9:15-16 - Paul loves to boast, but his boasting is always in Jesus Christ and not in himself. If people start to question his motives in preaching the gospel, then he will lose his ability to boast. If he preaches because of money - he cannot boast in the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If he preaches because of power - he loses the right to boast, because we can only truly boast about the power of God to work in our lives. Paul want us to understand that he preaches because he cannot stop...God has placed the word on his heart and it would not go well for him to ignore God's call! What is my motivation behind sharing the gospel?
9:19 - Paul is willing to give up any right to preach the gospel. He is willing to humiliate himself, belittle himself, sacrifice himself...all for the gospel. He will give up anything to preach the resurrected Christ...how about you?
9:25 - Every athlete exhibits self-control. They beat their body into submission through training - forging it in to a winning machine. They abstain from destructive habits to keep their body in peak condition for competition. They do all these things for temporary prizes, like money, honor, medals, etc. Paul on the other hand beats his body and mind into submission for eternal prizes, like winning people into the kingdom of God. Which is the better investment?
4 comments:
First part of 16 (Msg) - If I proclaim the Message, it's not to get something out of it for myself. I pray that my heart is there – that I am not in this for me – that I am in it for the One who sends me, the One who sets me free.
Msg 23 - I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! Don’t just talk about the Word – be a living part of it.
I love this summary of the last part of 24 from the NIV (Run in such a way as to get the prize) that’s in the Msg – Run to win.
Not just some sloppy half-baked try – run to win. Like in the movie, Facing the Giants – give your very best – and then whether you win, lose, or draw, give all the glory to God. Our Lord wants our very best – so - run to win.
Peace,
j
It is as if this message has fallen on deaf ears over the past 2000 years. How many people have run the race like him? Probably we can gather from a couple of chapters ago only single people run that race. One that comes to mind from our recent past is Mother Theresa. She ran that race. Can anyone think of someone else?
If a married man or woman ran the race like Paul, I can't help but think they wouldn't be married long. So maybe it is like being a Christ follower. None of us in this life will ever be like Christ, perfect, (that happens in the life to come), but that is the mark we should be aiming at. Obviously this is the mark Paul aimed at.
There is a guy named Shane Claiborne that is trying to live it up in the Chicago area. They have a house that 4 or 5 families share and he has chosen to be spiritually single. They feed tons of homeless people every day and do anything they can to make the inner city area they live in better.
Father, I come before you now to say thank you for today. I thank you for bringing me to this passage today, and helping me to focus on it. I thank you for calming my spirits so that I might be able to make it through this reading, and I ask that you help me to continually make you the focus of my life. Not my wage, not my stress, and not my personal life. You be my all. I love you. AMEN
Post a Comment