Doing Windows

Acts 20
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry,
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the
grace of God.     Acts 20:24


LET IT GLOW

My dad told a story that actually happened to him during his childhood. This
is what occurred:
Dad and his brother Gene were in their yard playing when down the dirt road
came the notorious outlaw known as "Pretty Boy Floyd" and his gang riding
horses. (This was back in the 1930's.) They stopped and asked directions to
what would be their hide-out cabin across the creek. Dad gave the
dangerous men the information they wanted, unaware of who they were.
Floyd tossed dad a coin in payment for the help.
That night in his sleep, dad dreamed that he was running away from these
bank robbers as they chased him. He actually jumped out of bed and through
a two story window, not seriously injured. The next day the sheriff and his
posse rode horses around their house, persueing the gang.
(What a family story we have.)

Chapter 20 tells of another young man who fell out of a window, only this one
was on the third story and Paul was preaching.

Nelson's Illustrated Bible Handbook states:

Paul revisits the churches he has established in Macedonia and Greece. His
sense of urgency to impart all he can to these young believers is illustrated by
an incident at Troas. A young man who sits up with others till midnight to listen
to Paul's teaching falls asleep. He tumbles from a third story window. Paul
restores him to life and then goes on with his teaching until daylight. Others
might sleep. Paul is driven to accomplish all he possibly can.

While on his third missionary journey, Paul is saying farewell to the people in
the churches he started. He is heading for Rome and Spain (4th journey).

I don't want to close my eyes to God's Word, nor fall asleep because I'm not
listening to It. I should beware that I, too, can tumble into sin, without realizing
it is so close. Let's be alert to the devil prowling as a lion seeking whom he
may devour.


LET IT GLOW

In verse 24, Paul says he wants to finish his life with joy and to testify of the
grace of God.
"Joy means the perfect fulfillment of that for which I was created and
regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing. To know that you have
done what He (Jesus) sent you to do, that's satisfaction." Oswald Chambers
says in his daily devotional book My Utmost for His Highest.

"In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Paul described his life of ministry:
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed,
but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not
destroyed.

He used words like afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. That
was Paul's life as an ambassador for Christ. More often than not, he was like
a sheep for slaughter. Any takers?" Charles Swindoll says in his book
Paul: A Man of  Grace and Grit.

What sufferings I have endured for Christ seem only a smiggen in comparison
to what Paul suffered. He tells about it in  2 Corinthians 11:22-28.
Let us not grow weary in well doing.


LET IT GO

Beware and alert to God's Word, obeying it instead of spiritually sleeping.

Watch out for the devil's tactics in tempting me into sin.

Expect persecutions to come as I live for my Savior.

Stay faithful to Christ, to the end of my life.