Christian Living

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Its past midnight. All the lights in the prison cells are off except one. Today the man behind those bars is awake as usual. as the guard peeps into the call he can see the frail figure of the man on a chair, he’s writing; “ wow! Apart from writing and praying what else does this guy do", He wanders. He looks at the man’s figure. His physique is that of a man who is weak and emaciated. On his back are the marks that he bears as a result of the 39 lashes he received on two occasions from the hands of Roman soldiers.

He has a cold and a cough; may be its as a result of the shipwreck. Deep into the stranger’s piercing eyes the guard stares. Now he can see. He can see the tears and the doubt in the man’s eyes. The man behind bars is afraid for all the souls around the globe who has received the gospel. He fears lest the devil tempt them to turn their back on the glorious gospel. He fears for the young men who have sailed the high seas with him lest after preaching the gospel they become cast away.

But alas! The bars seem to be between him and then, so what can he do? He can and must do two things
· First he must travail in the place of prayer for the bars can do little to limit the move of God’s omnipresent Spirit;

· secondly he must write .in the hands of this skilled writer is a pen so he begins to write.
“Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus Phiemon1
He introduced himself not as a prisoner of the roman Empire but a prisoner of Christ Jesus. To titus he writes “ Paul a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ . Titus 1 :1 .to the brethren in Ephesus he says: "for this reason I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus" Eph. 3;1

these are the words off an exconvict doing time again. he is bound; not by the bars but by his convictions. The words of a man who walked on this earth with a mission and a passion to see that the will of God is fulfilled in his own life and every life he came in contact with. A man who lived for God and God alone. he was not swayed by the ideas of intellectualism and mordern day sociology
he could stand before great king Agrippa and declare” I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” Acts 26: 19.

Paul in Prison? This was Paul who sang praises with so much anointing the prison bars opened in Philipi. This was Paul whom God revealed through a prophet that he’ ll be locked up in prison if he sets his feet on Jerusalem. For Agabus under the anointing of God’s spirit bound his (Agabus) hands and feet and said: “thus says the Holy Spirit, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt (PAUL) and drive him into the hands of the Gentile” (Acts 21:11 Braket mine)

But instead of shrinking back in fear he said to the brethren who wept for him, "what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also ready to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus" Acts 21:13.

As I travel through time and look into the life of this man I wander if there are men and women like him in our time.
In a world with little or no standard of morality and integrity are there men and women who stand only for God’s word and God’s call on their. Like? Men and women who refuse to compromise to please the people around them.
Men and women bound and imprisoned by godly convictions
Men and women bound by a gospel they claim to believe in.
A gospel worth dying for and worth living for will you dare to be a 21st century Paul?

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