Making Memories and Avoiding Windows

I love Paul’s commitments to the body, the church.  Paul does not intend to build the Kingdom alone. He rolls deep.

He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia (v4).

He makes special memories with the brothers and sisters, preaching all night to the point of someone falling out of the window. (He survived)

But he also puts in the tough work.

“You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia.  I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents” (v18b-19).

Paul is not casual with spreading the gospel.  He serves, weeps, preaches.  We are expected to do the same.  What is the end goal of life if not to finish the race, to complete the task of the Lord, and to bring as many people along with us as possible?  We are all shepherds to one another, made overseers by the Holy Spirit.  I am convicted by the commitment Paul demonstrates to the Ephesians.  Unlike Paul and to my shame I have hesitated to preach.  I have held back my love and attention to the flock, and I have a feeling I am not alone.  But not today!  Let us collectively as a church re-establish our guard against the wolves that seek to divide us.  Let us make our own memories (not falling out of windows)