"Hardships ... beatings ... imprisonment ... sleepless nights ... hunger ... in dishonor ... in ill repute ... unknown ... sorrowful ... poor."

It sounds like a street person being described. Wrong! These are word snapshots of the life of the apostle Paul that picture what a follower of Christ must be ready to bear.

Paul was a "street person" of sorts, pounding the pavement in the first century from Jerusalem to Damascus to Rome. His task was not survival, but salvation. Paul preached the salvation from God that comes to all people through Jesus Christ. His invitation was for people to be reconciled to God. His message of how that is accomplished can be summed up in one sentence: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.…