The Experience of the Apostle Paul and your Experience

Many read the book of Romans and assume that they know the Apostle Paul; not so!  To know Paul we start at chapter 7 of the Book Of Acts.  There is the disciple Stephen whose forceful young witness for Christ has brought him trouble and persecution.  Because of Stephen's bold assertions that Jesus is the Resurrected Christ the Roman's decide to stone him to death.  And who is standing by watching, holding the coats of those who throw the stones?  Saul, later to be renamed Paul.

Stephen did not die without a speedy trial!  He was first dragged before the high priest and the rigid religious council, before whom Stephen refused to recant his preaching of Christ the Savior who gives New Birth.  Found guilty of blasphemy he continues to preach salvation in Christ as the stoning ends his life and he commits his spirit to the Lord at last breath.  Saul, the bystander, is receiving Stephen's witness in this dramatic event.

The tentmaker, Roman Jew, devout student of rabbinical scholar Gamaliel, Saul is energized by the stoning-crowd's fury to stamp out the motley fools called Christians of The Way who believe in the Nazarene's holiness.  Saul is now on his high horse traveling a dusty road when a tremendous flash of lightening knocks Saul to the ground, injured and blinded.

All of Saul's dogmatic religious learning falls away in the flash as now, Saul's personal experience takes precedence.  Within those moments of abasement, Christ speaks into Saul's heart and mind then Saul becomes Paul the Apostle of Christ Resurrected.  For all the book learning that Saul has had, it is the personal experience of Christ that transforms him and changes us.

Paul uses every bit of his religious learning as the first step forward when speaking and witnessing to countless others for Christ, yet always culminates with an open invitation to abase and receive Christ in a personal way.  New life in Christ overlays the old ways.  Paul simply explains salvation and new holiness (sanctification) understandable, yet continually drives home each person's personal experience of Christ.  Transformation of heart and mind by Christ is experienced; Baptism into New Life bestows the Holy Spirit or the real Presence of Christ within our hearts.

Paul gives us his theology in Romans.  And in 2 Corinthians his Christian autobiography (a fragment) outlines Paul's sufferings for Christ:  5 times Paul received 39 lashes at the hands of his persecutors, 3 times he was beaten with rods, 1 time he was stoned and lived through it, 3 times on missionary journeys he was shipwrecked and by the mercy of God survived.  There was also danger at the hands of hostile foreigners, raging rivers, bands of robbers, thirsts when drink nowhere, hunger, cold exposure, and abandonment on barren mountain trails.

Baseline theology of Apostle Paul which reflects determination and full confidence in Christ is this:  (Paul's words) Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing in our grounded

experiences can separate us!  No one nor any event of suffering or persecution can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Love in Christ rules our lives as Christians.  It rules!

Rocky Road

A favorite ice cream at our home is Rocky Road.  It is delightfully mixed and each spoonful provides a mixture of tastes and combinations.  Rocky Road causes me to think about the hikes that I've been on and my mind always wanders back to the time I was on a Rocky Road in Colorado.  It was on the barren rocky side of the mountain that, even though my energy was near exhausted, I drew on God's strength within to drag my feet to the mountain top.

Most memorable to me is a trip up a Colorado 14 footer, Mt. Elbert.  It was there that I found that the beautiful walk upwards through the forest simply gave way to the toughest part of the climb which was the open barren rocky portion of the top of the mountain.  It was there that I found that we cannot get to the mountain top without going through the rockiest part and the greatest challenges.  Like in life, you and I have to walk the rockiest part to get the mountain view.  The top reveals the big picture about what God is doing in and through our lives.

How do you know you have hit the rocky part?  When you are going through a Rocky part of life you may ask these questions:  Doesn't God know that I am hurting here?  Why doesn't God help me when I feel so all alone and secluded?  Why in the world is this happening to me; is there a reason for this to happen?

God does know that you are hurting, feeling alone, and God has the grand scheme of things just ahead of you.  Even though you want to focus on the 'right now' it will be that later you can see the mountain top view of what God is doing.  Do you have to go up the rocky way in order to see the grand scheme of what God is doing?  Jesus did.  He did that so He can show you how to do it.  And one thing that He said over and over again is, "Do not be afraid, I have overcome this."