"Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others."
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."Paul doesn't pull any punches. He doesn't sugarcoat things or break it up into bite-sized pieces. Instead, he lays it right out there. "Nobody." "Whatever you do." He doesn't shy away from saying that this commitment is an all-in commitment. There is no half-way, there is no try. It is classic Paul, bold and straightforward. For him, the Christian life wasn't something you tried. It was something you dove into headfirst. It wasn't something that you got used to, it was something that continually pushed you and stretched you and tested you.
How different is the Christian life we talk about today?
We have our God time and our "me" time and our family time and our work time. Paul only had "God" time. We take God and try to fit him into our lives. Paul radically turned his life upside down when he found God.
Do we do that? Do we challenge others to do that? Where is our passion? Where is our commitment? Where is our lack of self?
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Question is: "Was there a man who led a similar life, but couldn't change like Paul, so he stayed in his old life (or stayed blinded because he couldn't bear to submit)?
ReplyDeleteMy answer is: Absolutely! His name is Tim. I became friends with Tim during my ministry in NC. When I met Tim I had only heard stories of his past of him being so addicted to crack cocaine that his life was in shambles and was unable to break free. (Having not seen his past, I couldn’t even imagine that side of him!) When he encountered and embraced the love of God, he pursued a relationship with God in such a passionate and vigorous way that it reminded me about Paul’s pursuit of God!
Tim felt God calling him to carry an 8ft cross from NC to NY and back! Sounded crazy to me, but honestly…“Does God call people to do safe and comfortable things in order to reveal Himself to them and others?” (Maybe, but I’ve certainly read about and have seen proof that it’s not usually this way.) This was CRAZY to me, because if carrying an 8ft cross wasn’t strange enough, he didn’t take ANY money with him to eat on! He believed he would simply pray and rely on God to provide the money for him to eat! But even stranger yet…day after day, he found enough money along the side of the road to eat off of. Then some people would stop their cars and give him money to eat on because of his willingness to be so bold.
I wish I could say that Tim’s stories keep going in this direction. Let me stop there. Maybe they have or maybe they will! However the last story that I remember from Tim was when he showed up at my front door asking for $20 to pay for his insurance on his car so he could keep driving it to work. (I had heard Tim was possibly back to his old ways, but hadn’t seen proof until I saw him that day.) Long story short, it was about a year later when I saw Tim again. He handed me a $20 and apologized that he used my $20 for drugs that day.
Question is: "Was there a man who led a similar life, but couldn't change like Paul, so he stayed in his old life (or stayed blinded because he couldn't bear to submit)?
Answer is: “Yes, I know him as Tim.”