Galatians 4:19

Why & where did the Apostle Paul get his incredible courage?

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ; & it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; & the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me & gave Himself up for me.

Galatians 6:14

But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, & I to the world.

“God demands our intelligence & our will. Paul saw the world as a boneyard. Paul saw every human system as fallible & deathly.”

“Once nailed to the cross you lost all of your rights. No one wanted to see a crucifixion 12 hours later.” Vultures & other animals picked off the dead flesh & what remained were skeletons hanging from crosses.

“The world is crucified, it’s hideous, it’s corrupt, it’s so totally unattractive to me.”

Philippians 3:7

For whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Paul lost all of his (Benjamin) tribal rights. He gained unshakable faith, unquestionable zeal, unfailing love.

2 Corinthians 5:10-11

For we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God, & I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences

Crucified with Christ, knowing the fear of the Lord, Paul has a great driving force.

“The world is waiting on a new demonstration of Christianity.”

Galatians 5:7

You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

“Something or somebody hindered them.”

Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.

“…by drawing everyone else away from us”

“Paul did not depend upon someone else’s support & prayers.”

“Does your pastor lay at night in agonizing prayer over his church? You can’t love a textbook, you can only love a person. True love is tied up with sacrifice. Paul knows anguish & pain.”

Philippians 3:10

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death

“To whom can you pour out your heart?”

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, & take up his cross & follow Me.

Hebrews 11, God makes men & women

Paul was lashed 195 times

The most hurtful thing to Paul was the care of all the churches.

“We are in for trouble at the end of the line. God has a big investment in you. God is holy and just.”

No one can buy the couple drops of Abraham Lincoln’s blood at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Ephesians 3:17-19

that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; & that you, being rooted & grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width & length & height & depth, & to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.

Saul was permitted to liquidate any Christian he could find (Acts 9:2)
“Theology on ice is no good.”

Acts 17:26-31

He made from one man (Adam) every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times & the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him & find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live & move & exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’ Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man (Jesus Christ) whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.

W. E. Henley

…Beyond this place of wrath & tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, & shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Henley deified brute strength & courage.

A. C. Swinburne…man is the master of things

“We don’t want a nuclear war, but we want to murder young people in the womb. If I was a protestant pope, I would close every evangelical church – let’s get serious! Revival is the only thing that can save America.”

“If Paul were to see the situation today, he’d say, “My whole spirit is groaning, I travail (in prayer).”

“One sign of (Christian) spirituality is when you ask God to give you a burden, you want to carry it.”