A Quiet Life?

I've been reading and teaching through Paul's letters to the Churches that were scattered throughout Greece, Macedonia, and Asia Minor. Lately I've found myself retracing his missionary steps and trying to get a better hold on his missionary journeys and experiences. I've read from Acts 13 to Acts 22 multiple times; read straight though at times, as well as focusing occasionally on one section or another. I have been impacted by the immensity of this man's labors. I read one commentator who said that Paul traveled approximately 6000 miles during his life time - much of it on foot! I look forward to posting some of what I've learned in the not to distant future... Lord willing.

Paul told the Thessalonians (I Thess 4:11-12) to make it their aim to live a quiet life, work with their own hands and to conduct themselves properly toward those outside the community of believers. This seems contradictory to much of what we see in American Christianity. We are loud. We demand our rights. We picket. We create political organizations. We protest the latest anti-Christian propaganda, etc. We speak publicly against cults, other religions and their gods. But, these type of activities were not Paul's usual practice. In fact, when the entire city of Ephesus riots against Paul, it is because the gospel was influencing the culture so powerfully, that those who made statues and altars to pagan deities were being put out of business. Some of Paul's friends were political officials in the region and protected him from the masses. The city clerk finally dispersed the crowd by telling them that the men they had siezed had not "blasphemed" their god's, goddesses and temples, and that there were no legal grounds for the riot. You can read about it in Acts chapter 19.

Paul and his companions were persecuted... not for being loud, boistrous protesters, but for being proclaimers of the gospel of Christ. They did it with humility, tears, from house to house and in public (Acts 20). A culture was changed by the Spirit of God. A world was turned upside down by a few men and women who poured themselves into living Christ in the world.

My buddy Bill Lollar has a great article on his blog about the explosion of the Church in India. I think you'll enjoy reading about the way they are going about the spreading of the good news of the Gospel in India. It sounds very much like the way Paul went about the same task. Here's a link:

http://thin-edge.org/2007/08/19/multiplication-of-churches-in-india-fueled-by-persecution-and-simple-structures/

Hope you enjoy it.

Tom