Apostles

September 18

Sometimes when we reflect upon the lives of the apostles, we wonder what motivated them to endure all that befell them because they professed faith in Jesus and declared His salvation among the heathen empire that ultimately destroyed their lives for their effort.

These men who went about doing good, who spoke words of encouragement to the hopeless, words of health to the sick, words of life to the dying were imprisoned, beaten mercilessly, and vilely handled because of their effort to share with the lost the message of salvation that had transformed their lives.

The prophet Jeremiah in Chapter 20, verse 9 gives some insight into the motivation behind those who see God with a clear eye and serve Him with a full heart. Here he declares, “If I say, ‘I won’t mention Him or speak any longer in His name,’ His message becomes a fire burning in my heart.”

There is an urgency within the bosom of the one who devotes his life to serving the Lord. The one who has seen Him, who feels the presence of His Holy Spirit, who has been redeemed by His salvation cannot deny the Lord and he cannot fail to extend the opportunity to know Him to the lost though he may suffer for his effort.

Our prayer as believers in an age of accelerated persecution of Christians must be that we, too, will calculate the cost and count the price as nothing compared to the glorious treasure set before us. May we, like the apostles of old, know in the depth of our being that whatever may be extracted from us we will gladly lay it down for the sake of, "knowing Christ and Him crucified," I Corinthians 2:2.

Like them, may we esteem this life and its treasures as dung (Philippians 3:8) for the sake of the gospel of the Lord. Though we endure hardship for speaking His name among the lost, may we boldly proclaim His salvation in the highways and by-ways with the prayer that, like the apostles, we may spend ourselves so those who hear may join the ranks of the redeemed.