I Corinthians 16: 5-9
Now Paul lays out his travel plans:
But I will come to you after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia;
and perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you can send me on my way wherever I may go.
Paul makes his plans, but not too far in advance.
For I do not wish to see you now just in passing; for I hope to remain with you for some time, if the Lord permits.
He wants to spend an extended time with them, not just a short visit. He really cares for these brothers and sisters, and wants to help them as much as he can, and a short visit will not be enough. But all according to the Lord's will.
But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost;
He is writing this letter from Ephesus, during his third missionary journey. Pentecost is in the spring, so he planned to travel from there during the summer to Macedonia, and come by Corinth in the fall, to spend the winter there.
for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
He's talking about the opportunity to minister in Macedonia, where he had planted churches on his second missionary journey. He knew this area, including all the dangers and enemies he would face there.
We see here that we are to make our plans, but to leave them in the hands of the Lord. Paul accomplished more than anyone else could in the early days of the infant church of Jesus Christ, actually planting the church all over, and sending trusted men to travel even farther to expand the range of believers all over the known World of the day.
Because of Paul, with his willingness to be available to God for His service, God's church spread out over the whole World. Today God is sending out His workers, both geographically and over the Internet and other technological ways to communicate.
Paul didn't just go, but also wrote letters, the technology of his day. Today we have so many more ways to travel and communicate, we have no excuse for not being active in promulgating the Gospel, and sharing with others all the good that God has done for each of us.
It's up to us, my brothers and sisters, to go, to write, to call, to text, to email--to broadcast the wonderful Good News that God has already met all our needs, both material and, most importantly, spiritual and eternal, in His Son, Christ Jesus.
We have no reason to hold back. Our Father has promised to go with us where ever He has called each of us, however He has planned for us to go, to lead and protect us, as He brought Paul through all the perils he went through.
When every person alive has heard and understood how much God Loves us, and has made their informed choice whether to accept or reject His gracious offer; then King Jesus will return to call us out and set up His Kingdom right here in this World.
So let's go! Let's obey the Great Commission in each of our little worlds, our families and our neighborhoods and our towns and cities and our states and regions, and out to all the rest of the World! Everyone needs to hear. God is not willing that any would perish, but for all to come to the repentance of letting Jesus be their personal Sacrifice to wash them pristine clean, and live with God where He Lives.
If He's planned for you to go, and you don't, then He will send someone else, but you will lose all the rewards He wanted to give you! His great Plan of the Ages will continue to unfold, until every event has happened and everything is done and finished. And each of us is a part of that Plan. So let's go!
O my Father, please show each of us where we are to go, what we are to do, who we are to talk to, how we are to speak and act and live our lives; to love You by loving one another, and promoting Your Family Business, Your Kingdom.
Father, strengthen us and motivate us to face the problems and obstacles and uncertainties and unpleasantness's and everything else that tries to discourage or demoralize us. Give us Your faithfulness and perseverance and moral fortitude to keep on keeping on, but to first take that first step, that seems to be the hardest.
Father, use me, use my words, use my lifestyle, use my home and my possessions and my resources, to help others and demonstrate Your goodness and graciousness and Love for each of us. Enlarge my boundaries, Father, to cast broadly the good Seed of Your Word, into the fertile ground that You have prepared, to produce thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold crop.
O Father, help us to do Your work, to be Your hands and Your feet and Your voice. Enable us to cover the Earth with the water of Your Word, to slake the thirst of all who thirsty for You, whether they realize it is You they need or not, because we all need You. Draw all Your lost sheep into the safety of Your fold, that there be One Fold and One Shepherd!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will testify that Jesus is Christ, the Lord God Almighty, our sovereign King of the Universe; to the glory of Almighty God the Father, forever.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
