Yesterday while doing "good mornings" during my workout, the bar wore a big groove through my traps, it hurt like Hell, and still does but I felt good because I fought through the pain and finished my sets. This morning while getting a re-refresher on what the Apostle Paul went through, not for a vain sense of self accomplishment, not for himself, but for his Lord and Savior....well it made me feel like a whiny little bitch. Paul was and is the definition of what a real man was and should be. To sacrifice not because he wanted to save his own soul, or to improve himself or his own standing, but for his love of Christ and his desire for us to know Him. Paul is my inspiration today.
Paul was an amazing testimony to how Jesus Christ can save and convert anyone. He went from one of the biggest persecutors of Christians to one of the most powerful Christian examples in the Bible.
A great Bible mystery is Paul's "thorn in the flesh" in II Corinthians 12:7. "....that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exhalted overmuch." and 12:8-9 "Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, [my] power is made perfect in weakness...." What was this "thorn in the flesh"? Many have speculated that it was a demon of some sort that was allowed to torment Paul. Some believe it was a physical ailment of some type. Poor eyesight is one theory. It seems to be more than normal fleshly temptations. But it is not expounded upon again. I think it goes to show that the heroes of the Bible, while heroic, manly men, were still just human. Tradition holds that Peter struggled with a "foul tongue" in other words he had a potty mouth. James and John were called "the sons of thunder" and tradition holds that they were gruff and quick to fight. A study of the great men of the Bible shows strong, masculine, manly men. Not the emasculated, wimpy, PC, turn the other cheek pacifists that many try to portray them as. These guys were fishermen and other hard laborers. They were fit and muscled and had tempers. Remember Christ turning over the tables of the money changers and chasing them out of temple with a whip. Peter draws a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the guards that comes to the garden to arrest Christ. These guys were tough.
I think vs 9 sums it up nicely. We are nothing but sinners apart from Jesus Christ, anything good that can be found in anyone is from the grace of Jesus, and to glorify the name of the Lord. I think God takes some of the worst people to change and transform just as a witness of the saving grace of the blood of Jesus Christ. Edit: This has been a real blessing, I'm so glad you posted those verses. I went back and read the entire chapter and from what I have been taught to me it sounds like Paul is talking about his mortality, his body of sin that we are all born into. He says he will glory in his infirmities (sins, mortality) because it causes him to be closer to Christ when his light shines through "for my strength is made perfect in weakness". It's truly amazing how God works. If we had no sin we wouldn't need a savior or redemption, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me". It never ceases to amaze me how you can go back and read something that you may have read years ago and see something completely different. The Bible is beautiful, beyond poetry, it touches my heart like nothing else.
