Sharing God’s grace with each other is our mission.
14 I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them. 15 Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder. For by God’s grace, 16 I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit. 17 So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God.
18 Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them. 19 They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum.
20 My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. 21 I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says,
“Those who have never been told about him will see,
and those who have never heard of him will understand.”22 In fact, my visit to you has been delayed so long because I have been preaching in these places.
Romans 15:14-22
I love Paul.
The apostle Paul truly had God’s love working through him in his ministry. We also see the power of the Holy Spirit in Paul. What a transformation! He went from hating those who followed Jesus to loving each of them dearly. He tells these Roman believers in verse 14 above that they are full of goodness. They are also good students because they learned so well they are now able to become teachers. We should all go from being students to teachers in the Word so that many others can learn and become teachers.
Paul was truly a special messenger from Christ Jesus. He was given the wonderful message of grace and the Gospel of salvation. Catch the wording in verse 16 above. Paul is offering up the followers in Rome as a special offering to God. These dear people were made holy, as are we, by the Holy Spirit.
Did you ever think of yourself as an offering to God?
According to these words above, we are offerings. Also according to these words, we should be excited and enthusiastic about all that Jesus is doing through our service. Paul goes on to say that he will not boast about anything except what Christ has done through him, which is huge. Paul brought the message of reconciliation to the Gentiles – to us! We were once lost and could not find God and then Jesus dies on the cross for each of us. He reconciles us to the Father. And Jesus gave this message to Paul to share with us.
Reading on in these verses above, miraculous signs and wonders and the power of the Holy Spirit turned hearts to God. Are we in a different time period today than Paul was 2000 years ago? No. When Paul performed signs and wonders, Jesus had already ascended to Heaven. We are the same as Paul in our standing with God. Remember that God does not play favorites so the work He did through Paul’s life and ministry, He will do for you and for me.
We should all be praying for miraculous signs and wonders to happen through us.
For Paul and the disciples, miraculous signs and wonders were commonplace. They knew they had the power given to them by Jesus and in the form of the Holy Spirit within. They walked daily in that power. We are given that same power. I encourage you to start dreaming big. No dream is too big for God. Paul’s dream was to spread the Good News (the Gospel) to as many people as he possibly could in his lifetime. And he probably holds a record even today for the number of miles walked for Christ. In a book titled “A Man of Grace and Grit – Paul” by Charles Swindoll, it is estimated that Paul walked 13,400 miles – on foot!
Note: This is a really great book if you want to learn all you can about the man named Paul. Aside from Jesus, Paul is my favorite person and the second person I want to meet when I get to Heaven.
Paul’s ambition was to preach the Good News where the name of Christ was never heard.
This should be our ambition as well. There are people all around us, probably even in our own families, who have never heard the true and accurate message of grace. So many people are caught up in bondage. Religion can be a form of bondage. If a church does not preach the message of grace, it can easily create bondage. God will put people in our paths who need to see Jesus. People who need to hear Grace. It’s our job to share Jesus. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to help the person accept Him. Did you catch that? We are not called to make sure a person accepts Jesus. We are call to just plant the seed and share Jesus and His love and mercy with others.
We are also called to share grace with those who are saved.
Believers can get caught up in erroneous thinking that keeps us captive. The message of grace sets the captives free so there are more harvesters in the planting field. The more people we can get out of personal bondage, the more people we have to sow seeds into others. God’s ways are so beautiful. He could do it all alone but He desires to co-labor with us. Let’s co-labor with Him today to share the Good News with others.
Stay in the Light and the Love Always,
Eva
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