BLESSINGS ACCOMPANY TRUTH

My Dear Precious Child,
     In Paul's first recorded letter to the Corinthians he defended his right to be considered an apostle, a conflicting accusation that some of the other apostles preached.  Because he had not walked with Jesus and listened to His teachings with human ears, some of the other apostles were doubtful that he was truly called by Me.   His claims to being an authentic apostle were that he had seen and heard the Lord Jesus Christ when He appeared personally to Paul on his trip to Damascus.  He asked the Corinthians if he was not completely free, had he not personally seen Jesus, and were they not his work in Christ Jesus?  He wrote to them that even though he might not be an apostle to other apostles, he was certainly an apostle to the Corinthians.  He claimed the Corinthians as an example of his being a rightful apostle.  He was not only persecuted by the Jews but he was also persecuted by his own brothers in Christ.  (I Corinthians 9:1-3)  
    In his letter that he wrote to them he asked them did he not have a reason to eat and drink, to marry a believing woman like the rest of the apostles, other brothers of the Lord and also Peter?  He asked if it was only Barnabas and himself who were led to work for a living while the other apostles lived off of the charity of the churches?  He insinuated that soldiers in the field do not work for a living, a person who plants a field eats of his own labor and a shepherd drinks the milk of his labor.  Paul professed to using mere human reasons to prove that he had chosen not to be a burden to anyone and so he also added that scriptures say that a man should not muzzle his oxen while harvesting grain but instead allow them to eat the grain.  He added that he and Barnabas had spiritually sown seeds in their lives and they had the right to have a material harvest from those crops.  However, he reminded them that neither he nor Barnabas had exercised the right to having a financial harvest, that they never asked anyone for that right.  He wrote that the two of them had suffered many hardships so as not to place a burden upon the believers in the churches to support them.  After all, his logic was that the people who work in the temple are supported by the contributions to the temple and that those men who minister at the table in the temple also share in the offering at the altar.  He added, likewise, that the Lord Jesus, Himself, had said that those men who preach the gospel should live by the gospel. (I Cor. 9:3-14)
    Paul exempted himself from those rights and neither did he write these things to entice their financial support.  He professed to choosing to die rather than have someone rob him of his boast in being self supporting so as not to be a burden to anyone.  Preaching the gospel was a pleasure to him, not as an opportunity to boast.  He wrote that he was entrusted from Me to preach the gospel and so he preached it free of charge and not to make use of the office of authority over people that preaching the gospel gave to him.  (verses 15-18)
    Paul relished in his position of not being bound to anyone, but instead he had made himself a slave to everyone in order to win over as many people as possible to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He professed to becoming like a Jew in order to win the Jews, to appear to be a fan of the law in order to win over the people who were bound to the law so that he could have at least won over some of them.  To the people not under Law, he became as one not under law.  To the weak he appeared to be weak in order to win over the weak.  He had made himself like other people in order to save some of them. In fact, he wrote that he did everything for the sake of the gospel of Christ so that he might share in its blessings.(verses 19-23)
    He was known for relating to ministry as running a race, writing that all the runners start out at the same time but the one to win is only one person.  That person runs to win.  He knew that athletes deny themselves many things in an effort to win a crown of leaves but he wrote that he did it to win a crown that is imperishable.  He wrote that he did not run like a man who loses sight of the finish line, not like a shadow boxer.  Instead, he wrote that he disciplined his own body and mastered the devil's temptations for fear that having preached to other people he should be rejected. (I Corinthians 9:24-28)  Losing the imperishable crown was never in Paul's mind.  His determination was to not only win the battle over the devil but to also partake of My Crown of Life.   Boasting about the people that he had saved was never his intention.   Defeating evil in his life so that he would be completely free of temptation and sin was Paul's purpose in life and in his ministry.
     Paul never considered winning over people.  Instead, he wanted to win over the temptations in his flesh in order to be completely free of evil influences in his life.
     His heart was always dedicated to Me and My gospel of peace.  Make peace your aim, like Paul, so that you will rein in life without conflict.
     Your Father of Forever Peace