happy birthday
February 7th, 2010Welcome to our story.
Paul’s life was one of the most powerful arguments used by God for the truth of the gospel about Jesus Christ.
I’ll just pause to let that sink in.
That’s alarming, methinks.
Although we don’t have an overall picture of Paul’s life, there are a few places where he tells something of what happened to him. When it comes to facing the problem in the Galatian churches - that they are leaving this good news about Jesus behind - he decides to begin his letter with his story.
And here’s why this is so alarming, because I wonder, should I not see my life as being one of the powerful arguments of God for the gospel?
Brother Lawrence ponders with a brother how they have spent their years: You and I have lived a monastic life many years. Have we employed those years in loving God? After all, it was by His mercy we were called and chosen. And for what purpose? To love Him (Practicing His Presence).
I have just turned 34 years in my following of Jesus Christ.
I did not come to this new-birth-day by an expected route, not having any connection with a “church,” nor any “church” connection within my family.
It was by the invasion of God.
Even now I wonder whether I am here despite my experiences of so many “churches.” And neither is it because of any of my doing. Each year, when I come to this new-birth-day, I find myself simply amazed and so grateful for God at work in my life, though I get more wrong than right .
When we look back we do see things quite differently. Paul looks back and sees how God set me apart before birth and who called me by his grace - chose, to his great delight, to reveal his Son in me so I could tell his story among the outsider nations (Galatians 1:15-17; The Message).
Many years earlier he had heard his call as a promise, a number of words, but now as he looks back and sees more of what happened when because of the journey that took him to Arabia, and then back to Damascus.
As I looked forward thirty fours years ago, I thought I knew what this life would be like, but now as I look back they don’t look anything like what I thought they would.
Just what happened in Arabia?
God takes Paul, this Jew of Jews, off to a Gentile country, immersing him in a different culture. He explores his new faith in a non-Jewish setting, and perhaps it is no wonder that when he returns, he has a different perspective that would not have been developed had he stayed in Jerusalem. Later he would speak in places like Corinth and Athens.
I see my life has been the other way around.
I see how so much of my young faith was lived in “church” settings, and only now am I exploring my Arabia and my Damascus.
Paul’s life is a powerful argument for this good news of God in Jesus Christ. The gospel invaded his life and developed in a way that only this good news could.
So it ought to be in my life.
How I need this experiment: I am over 50 years old, have been following Jesus for 34 years, and I have so far to go.
How are things for you?
