Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Paul is under house arrest in rented quarters; he refuses to focus on that. He is far from home, and his future is uncertain; he doesn't let that concern him. He is bound to a Roman guard every day; no problem.

Few people in the first century had a deeper understanding of God's grace than the apostle Paul. Redeemed from a life of vicious brutality as a rigid legalistic Pharisee, the man turned the corner, repented, and through Christ's empowering became a gentle soul, gracious and affirming.

Whether you are traveling as a missionary or in the midst of your personal profession, God would have you travel as Paul traveled. I observe four enduring principles that will help you maximize your effectiveness for Christ, wherever you may go.

A man from Macedonia had said, "Come over and help us." God had in mind a seller of purple, an exploited slave girl, and a rugged, brutal Roman jailer. When you travel as God would have you travel, like Paul, you're sensitive to doors that open.

"Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing." Jesus managed to utter those penetrating words through bleeding, cracked lips, swollen from the noonday sun. Impaled on that cruel, Roman cross, He interceded on behalf of His enemies.

Let's be painfully candid here. I've had my own share of arguments, and you've had yours. I've had some that were never reconciled. Thankfully, most ended in a renewed friendship.

When Paul returned to places he had been before, there were no regrets. The end of Acts 14 chronicles the return trip Paul and Barnabas made back to home base, Antioch. En route, they visited many of the cities where they had earlier preached the Gospel.

We make a choice every waking moment of our lives. When we awaken in the morning, we choose the attitude that will ultimately guide our thoughts and actions through the day.

A sentence in the diary of James Gilmore, pioneer missionary to Mongolia, has stayed with me since the day I first read it. After years of laboring long and hard for the cause of Christ in that desperate land, he wrote, "In the shape of converts I have seen no result."

Paul's ministry was saturated with the Word of God. Fifteen times in chapters thirteen and fourteen the phrases "God's Word," the "Word of truth," the "teaching of the Lord," the "Law and the Prophets," and the "Good News" are mentioned.

For the longest time I didn't understand the new-car industry. I had always thought it worked like this. When a guy wanted a car, he dropped by the local dealership, kicked a few tires, slammed some doors, and fiddled around with radios, hoods, and trunk lids.

It's not too late to give some things away this Christmas. Not just on Christmas Day, but during the days after December 25. We could call these daily gifts "our Christmas projects." Maybe one per day from now 'til the end of the year.

Remarkably, though laying lifeless in a pool of his own blood, Paul got right back up and walked back into the city from which he had been dragged and left for dead. I mean, is this missionary determined or what? True grit.

When Paul was rejected, he didn't quit. As my good friend and wise mentor, Howie Hendricks, often says, "Where there's light, there are bugs!" The brighter Paul's light, the more the bugs. And in that situation, those bugs had stingers filled with poison.

Paul's message emphasized the gospel to the lost and grace to the saved. That is a wonderful paradigm for any minister or ministry to adopt. As I've studied the life of Paul, . . . I find two prominent themes woven like threads through the tapestry of his ministry.

Paul and Barnabas arrived at Pisidian Antioch, weary and aching from their perilous march through the mountains. Still, they wasted no time in making their way to the synagogue early enough to find a good seat to listen to the reading of God's Word.

Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark left Cyprus and sailed to the southern coast of Turkey—a land then known as Pamphylia, whose rugged coastline ascended sharply into the towering heights of a mountain range steeper and fiercer than the eastern Tauras.

This was no time for Paul to be tolerant or passive. We live in a culture that virtually deifies tolerance. One lady recently said to me with a broad grin, "I love everybody; I even love the devil." I call that "tolerance gone to seed."

Keeping the clay of your will supple and flexible calls for constant attention along the way. Once you grow hard and brittle to God's leading, you're less usable to Him. I want to take the truths we've wrestled with here and make them into a softening ointment.

I need to make a couple of observations about the nature of ministry. The way God chooses to lead His ministry is often difficult to get our arms around. Finding direction in the corporate world comes somewhat easier.