This morning was truly awesome. Before my Thursday morning Bible Study I had a meeting with a genetleman who said "I want to get with Judy and you for coffee, or something as soon as I can. I have been missing you both and thinking about you." This isn't just an oridinary man, but a man who I truly loved and discipled for about a year. He ended up leaving the ministry, owing me money, and filled with bitterness. I had not spoken to him since then, but everytime I passed his house I would pray for him. Today, Judy and I saw God's glory. I could tell that something had happened to this elderly gentleman. He was radiant and beaming. As he began to talk he immediately reached in his front shirt pocket and said "I want to settle this first....Here is the money that I have owed you." As soon as that business was taken care of he was off to the races. He was on fire for Jesus, and also glad to reunite with Judy and I. He shared that he was not ready to face or hear what I had to say, but that all we had shared and taught him had been his foundation up to this point. It was a glorious day of reconcilliation, love, mercy and grace.
I could not wait to get next door to the minstry and see what God was going to show me in His Word. Check this out... we were in Romans 15 beginning with verse 14 from the previous week. When we reached verse 17 it brought a smile to my face "Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God." Amazing isn't it? Paul goes on in verse 18-20 with these words "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done--by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, i have fully procalimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation." What an example to us all! Paul was finishing strong. Paul made it his ambition to share the 'Whole' gospel to all. He knew a Jesus that I wish everyone of could know, and we can.
What about us? What do we glory in? What we have done, or what He is doing through us? Let us make it our ambition to procalim the gospel in its fullness this year. This dear man who sat across from Judy and I heard the whole gospel and then left, only to come back and say "I heard all that you had to say, and this is why I am where I am today." None of this is for my glory, because He alone is worthy of all the glory~
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