Steps of Paul Tour Day #10: Trip Reflections

We have landed in Paris and have been waiting for our next flight before we continue on our journey home.  

As I sit in the airport terminal, there is so much to reflect upon as I consider all that we have seen and heard over the past 10 days. One of the things that stands out to me is that God sends His people out on mission in order to spread the message of redemption that comes through His Son. The good news is we are not alone in this task. In Acts 1:8, Jesus promised the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission, and He has promised His presence (Matthew 28:20). We must understand that the mission of God includes being called as an ambassador, being entrusted with the power of the Holy Spirit, and being sent out to boldly proclaim the gospel of Christ. God does not need us for this mission, but He wants us to experience the overwhelming joy that comes through partnering with Him. To experience the joy of God’s mission we must relinquish any sense of self-importance. Selfishness will constrict God’s love in us. When we live in the love that we have received in Christ, we cannot help but overflow with love for the world. And so we spread the gospel with our lips and demonstrate the truth of the gospel with our lives.

The same Gospel that saved Paul is the same Gospel that saved YOU and ME.  It is the same Gospel that must be taken to the ends of the earth…by YOU and ME. Do we normally view our “calling” in this life as an ambassador… or even a proclaimer of the Gospel message?  At times, we can easily view those underlined words as professions or callings that God selects a few of His people to carry out.  As we have been studying the Word this past week, we have been rediscovering that every Christian is also a proclaimer of the Gospel.  The love of God compels us to live for Him and pour ourselves out for others. We live for a resurrected God and Savior—not for ourselves, and this should press us into action. We must hear and obey the missionary mandate of Jesus, and we will accomplish the mission of God when the love of Christ so fully engulfs our hearts that sharing the gospel and loving others as Christ loved us becomes the natural expression of our relationship with God. We must understand that we are called to be God’s ambassadors, entrusted with the power of the Holy Spirit, and sent out to boldly proclaim the gospel of Christ.

There are multiple layers of our experiences that have made this a trip of a lifetime:  the Biblical journey we have taken, the history we have learned, the landscape of the cities, the culture in which we have been immersed, and the fellowship we have enjoyed together.   Upon our return, it will be good to look back on all that we have seen and heard, and unpack all of the wonderful memories we have shared.  Truly, we have seen God do great and mighty things in our hearts.

Thank you for your prayers and support for us and for coming with us on such an amazing and life-changing journey!

Your fellow servant,

Pastor Stephen