Daily Readings: Psalm 21; Isaiah 41:14-20; Romans 15:14-21

I need your help in carrying out this highly focused assignment God gave me, this priestly and gospel work of serving the spiritual needs of the non-Jewish outsiders…

I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders. In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem into northwestern Greece. This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped. My text has been,

Those who were never told of him – they’ll see him! Those who’ve never heard of him – they’ll get the message!

Romans 15: 16, 18-21 The Message

It took him time, a blinding come-to-Jesus experience on the road to Damascus, and the courage of Ananias, but Paul got there. He found his mission from God: reaching out to the non-Jewish community that for most of his life he had no wish to encounter much less serve.

I don’t know that it will be the same for most of us, but we share a vital something with Paul’s experience: our mission from God will move us beyond where we think we belong, and teach us to love people we never thought we could, would, or should.