Tag Archives: Paul

Something Worth Living For

Posted on by

0

In life, there’s got to be something that gets us up in the morning.

Other than coffee, that is.

It could be the duty of work or family.

It could be the need to do something.

It could be the requirements of life.

And those will get us up, those will motivate us, those will get us going, but only for a little bit.

In life, we need something to be passionate about. Something to really transform us, push us, pull us, something to live for.

And something to die for.

We see something happen to Paul today in Acts:

12When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ 14Since he would not be persuaded, we remained silent except to say, ‘The Lord’s will be done.’

Paul knew, the people knew that if he went to Jerusalem it was not going to end well.  He knew he would be bound, he knew things could get ugly.

But, he was motivated to do it.  He didn’t have to.  He wanted to.

He had something worth living for.

What?  Jesus.  Telling folks about Jesus.  Living for Jesus.  Loving for Jesus.

Showing all that he could meet the power of the transforming love of Jesus.

Paul was motivated by that through his life. It was what he lived for.

Today, what are you living for? What is the purpose of your life?  What motivates you?

Is it Jesus?  Or is it something else?  Everything else but Jesus will fade away.

Issues will fade.  Money will fade.  Duty will fade.

All this will fade away.

Jesus will not.

We all need something worth living for in our lives.

May it be nothing but Jesus.

Make a Difference

Posted on by

0

One of my favorite characters in scripture is Barnabas.  He doesn’t get all the attention that Paul gets in Acts, but without him, Paul wouldn’t be Paul. We see their friendship start today in Acts 11:

25Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians.’

Paul had one of those dramatic conversion experiences. When he got saved, he got saved.  He went from being someone out to get the church; someone trying to destroy the church, to someone that was trying to grow the church.

He went from someone that was trying to stop the working of the Holy Spirit to someone that was a being led by the spirit.

And that’s awesome. Except that people didn’t know what to think. People didn’t know if they could trust him.  Not long before, he had been involved with the murder of Stephen. And now he’s on our side?

And in comes Barnabas.  You know what he did that was so awesome?  He simply loved on Paul.  He was his friend.  He encouraged him.  He walked beside him.  He was there for him.

He made a difference.

By being a friend.

Today, you can make a huge difference.  You don’t have to climb the mountain.  You don’t have to swim the ocean.  You don’t have to perform feats of unusual strength.

You can simply be nice to someone. Encourage someone.  Give a smile.  A hug.  A warm word.

And you may never know the difference that would make.  Today, you can be a Barnabas to someone.

Without Barnabas, there was no Paul. Without Paul, there is no Gentile Church. Without Paul, the Gospel would not have spread across the world.

Barnabas made a huge difference simply be encouraging someone.

Today, so you can you. Today, you can make a difference.

Today, you can change the world by touching someone’s life!

Is This Not the Man?

Posted on by

0

This morning, as I was reading and praying, I was thinking about how hard it is to change.

We all have things in our lives we’d like to change.  We all have things in our lives we’d like to do different.

But, if you’re like me, you find that change is hard. We fall into routines, we do things the way that we’ve always done them, we pick up bad habits that are hard to drop.

And we can think, well, this is just the way that it is.  I won’t be able to change.  It is as it is, and this is just the way that it’s going to be.

I was thinking about change this morning, and I read this passage in Acts 9:

19b For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, 20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?”

The people ask of Paul, “Is this not the man that. . . ?”

Paul had changed.  But, if we remember the story of Paul, it wasn’t that he had enough will power to change. It wasn’t that he wanted it badly enough to change.  It wasn’t his desire to be changed that changed him.

It was God.

He had an encounter with God, and God changed him.  He was knocked off his donkey and the Lord changed him.

It was God that did it.  Not Paul.

Perhaps we are frustrated today because we are trying to do it ourselves and finding that we can’t.  Perhaps we finding that we don’t have enough will power. Perhaps we fall back into the old habits and feel guilty.  And feel like we can’t do.

And really, guess what?

We can’t do it.

Alone.  We can’t change ourselves by ourselves.

But God can.

What do you want to change today?  Give it to God. And give it again, and again, and again, and again.  Give it to Him each second, each minute, each hour.

Give it over and over again.

You will take it back.  I do, we all do.  Give it back.

God changed Paul to the point where folks couldn’t believe it was him.

He is still God. And He can still do it.

What do you want to change today?  Give it to Him.  Again and again.  And, He will change us.  For our good and for His glory.

Give it to Him.

Thanks be to God!

Posted on by

3

In Scripture, there are just certain passages that you read and you go – that’s it!  That’s how I feel!  That’s what I’m feeling, that’s what I’m experiencing

For me, Paul’s words in Romans 7 are that.  When I read the end of Romans 7, I say, yep, that’s the story of my life, that summarizes my feelings.  Today, as I read through it, a couple of things from this chapter just leapt out to me.

Paul writes:

I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

Hello?  Man, oh man, I’ve been there.  I know what’s right.  I know what’s wrong.  I know what I should do, I know what I shouldn’t do!

I know it.  It’s not guess-work.  I know the answer.  I know how I should live, serve, give, who I should be.  It’s a plain as the nose on my face.

And what do I do? What’s wrong. What I shouldn’t do. The very thing I don’t want to do. The very thing I despise.

The good I should do I don’t do, the evil I shouldn’t do, I do.

In other words, that thing that we struggle with.  That we know we shouldn’t do. That day after day after day we know we should not do – that very thing we do!

UGH.  It drive me crazy.  I don’t want to do it!  I want to be different.  I want to live apart from these sins.  Yet, I keep falling into it.

What am I to do?

The reason why I love this passage is because Paul gives an answer:

25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The answer is not my will power.  It’s not in my being good enough, smart enough, strong enough.

I can’t. I’ve already proved that.

It’s not in what I can do.  It’s in what He can do.

I can do nothing.  He can do all things.  I am weak, He is strong. I choose what is wrong.  He is what is right.

Through ourselves, our own devices, our own choosing, we get ourselves in trouble.

Through Jesus, we find life.

Thanks be to God!

Today, trust in Him. Rely upon Him. Cast your cares on Him.  He is life.  He is strength.  He is hope.  Lean not on yourself, but on Him.  Trust.  Live.  With Him.

Thanks be to God!  For in Him, all things are possible.

Payday

Posted on by

0

One of my first real jobs was as a camp counselor during the summers at Twin Lakes, in Florence, MS.  I worked their two summers and some of the best times of my life there. I made friends there that I will treasure forever.

One of the things I remember most, though, about camp, was getting that my first paycheck.  Looking back now, it wasn’t much. But at the time, I thought I’d won the lottery.  I thought I was the richest man I knew.

I’d worked hard for that check. I loved my job, but I’d worked really hard. I’d earned what I had.  And, honestly, if I’d have worked that hard, and the camp had not paid me, when they promised to, I’d have been upset.  You want what’s coming to you!  What you deserve!

Sometimes, I think we tie ourselves in a knot with God.  Just like in our job, be it our first job, or our current job, we feel like we have to earn God’s love. We feel like we have to “do” something to make God love us. Just like at camp I had certain things I had to do as part of my job, as Christians, we sometimes feel like we have to “do” something to make God love us.

Forgive us.

Care for us.

And, here’s the problem. We can’t ever do things just perfect. We mess up. We fall down.  We make mistakes. We sin.  It gets ugly.

And then, because we’ve mess up, we feel like we haven’t earned that love we want.

Today in Roman’s we see Paul talk about Abraham.  He writes this:

1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

God didn’t love or accept Abraham because he was perfect.  In fact, if we look back it his story, he did some pretty dumb things.

He loved Abraham because He’s God. And that’s what He does. What God wanted from Abraham was this.  Faith.  Trust. Relationship.

We don’t have to earn God’s love. We just have to accept it.  We have have to make God love us. We just have to understand He does.

We don’t have to wait for payday.  Payday is here, today. We just have to have faith.

Today, God loves you. Believe that.  No matter where you or what you’ve done.  God loves you. Have faith. And find that love and acceptance you’ve been seeking.

Get Back Up!

Posted on by

0

One of my mentors said something in class once which has always stuck with me – Bible Characters weren’t always Bible Characters.  They were real folks, like me and you. And, somehow along the way, we’ve forgotten that. What do I mean by that?

Each of them, they each made terrible, terrible mistakes. They were human as we are. That means they were not perfect. They did dumb things, just like we do dumb things. They fell down, as well fall down. They were imperfect, and God loved them anyway. Just like He loves us.

Paul reminds us today in 1 Timothy:

12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the foremost. 16 But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.

Paul, this great man of faith, this man that started church after church, this man, led by the Holy Spirit, this man that wrote over half of the New Testament, says that he was unworthy of doing what God had called him to do.

He had fallen down, he had made mistakes.  He had done things he should haven’t done.

But, while he was unworthy, God had judged him worthy.   He didn’t deserve the grace God gave him.  No one does. That’s why it’s called grace.  It’s undeserved, it’s freely given.  No matter what we’ve done, we are loved. And forgiven.  And treasured by God.  No matter what.

You are loved.

Yes, your past is your past.  Yes, you (and I) have fallen down.  So, what do do we?  We get back up!  We fall down, we get up. We fall down, we get up!  Because God’s grace is bigger than any mistake we could make. God’s grace is bigger.

Remember, you are loved today.  God used someone even like Paul.  He can use us too. When we fall down, by His grace, may we get back up!

Remember Your Chains

Posted on by

0

Today, a few words from 1 Corinthians 15 that stood out to me:

9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them-though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Paul today says that he understands because of some of the stuff he did before his conversion (persecution of the church, the stoning of Stephen) that he has worked harder than the rest.  He knows that because of all that he has done, he has a debt, something that he feels like he needs to make clean for his own good.

Paul remembers where he has come from.  I think that’s a good thing.  One of my favorite songs by Steven Curtis Chapman is entitled “Remember your Chains” and this song shares with Paul this notion that we should remember where we come from.  We should remember that we were not always who we are now.  We should remember that it was God’s grace that saved us.

We need to remember that we are not perfect and have never been perfect. God has brought us a long way.

And, we need to remember to be merciful and grace that have not yet excepted the grace of God. For we were once there ourselves.  We are no better than them, or anyone.  It’s all about God’s grace.

God has shown us mercy.  We need to remember what God has done for us.  I know for me, that helps me to show mercy and grace to others. God has forgive me SO much.  How can I not show mercy and grace?

Even when I don’t want to. Even when they don’t deserve it.  Because I didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness of me. And He gave it anyway.

Remember where you have been.  Remember where God has brought you. Remember to forgive each other. As God has forgiven you.