Passage of the Day - January 19, 2011

Acts 20:13-25

¹³But we, going ahead to the ship, set sail for Assos, intending from there to take Paul on board; for so he had arranged it, intending himself to go by land.

 ¹⁴And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene.

 ¹⁵Sailing from there, we arrived the following day opposite Chios; and the next day we crossed over to Samos; and the day following we came to Miletus.

 ¹⁶For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

 ¹⁷From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.

 ¹⁸And when they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time,

 ¹⁹serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews;

 ²⁰how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,

 ²¹solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 ²²"And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,

 ²³except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.

 ²⁴"But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.

 ²⁵"And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face.

This is what it means to be dead to self.  Paul was going where he would endure no person in his right mind would willingly endure.  But Paul did not value his life the way the rest of us do.  He was willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of Christ’s name being glorified.  He was marching to the torture chamber and he knew it.  We was acting in obedience to the Spirit.  How much of ourselves are we truly willing to yield in order to obey God and glorify His Son?

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)