Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing." (Acts 15:36 NIV)
In my small group I meet with on Fridays, when we last met, we discussed Paul. Paul is what I'd call an extreme personality. If he's in, you can bet he's all in. When he was persecuting Christians, he did it with his whole heart. When he became a Christian, it became his whole life.
Paul's love for Christ is evident in every word of his letters, but I'm not sure I'd want him as a pastor... He's just too intense! But I guess he had to be with the job he had in the time in history he had it and the opposition he faced. God needed an extreme personality for this particular job, so he got Paul.
Paul didn't mess around with his churches. If they weren't doing things the right way or if they were missing the point, Paul wouldn't mince words to spare their feelings. He didn't just set up a church and move on... He kept tabs on each of them... Not an easy task without modern communication.
I wonder what Paul would have to say about our churches today. I'm not really talking about the theological differences regarding baptism, women preaching, etc. I'm talking more about how we treat one another within our churches and how we treat those outside the church... Those we are supposed to be inviting in.
Would Paul's letters praise us for the love and charity we demonstrate? Or would he chastise us for our petty bickering... For building bigger and better church building for our own use instead of feeding the hungry and housing the homeless? For turning away those who seek Jesus because they aren't like us?
It would be a little daunting to have Paul come in to examine the heart and spirit of love and grace of each of our churches. But it may be exactly what we need.
Father,
Show us where we fall from your purposes and give us hearts to be honest with ourselves. Help us to be about your work in our churches and in our individual lives. Amen.
Joys: a productive day at work yesterday;a little time with Cecelia; quiet mornings
No comments:
Post a Comment