"Spent For YOU"

"Spent For YOU"

"And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." (2 Corinthians 12:15)  The Apostle Paul said these words, and "spent" for the cause and the people of Christ Jesus, he was!

"Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up

in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's

afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church."

(Colossians 1:24)

Paul and Silas were in prison "singing!"  Oh that we have that kind of faith  ... and he said he rejoiced in his sufferings for the people he served, the church Jesus died for, the souls of God's pasture.  Paul "spent" all he had for the church, not money as such, but he gave his own body; he spent himself that others could be saved.  

In my life, God has taken me through trials, and it seems the same "trial" kept coming up over the years.  When I would ask "why" I had to go through it; the Lord finally replied to me, "I wanted to see if you could prefer your brother."  Romans 12:10 says, "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another."  I've been enduring a very long trial of late, and a few days ago, the Lord said to me, "Now you know what it means to prefer your brother." 

Paul, being stoned

The Apostle Paul learned well the example of our Lord and His sufferings.  Jesus Christ our Lord was "spent" for you and me.  He gave all he had, His life, His blood, His flesh, His dignity on the cross, and He gave it all willingly for the cause of mankind.  There is only One God who did that, and His name is Jesus Christ.  It should have been me and you on that cross, but Jesus Christ "preferred us" and took it upon himself to die that we might live eternally with Him.  It is a little thing for us to "obey" the Word, Acts 2:38, and be baptized in His name and filled with His Spirit, when we consider what He did for us.

Paul, escaping from Damascus

The Apostle Paul spent his life preaching, running, healing, running, teaching, running, exhorting, running, and then being imprisoned  ...  Paul said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give unto thee, rise up and walk."  There he goes again, that Paul, "spending" again!  He spent with his body, and then he spent with "gifts" of the Spirit  ... he gave all he had.

Are we "spending" enough?  Are we preferring, going the second mile; would we go to prison for the cause of Jesus Christ our Lord?  They have, and are, in prison now in many foreign countries for the greatest cause of all.  We don't know what all we will have to face before the Rapture of the Church, but it's time we all go on an extravagant, wild, no holding back, frivolous to some, "spending spree."  After all, our Lord Jesus Christ says every moment of every day to each and every one of us  ... I was "Spent" For YOU!

                                                        

(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com. 

PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas, Pastor Kenneth Phillips)