DayspringofGod

Monday, October 23, 2006

Paul's letter to me and Bangor

I'm taking an online course, and one of the discussion questions had to do with Paul's letters, and what his letters to our corps would be. Here's my response:

I like Joyce's comment about wondering whether the churches would have been looking forward to Paul's letters...I have to wonder whether I would be looking forward to Paul's letters myself....maybe he would send me someone I had given up on and turned my back on because they weren't living up to my standards at one time. (Phi 10-12) Or maybe he would remind me that it's actions that speak louder than words and not to get stuck in the rut of witty wordplay and pious manipulation (Titus 1:10-16). He would remind me that I have been foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures to keep me humble, and help me remember what it was like to be without Christ, and what His saving grace looked like for me. (Titus 2:3-7)
He would tell me to stay strong and expect persecution and hardship, because Christ was rejected, and so was Paul (2 Tim 1:15) He would remind me of the foundational truth of the Gospel, that "The LORD knows those who are his" and "everyone who confesses the name of the LORD must turn away from wickedness" (2 Tim 2:19)
He'd even give me lists of what was to look out for in my flock and myself (Gal 5:19-21, 1 Tim 4:1-3, 6:3-5,9,10, 2 Tim 3:1-9, 4:3-4 ) and remind me of how he overcame those things, and how God empowers us to rise above the muck through Holy Spirit (Gal 5:16-18, 22-26, 1 Tim 3:2-13, 5:1,2, 6:1,6-8, 2 Tim 3:10-4:2)
As a corps, He would remind us to welcome eachother, and see eachother, and listen to eachother, rather than spending all our time worrying about ourselves and how we've been wronged. He would remind us to keep moving forward, not keeping to traditions for traditions' sake, but to do whatever was neccessary to reach the people Christ has called us to reach. In the Salvation Army, that would be the drug addicts, the single mothers, the gang members, the lonely, the depressed, the mentally afflicted, etc etc. He would encourage us to be who we were created to be, and to choose to love one another as a family, since that is what we are.

1 Comments:

At 10:57 AM, Blogger Kristen said...

welcome back!!!

The letters of St. Paul are truly masterfully crafted! The best way I've heard him described is 90% gasoline and 10% firecracker. Passionate beyond our wildest expectation. I took a course on St. Paul last year - one of the best essays I've ever had to write was in that course - pick an issue in the church and write a fictional Pauline style letter addressing it. It's facinating when you try to get into his thought pattern - you start to understand just how much of a rhetorical genius he truly was!

Good luck and happy studying!

 

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