believer wanted Paul and Barnabas to carry the Gospel to his family at Pisidian Antioch, the very place we were standing. 

Logistically, Sergius Paulus’s motives coincided nicely with the mission of spreading the Gospel of “The Way” as both Paul and Barnabas would start what was in effect the first preaching of the Christianity here.  From this place, they would begin the process of changing history. 

In 1912, archaeologists discovered among the ruins of Pisidian Antioch, evidence, in the form of inscriptions linking Sergius Paulus (a Roman gentile) to Antioch.  I found it deeply moving his family was linked to this place, proving forever that name would be a lasting legacy and that it would be remembered by a 60 year old pilgrim to the place where it all began.

- Allan Folsom