One of my favorite quotes of all time is, "If nothing else at least you can be a bad example." We all have a story, we all can teach each other truths about God. This is all in the same train of thought that gives us the phrase, "If God can use me, he can use anyone."
A lot of the first chapter of Galatians is Paul defending his apostleship, his calling, his message that he preaches. This can be seen in the greeting, and also in verses 11-24.
First off he makes it known that the Gospel that we preach is not good news that comes from man. Yes, I said we. You're a part of this too. This good news isn't something that man can do; man can't fix the problem between ourselves and God. We're the offending party, nothing we can do will take back the offences we've made. It's only by grace that we can be forgiven and reconciled. This is not something that can be done by man. Paul even writes that he didn't receive it from man, but instead by a revelation from Jesus. This revelation was a calling from God, one given out of his grace.
How awesome is that? We are called to God, by God, out of his grace. He has no reason to call us to himself, but he does, because he is gracious and merciful. This tells me that God desires reunion with his children over satisfying his wrath immediately.
Paul writes that he was called to preach to the Gentiles, the undesirables to the Jews, continually telling us God wants all to come to him. What does this mean for us? We are called to desire that all people come to Jesus in repentance and humility that they may receive the same salvation we have. Easy to think about in terms of your annoying neighbor, that kid in your class that smells bad, or even a Patriots fan. you may not think so, but comparatively it is.
Comparative to what you ask? Kim Jong-Un. God wants him to be reconciled with him too. Too abstract for you? Too distant? What about Putin? Or Donald Trump? God wants them too. Or what about members of ISIS? Terrorists killing Christians in the Middle East? Or what about the terrorists that organized and execute all the attacks in France over the past year? Do you desire that they come to know Jesus? Do you want them to share in the salvation that we have?
It took Paul three years to come to terms with this idea (I think that's a lot of what his time in Arabia was). It took Peter 3 times to get that it's okay to evangelize to Gentiles. Is it going to take us a long time to realize that God wants us to pray for the evil people of the world? Will we ever? I sincerely believe this is something God calls us to do. And I want to challenge you with it. Right now, I want you to spend 5 minutes to pray for ISIS members to repent and come to God for salvation. No mention of them "Getting what they deserve" or "being vaporized by a missile" or killed slowly and painfully. Instead pray for their salvation.
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