Crazy People

I know we all know who Paul is in the Bible. So many of us think about how he wrote a good portion of the New Testament of the Bible, but i believe he did something more then all that. He followed his calling in life. He traveled started the first Church and stood up for what he believed in. Now I believe people thought he was a fool for believing what he believed. I knew that God could change people. I love looking into the history of the Church in Ephesus. These people were nuts. We are talking about witchcraft, serving other Gods, sexual immorality and tons of other stuff.. Now the reason I love this is because I believe it shows us the American Church. Now I know people we fight me on that one and say "it's not that bad" I would say just because we don't know, doesn't make it untrue." Look around at the world and I believe we can say hey it's messed up. Paul took these churches and towns and showed us that a change can take place. I serve at a Church that reaches out to the outcast and trust me we see some crazy things take place. What we must understand is that Christ didn't come for our building, clothes, or fellowship. Christ came to give the crazy people life. Where there is sin, we will see craziness....but also where there is sin we will see new life. I believe through out the Bible paul was showing people that there was a need for new life and for those who had new life there was a need to reach out.

Outreach is not an event or just telling people about Jesus. Outreach is about compassion and Grace. I hear about millions being saved at an even and I ask myself... Can this be true? Now I am not putting down these events, but I can't remember Paul ever giving a report back and giving a number of how many said a prayer. But I read about new life and Paul wanting to take care of Timothy.

1 Corinthians 16:10If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am.

Philippians 2:22 But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.

Then when we read 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy all we see is love and concern for this young man. It seems like a great youth story, but I believe it's a great discipleship story. My prayer is that church and youth ministry would focus on the person and not the number or program. What if every church member stood up and said "This is the person I am discipling" and I am not talking about taking them to dinner and buying it. What if we took someone to dinner and shared our heart with them. Now I am thankful because I am seeing this taking place in our community for the first-time in a long time. I use to eat lunch with a group of students in lock-down at JDC. I remember eating what they would eat and them talking about their life and what they had done. It was amazing because it was us being real.

My prayer is that we would go where the people are at and make disciples. Not in events but as a lifestyle and out of worship for Jesus Christ. Paul’s love for Timothy with out of the love of Jesus Christ.