Dear
Friends,
I was
thinking about the book of Philippians where Paul was sitting in a cold, dark
jail cell. He declares that because of
his chains, he has had this marvelous opportunity to advance the gospel. He may as well have said “in spite of” my
chains. Paul considered himself a
prisoner not of Rome but of Jesus Christ.
He was here as an ambassador to represent his Lord and Savior. Hadn’t the Lord said, “I will show him (Paul)
how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16)? God had also promised Paul that he would one
day take the gospel to Rome, the heart of the empire (see Acts 23:11). When something hard happened to the apostle
Paul, his instant reaction was, “How can I use this as a platform to explain
the gospel?”
Paul had
no idea how he was ever going to get to Rome.
But he knew that one way or another, God would get him to the heart of
the empire. And what would happen when
he got there? Perhaps Paul envisaged a
great crusade in the Coliseum. I doubt
it though. He didn’t know how this trip
to Rome would actually happen and probably thought it could happen only if he
were a free man. But Paul had a
wonderful habit of seeing an opportunity to minister in every difficulty.
Paul,
therefore, looked at his chains as a positive.
“These are chains of blessing,” he would have said to himself. In fact, he didn’t just say it to himself; he
said it to his friends: “These chains on my wrists have turned out to be chains
of blessings for others.” What an
attitude! And Paul wants them to learn
the lesson too. In another letter, Paul
tells the Christians to make sure they learned to “make the most of every
opportunity” (Eph. 5:16). He wanted them
to begin practicing the art of ministry.
Whether
we find it easy or difficult to take the opportunity to make Christ known when
we’re in tough situations may have something to do with our personalities. It may be harder for some than others. I am a negative sort of person to begin with,
while my husband Stuart is the positive part of the partnership. He would see the doughnut; I would see the
hole. And if perchance Stuart would see
the hole, he would spell it WHOLE. But
faith can turn even a melancholy person into a positive one. To discover this was a huge encouragement
that helped me see even confining situations as a chance to practice this
spiritual art.
As we
meet Paul in prison, most likely in Rome, there is little encouragement for him
on the horizon. He is preparing to
defend his life in a Roman court. He is
to be put on trial for his faith, and he is not really expecting to win his
case. However, he is quite at ease, as
his faith tells him that if God wants him around a bit longer for the good of
the young believers, he will be released.
If not, he will walk through the front door of heaven and be with
Jesus. He can’t quite make up his mind
which he prefers. He reckons he’d rather
have heaven, but he’s quite content to stay a while longer on earth for the
sake of his beloved Philippians. “For to
me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,” he writes in his letter (Phil. 1:21). You can’t beat an attitude like that.
A
Christian has two great opportunities: to live and to die. Do you think of living and dying as two grand
slam opportunities? Well, it all depends
on whether Christ is in your life. And
if Christ is in your life, then death is your gain!
Back at
the ranch, or rather at the jail, Paul was making the most of things. He was busy using his unusual opportunities
and exercising the spiritual art of ministry.
Blessings,
Jill Briscoe
Executive Editor
Just Between Us Magazine
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