"Fear God, Love God, Serve God": "Woe Is Me!"

"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing

to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea,

woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!"

(I Corinthians 9:16)

The Apostle Paul can tell us all about it. He was very busy persecuting and killing Christians, when the Lord knocked him off his horse and blinded him. Why? He wanted to get his attention ... and that pretty well did it! Paul was converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, and oh, was he converted. He gave it all he had for the gospel's sake, and he felt those words to the core of his soul ... "Woe Is Me!"

"Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants

of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so;

in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number,

often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked,

a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers

from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the

Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers

among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights,

in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external

things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak

without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?"

(2 Corinthians 11:22-29)

Ah, Paul. He did it; He humbly endured it all for the gospel of Jesus Christ; he became all things to all men "that he might win some." Hey, when Almighty God knocks you off your horse, you are never the same again! He calls and chooses people for different reasons, and you best be responding ... ask Jonah. The Lord God of the universe can and knows how to convince us; He knows how to get our undivided attention; He knows the heart and He knows how to break it. Huh? The Bible says the heart is "desperately wicked; who can know it?" Our Lord God is the only One who knows it, and He surely can "reach it" if He so chooses. The Lord Jesus Christ will not override our wills, but He can, and often will, bring us to the final point of giving in to Him in obeisance and surrender. That oh so rebellious Jonah finally came to that very wise conclusion, eventually, after being swallowed, and then ultimately "spit out of" a huge fish ... What conclusion? It's the same conclusion we come to, when we realize our Holy God has called us to something higher than ourselves, a world calling out to us for help, and ... "If I don't, woe is me!"

"For we cannot help speaking about what

we have seen and heard."

(Acts 4:20)

We could say it, you know. We could say, "woe is me" if we don't tell what Jesus Christ has done for us, how he washed us clean in baptismal waters in His name, how he filled us with the Holy Ghost and we spoke in a language we had never learned by His Spirit, how He gave us new life, joy, and peace, and how he forgave all of our sins by His sacrifice on the cross and His blood shed for all of mankind. That's why Paul gave his life for the gospel; that's why he was arrested and stoned, thrown in prison, and that's why he "preached."

"Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ,

you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became

your father through the gospel."

(I Corinthians 4:15)

The Apostle Paul became a "spiritual father" to many by bringing them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul had a mandate to take the gospel to all creatures, and so do we, who minister for the Lord, so do the preachers who are called to spend their lives "preaching, preaching, preaching" the gospel to the entire world. Everything is riding on the "preaching of the gospel." "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14) When will the end come? When the last one hears it, when the last soul in some nation, maybe Africa, Europe, America, some little island in the middle of the Sea, some little town, some jungle area ... when some precious soul hears it, and he or she is the "last one" ... and then, the end ...