I know how Paul must have felt.

I was thinking about my next trip to Africa when I began to read 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. I know exactly how Paul was feeling and what he was thinking as he wrote the chapter because I have felt and thought the same way.

Like he said in verse one I know that my coming to those on the mission field was not in vain. Too many people saved and too many new churches started and are still going strong. (vr 1)

The only suffering I have been through has been sickness, flight problems, coming up with lots of money and for the past 4 or 5 years my trips have taken me out of the country at the worst possible time. But I wouldn’t change a thing. (vr 2)

God has entrusted me with the gospel and that is exactly what I share with them. I could entice them with another gospel and promise them riches and that everything will be rosy but I don’t. Some do. (vrs 3,4 & 5)

I go as an ambassador of Christ. A missionary, yes but not to lord it over people. Missionaries are held in high esteem in many places but I try to be just another man just like they are. (vr 6)

I have fallen in love with all the different peoples I have been blessed by God to go into their world. Saving my money up, praying for God’s Spirit to go before me long before the actual trip takes place. And while there I am always looking for ways that I can be a blessing. (vrs 7 – 12)

I’ll never forget the time a man told me that he had heard the gospel before but never understood it until I presented it to him. That it was clear and now he understands. (vr 13)

I’ve had to deal with religious people who did not want me to go and be there and have tried to make things hard on me. Some from my own church and some from the mission field but it always backfires and I am more determined to share the gospel. (vrs 14 – 16)

The people that have prayed to receive Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, now approaching 500 souls are so dear to me. Not only have their names been written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life but I have written them down myself. I never plan on forgetting them, ever. I want to go back and check up on them to see how they are doing but I must trust them in the hands of other people and to God. When I soon go again it will be to share the gospel with new people that I have never met but will never forget. (vrs 17 – 20)

alight