The Good Life

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
2 Corinthians 11 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:24-28, NKJV)


REFLECTIONS:
How does your life compare with the above verses?  

Often we forget that Jesus told Peter that when we give up our old life for the sake of the gospel and Him that we could expect to be rewarded a hundred times as much, all with persecutions. I tend to forget that last part because it doesn’t seem to fit with our ideas of being in God’s favor.  

Jesus clearly tells us that if the world hated him it will hate us too because the servant can’t be greater than the master.  The funny thing about hate is that it requires a hard heart.  When we are obedient to the hard teachings of Jesus—like letting someone beat both sides of your face or freely giving to a robber that which he came to steal (you know, loving your enemy)—it begins to crack even the hardest of hearts. 

Jesus made it clear that only seed which falls on the good soil is able to bear fruit.  Sometimes we are the plow that God uses to bust up all the hard rocky ground of a person’s heart, making it ready to receive His word and bear good fruit.  

Paul lived a life on the edge.  Once he gave his life to the Gospel and Jesus he left his home and neighbors and went to strangers in strange lands to share the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Because God’s Kingdom and this world’s kingdom are at such odds, Paul’s resume should not be too surprising to us.  Paul turned people’s worlds upside down and most people don’t like change in general much less to stand on their head.  

Are you changing the world around you or are you being changed by it?  Because of a natural resistance to change ingrained in the world’s system, even the best of news can be met with skepticism and resistance. 

I believe that many of the things Paul endured were dished out by the enemy but, just as with Job, that which was meant as a curse for Paul was made a blessing for him by God.  It seems amazing that after listing all the hardships he endured the one thing he says that he was deeply concerned about was for all the churches.  

What are you deeply concerned with—an election, work, family, wealth, wellbeing, or the things of the Kingdom which you have been ransomed into?   I think that we should remember that often the things we try to avoid in life because of our fears or love of comfort cause us to miss some of the greatest blessings God has to offer.


PRAYER:
Father, I pray that you would go before your servants and turn hearts of stone into good soil ready to receive your Son and His gospel and that in receiving your good news their hearts would become the heart of flesh which bears good fruit.  Lead us down the paths you choose and remind us daily that your burden is light and your yoke is easy.


WHO AM I?
My name is Paul.  This is me and my old man on my wedding day almost ten years ago to the day this is scheduled to post (which my wife had to remind me of when she proof read this for me… oops).  A prophet truly has no honor in his own home.  My dad told me from a young age that if I wanted to change the world around me for the better I needed to take the gospel of Jesus to the place of trouble.  Of course I didn’t heed these words until I was 31 and heard them from a stranger in a faraway place.  Oh well, better late than never.  As you can see I’m the runt of my family at 6’1”.