GAP

I received a text from a dear friend yesterday.
Verses of encouragement.
She began her text with…GAP on this magnificent Monday!
It must be a typo I thought…but I couldn’t figure out what she really wanted to type.

I am always teased about my texts…because I am one of THOSE people!
I text complete sentences…I use punctuation and capital letters.
I never use abbreviated text language!
I thought that GAP must have been short for something, but I had no idea what!

I thanked her later in the day…and asked her what GAP meant.
GAP means Grace and Peace…she said.

This morning, in my quiet time, as I was reading Galatians…there it was.
Grace and peace to you from God, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen (Galatians 1:3-5)

Paul uses Grace and Peace, together, over fourteen times in the New Testament.
What a wonderful greeting that must have been!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all greeted each other that way?

No empty, meaningless words…but Grace and Peace…from God!

As I read further in Galatians, I paused at something I have read before.
Somehow, today, I read it with new eyes.

For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intently I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth, and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me. (Galatians 1:13-16 and 22-24)

Can you imagine?

Who is that man preaching?
Paul.
THE Paul?

Paul, who stood, at the stoning of Stephen, with the clothes of the witnesses at his feet.
Paul, who had authority from the chief priests to arrest all who called on the name of the Lord.
THAT Paul!

This made me pause.
There is NO ONE that is beyond God’s reach!

We all know someone we think will never come to Christ.
Years of trying to share the Gospel with them.
Years of dealing with their defiance and mockery.
Years of frustration.
Years of being pushed away.

But God…
God is bigger than their defiance…their mockery.
God is bigger than your frustration…or you being pushed aside.

Paul…the terrorist…became Paul the evangelist.
Paul…the persecutor…became Paul the writer of most of the New Testament.
THAT Paul!

No one is beyond the reach of God.

Somehow, even with his track record, people saw a change in Paul.
A changed life is the greatest testimony!

It may take a while to trust the change you see in someone.
Saul (who would become Paul) experienced that distrust.

When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. (Acts 9:26-28)

We all need a Barnabas.
We all need a person that sees the change in us…and encourages us to press on.
We all need someone that sees the impact of Christ in our life…and tells us so.

The people didn’t praise Paul because of the change they saw in him.
The people praised God!
As it should be.

Only God could bring about such change in someone who was once so unreachable!

Grace and Peace be yours in abundance. (1 Peter 1:2)
GAP!