Modern Christianity has elevated Paul
We hold him in nearly as high an esteem as we do Jesus
If asked most Christians would probably name him
The greatest man in the Bible
Yet Paul called himself the least of the saints
The worst of sinners
Paul recognized he was just an earthen vessel, a jar of clay
That God was letting His light shine out from Paul
Some see certain preachers and are immediately turned off
They call one preacher dry
Another a showman
Another arrogant
Another too dull
If Paul were to preach at your church today
I wonder how many would be turned off by him
We make idols out of men
We put them on pedestals
Or worse yet, we belittle them, despise them
We need to learn to stop listening to the messenger
And how to listen to the message being sent
For God does not speak to us through one voice
God speaks through many voices.
When I hear God's message it doesn't come from one man
He sends witnesses, and they testify
I hear the message through several
The scriptures and the Spirit also testify
This is how God's word is established
"Let every word be established
by the testimony of two or three witnesses"
We are but jars of clay
As is every minister you have ever heard or read
Even Paul
God's light shines out from these jars of clay
So we may know it is God's glory and power
{4:3} But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: {4:4} In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. {4:5} For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; andourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. {4:6} For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. {4:7} But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. {4:8} We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; {4:9} Persecuted, but not forsaken; castdown, but not destroyed; {4:10} Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:6-7
![[pulsating cross]](astar2.gif)
