{"id":4361,"date":"2009-06-22T18:53:43","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T22:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/200\/?p=45"},"modified":"2009-06-22T18:53:43","modified_gmt":"2009-06-22T22:53:43","slug":"ephesians-38-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/2009\/06\/22\/ephesians-38-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ephesians 3:8"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>&#8220;Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this<br \/>\n       grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the<br \/>\n       unsearchable riches of Christ.&#8221;<br \/>\n              &#8212; Ephesians 3:8<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The apostle Paul felt it a great privilege to be allowed to preach the<br \/>\ngospel. He did not look upon his calling as a drudgery, but he entered<br \/>\nupon it with intense delight. Yet while Paul was thus thankful for his<br \/>\noffice, his success in it greatly humbled him. The fuller a vessel<br \/>\nbecomes, the deeper it sinks in the water. Idlers may indulge a fond<br \/>\nconceit of their abilities, because they are untried; but the earnest<br \/>\nworker soon learns his own weakness. If you seek humility, try hard<br \/>\nwork; if you would know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for<br \/>\nJesus. If you would feel how utterly powerless you are apart from the<br \/>\nliving God, attempt especially the great work of proclaiming the<br \/>\nunsearchable riches of Christ, and you will know, as you never knew<br \/>\nbefore, what a weak unworthy thing you are. Although the apostle thus<br \/>\nknew and confessed his weakness, he was never perplexed as to the<br \/>\nsubject of his ministry. From his first sermon to his last, Paul<br \/>\npreached Christ, and nothing but Christ. He lifted up the cross, and<br \/>\nextolled the Son of God who bled thereon. Follow his example in all<br \/>\nyour personal efforts to spread the glad tidings of salvation, and let<br \/>\n&#8220;Christ and him crucified&#8221; be your ever recurring theme. The Christian<br \/>\nshould be like those lovely spring flowers which, when the sun is<br \/>\nshining, open their golden cups, as if saying, &#8220;Fill us with thy<br \/>\nbeams!&#8221; but when the sun is hidden behind a cloud, they close their<br \/>\ncups and droop their heads. So should the Christian feel the sweet<br \/>\ninfluence of Jesus; Jesus must be his sun, and he must be the flower<br \/>\nwhich yields itself to the Sun of Righteousness. Oh! to speak of Christ<br \/>\nalone, this is the subject which is both &#8220;seed for the sower, and bread<br \/>\nfor the eater.&#8221; This is the live coal for the lip of the speaker, and<br \/>\nthe master-key to the heart of the hearer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.&#8221; &#8212; Ephesians 3:8 The apostle Paul felt it a great privilege to be allowed to preach the gospel. He did not look upon his calling as a drudgery,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}