What is Your Aim?

The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions.

William F. Scolavino

Romans 15:20-23 (HCSB)

So my aim is to evangelize where Christ has not been named, in order that I will not be building on someone else’s foundation, but, as it is written: Those who had no report of Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand. That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you. But now I no longer have any work to do in these provinces, and I have strongly desired for many years to come to you

Listen to the deep conviction and commitment of Paul. Paul was in the building business. Paul looked at the great sacrifice that Christ had made for him, the great foundation that was given him to work on and he got down to business. He isn’t wasting his time, if you will notice, on those that had already received the good news.

What do you make of this? Listen to his yearning to see those that he had led to Christ and had not been able to see for many years. He wasn’t wasting a lot of time singing hymns with the redeemed and having fellowship suppers and going to conventions. No Paul knew there was no time to waste, and so he was sharing with those that had not yet heard.

We are meeting regularly in our churches, encouraging each other, which we should be doing. But, we also live in a world that is lost more today than ever before. We should not forget the time, but we too should be looking for those who have yet to hear, and understand that should be our aim, we should all have a lost person in our sights…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Boasting of Christ

There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets the credit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, American poet, essayist)

Romans 15:17-19
Therefore I have reason to boast in Christ Jesus regarding what pertains to God. For I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, and by the power of God’s Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the good news about the Messiah from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. (HCSB)

We all deal with the great monster and deceiver “pride.” He looms over our lives every day trying to insert and manifest his deity when we are least suspect. But, what Paul is speaking of here is pride in his Lord. He also has reason for his boasting, a reason that God would wish that we all could boast and brag of daily.

Paul is boasting of what pertains of God in his life. No credit due him, for Paul was a murder and a well known and greatly feared torturer and murderer of Christians. So, his relief from all of this was to boast, to dwell on, and to share with others the greatest thing that was happening in his life…he was being used by God.

He is very careful to give God glory also, for he says that he would not even dare to take credit for what God was accomplishing in him. But, he would declare and share the miracles and wonders of God around him, so as to share the Good News. So what do think of this Paul, one of the greatest of the apostles, wasn’t he aware most every day that the Greatest miracle of all was that God would love…him…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

For Someone Else

God asks no man whether he will accept life. This is not the choice. You must take it. The only question is how.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887, American preacher, orator, writer)

Romans 15:15-16
Nevertheless, to remind you, I have written to you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of God’s good news. My purpose is that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (HCSB)

The attitude of Paul in these verses is well worth our consideration as a way for us all to live. His first attitude; it was of grace, he spoke boldly because he was forgiven, therefore without guilt he was able to do the second thing. The second thing was to serve as a minister of God’s Good News.

These two attitudes of living gave his life purpose, and that purpose was of major importance to me and to you. He strove to make us, that’s you and I, acceptable to God, and sanctified by The Holy Spirit. Now through the Holy Spirit of God that attitude is passed down to me and to you, to live with that same attitude.

We together, saved by the Grace of God, are to minister to others around us, and share the grace given to us. The Good News is still the same Good News that Paul spread to those that God had chosen to adopt into the Multitude of the Redeemed. We too have that very same purpose given to us by God, through His Holy Spirit. The main purpose of our lives is to help others receive life; it’s not about us just making a living for ourselves…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William