Thursday, December
6, 2018
And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear. It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. Philippians 1:12-18(NLT)
The first time I suspected glasses
might be a good thing was in high school.
I was playing third base. The
runner from second, and the baseball, thrown from the other side of the field to
get the runner out, were headed my way…both at top speed! Clearly, something was wrong, because,
instead of hitting my glove so I could tag the runner out, the ball whizzed
past me, between my glove and left ear; I never saw it – but I did
hear
it! A bit closer and we might not be having
this conversation.
When Saul had his name changed to
Paul, and his occupation from persecutor of
the church to preacher of the Gospel there
was a brief period of complete blindness.
Jesus had blinded the soon-to-be Apostle to get his attention. That stuck better than my attempt to catch a baseball!
Saul’s eyes were closed, but Paul
had his opened on a brand-new view from the balcony. For the first time he saw the big picture,
and God continued opening his view all along the way from simple Gospel
proclaimer, to church planter, missionary, defender of, and prisoner for the
faith, and, finally, martyr.
It takes seeing clearly to
live a life of faith like that!
That old saying about being too
close to the forest to see the trees applies here. Saul was hip-deep in the alligators of
persecuting the church, imprisoning believers, and even having some put to
death[2], so
he never had a clear view of God’s purposes.
When knocked to his knees with the blinding light of Christ’s presence,
everything changed.
As a high schooler I had my eyes
opened (literally) by a whizzing baseball too close for comfort, and later
accepting the plain fact that I needed an assist with my
vision. Later, like Saul/Paul (but with a
lot less drama) I had my eyes opened to a larger purpose for my life, of
preaching and teaching God’s Word.
Fast forward about 30 years; he
who was the newly-ordained Apostle Paul, surrounded by miracles, messenger of
the Gospel, is now a diminutive, vision-impaired and battle-worn, chained prisoner
of an old man in a cold Roman jail cell, awaiting execution. And the dead-man walking is sitting, writing
letters to his friends at Philippi, Ephesus, and around the world. And he’s REJOICING! What is up with that?
Pretty simple answer: God’s clear vision had given Paul a
view from the balcony. He was able to
step back from the forest of his life’s pain, and see the trees clearly, how
God was in everything that happened to him.
In Paul’s heart there was a stirring, motivation to see the Gospel of
salvation proclaimed to the world. He
had a purpose, and it had gripped him so securely little else mattered. Even when people couldn’t stand him and
preached the Gospel just to stir-up the Roman authorities to make Paul’s life
more miserable than it already was, Paul rejoiced.
Paul wasn’t a pain-junkie, or a suicide bomber for the faith; he
had hopes and dreams for the future, friends that were more like family, and
relationships that made life worth living.
But he was ready to give everything up for the success of the Gospel
which had been entrusted to him that day on the Damascus Road when the fastball
of blindness whizzed past Saul’s ear and awakened Paul to new life.
For me it was a close call with a baseball that awakened a need
for clearer physical vision. And some
other close-calls awakened my need for deeper spiritual vision,
the kind that helps shape a greater purpose in life, a Godly purpose.
For You Today
Have you had a Damascus Road, or a whizzing fastball moment where
you finally recognized there really is a higher purpose than just going to
work, school, or cutting the grass?
Go to VIDEO
[2] Acts 9
