{"id":226961,"date":"2023-02-21T16:01:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T21:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liveoriginal.com\/?p=226961"},"modified":"2023-03-09T16:31:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T21:31:40","slug":"pov-youre-apostle-paul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liveoriginal.com\/pov-youre-apostle-paul\/","title":{"rendered":"POV: You’re Apostle Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You and me?<\/p>\n

We have work to do.<\/p>\n

You\u2014meaning, a follower of Jesus who has experienced the goodness of God yourself.<\/p>\n

Me\u2014meaning, your fellow sister in Christ, who believes with all her heart that only in Him, a free life is possible.<\/p>\n

Whether we realize it or not, every person in pain is longing for what our Savior has to offer. Those who are hurting, those who are hopeless\u2014they need to know that there\u2019s a way out.<\/p>\n

And, it\u2019s up to us to let them know that there is a way\u2014The Way.<\/p>\n

His Name is Jesus.<\/p>\n

And, if there\u2019s anybody who knows the importance of spreading the gospel to all people, even if it means taking the gospel to some unlikely, controversial places, it\u2019s the man I\u2019m featuring for today\u2019s post. This man didn\u2019t just know the world needed the gospel, but he did something about it, presenting it to those who were typically excluded from it.<\/p>\n

You know him.<\/p>\n

You love him.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s probably the writer of one of your favorite verses.<\/p>\n

You guessed it!<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019re talking about Apostle Paul.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but we\u2019re going to take a look at his ministry from his point of view.<\/p>\n

After all, his story is incredible. The minute Jesus called Paul to ministry in Acts 9:15, the Lord made it very clear that Paul wasn\u2019t just meant to preach to the Israelites\u2014God\u2019s chosen people. No. Paul was also called to preach to\u2014brace yourselves\u2014the Gentiles.<\/p>\n

Let me tell you why this is so significant.<\/p>\n

The Israelites often viewed the Gentiles as the outsiders, enemies, those unworthy of the grace of God. And, the worst part is that they felt they had biblical reasons to justify their viewpoint. When God made a covenant promise with Abraham in Genesis 15, promising Abraham that his descendants were going to be as many as the stars in the sky, we see later on in Scripture that God called these descendants Israelites. Not Gentiles.<\/p>\n

Get the picture?<\/p>\n

In other words, the Israelites lorded their covenant promise over those who weren\u2019t descendants of Abraham. They overlooked Gentiles, excluded them, outcasted them, shunned them\u2014<\/p>\n

\u2014so when Paul came on the scene with a clear call to minister to Gentiles, the Israelites were terribly upset.<\/p>\n

But, that didn\u2019t bother Apostle Paul. No way! In fact, he was way too bothered by the fact that the Gentiles were out there giving their lives to gods who didn\u2019t even have ears to hear them with when they could be praying to the God who not only hears them, but talks back too! And, it upset him in such a way that he did something about it\u2014going above and beyond any other apostle, letting the Gentiles in on the greatest love story of all.<\/p>\n

And, boy did he pay the price for it.<\/p>\n

Because of Paul\u2019s pursuit of the Gentiles, he was misunderstood, mocked, whipped, beaten, stoned, persecuted, and unjustly imprisoned many times. In fact, much of his life was spent in chains for the sole purpose of preaching the gospel. And, thankfully, we don\u2019t have to be uninformed about what life was like for Paul in prison. The Bible gives us an exclusive, inside-look of what prison life was like through the readings of many of his letters\u2014his most famous one being addressed to the Philippian church.<\/p>\n\n\t\t