This week we looked at Paul’s example in Acts 21 and 22 of how God uses Paul’s past and trials to proclaim Jesus. Paul was seized and dragged from the temple, the Jews were trying to kill him, the Romans pulled him from the mob, Paul uses his past, as a Roman and Jew, to get a platform. It is true that problems in our past can often build a platform to proclaim Jesus.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.”