Seeking Pearls

As Paul journeys to Rome, the Lord stands by him yet again to give him courage and confidence in the midst of tremendous trial. With networking in such a way that challenges us even today, despite all the technology we have at our fingerprints, Paul presses on, with and toward people he loves and who love him in return. No matter the trial or suffering, Paul will not be stopped. He has full assurance that in the end, the Lord will deliver him safely into His kingdom.

Led by the Spirit of God and strengthened by the Lord Jesus himself, Paul goes on to Jerusalem, knowing full well that prison and pain await him there. But, his aim is to preach the Gospel and every ounce of his life is all about Jesus, so to Jerusalem he goes. Come along as he undergoes one trial after another, being found innocent every time, yet remaining a prisoner for the sake of Christ.

As Paul finally gets to minister in Ephesus, we see him battling the forces of darkness as the Name of Jesus is lifted high. When his years in Ephesus draw to a close, we hear the heart of a man who loves Jesus..."My only aim...is to testify to the goodness of the grace of God." That is the heart of a transformed man who loves God and loves people. May we love one another as purely.  

As Paul journeys on from Philippi into Thessalonica to Berea to Athens to Corinth, he tells us that he does so with one single resolve: to preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
In a world of false idols and immense suffering, Paul preaches the hope of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. There was literally nothing the people of Greece needed more, and there is still literally NOTHING that we need more today.
Paul...a man who changed the world, wrote to the Corinthians "I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2) No human knowledge, no fancy science or the latest discovery in mathematics. Just Jesus. Only Jesus. Still today, Jesus is the answer.

After being instructed "No!" twice by the Holy Spirit, Paul and Silas finally were given the divine green light to proceed westward across the Aegean Sea into Macedonia (now modern Greece). There, they met a dear woman who would become the first person to house a church in Europe, a demon-possessed slave girl, and a jailer who would come to Christ along with his entire household. Amidst suffering and persecution, Paul and Silas teach prisoners and freemen alike what it means to be filled with the unceasing joy of the Lord. 

Illness, persecution, division, even death...nothing can stop Paul's fervor for the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the second half of his first missionary journey, Paul is stoned to death, miraculously healed, and then gets up and goes right back into the city that just tried (successfully?) to kill him. Why? Because Jesus is worth it. Jesus is worth it all.

The first missionary journey for the Apostle Paul and Barnabas has set sail, and there will be no shortage of drama! Preaching to a governor, releasing a man from a demon, illness, controversy, suffering, arduous mountain trails, sleepless nights and a possible shipwreck...
But, far more important than all of that, through it all, lives are saved for the sake of Christ. The gospel is proclaimed, and hope is restored in lives and lands.
Join us for the first installment of the first journey!
 

In the fourth episode of our series on the Apostle Paul, we zoom in on a key encourager in his life: Barnabas.
Barnabas takes a risk on Saul when everyone else is still scared of him. Barnabas encourages him, remembers him, seeks him out, and mobilizes him for ministry.
What would it look like for you and I to be a Barnabas?

In this third episode of our series on the Apostle Paul, we look into the hidden years. After his conversion and before his first missionary journey is a period of about 14 years. We don't have very many details in the pages of Scripture, but what we do have gives us intriguing insight into the years in which he sought the Lord Jesus and learned personally, directly from Him.
Let us wait on the Lord like Paul did. Let us seek to know Jesus personally, intimately, in the ways that Paul did, as well as so many other men and women from the Bible.

In this second episode of Paul: His Letters, His Journeys, His Jesus, we take a deep dive into his conversion experience. What happened that day, two thousand years ago, on the long, hot road into Damascus?
When Jesus met Paul that day, it changed the world. Paul's obedience, Ananias' courage, and above all else Jesus' grace...it all flipped the world around in an irreversible way.
Join me on the road to Damascus as Saul is taken out of darkness and into the light.