Want To Be An Apostle

When they started giving out stress cards to recruits in boot camp, I was a bit surprised. If I had gone to submit one of those cards to my TI he would have said, "Son, you're feeling stressed? I don't think you know what stress is." and would have made my life very stressful for the next week. After that, he would have asked, "Are you feeling stressed now?" I would have replied, "SIR, NO SIR!" and tore up those cards happy to go back to the normal stresses of training.

When I see all of these people parading around claiming to be apostles living extravagant lifestyles I want to ask them, "Oh, so you want to be an Apostle? I don't think you know what that really incurs." Let a real Apostle instruct us on the life of an Apostle.

1 Corinthians 4:9  For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 

10  We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. 

11  Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; 

12  And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: 

13  Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. 

I do not see an extravagant lifestyle here nor get fame even among the people Paul led to Christ. No fancy banquets and clothes. No top of the line chariots or fine houses.

2 Corinthians 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 

9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 

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. 

11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 

Persecuted, perplexed, and cast down does not speak to a prosperity gospel. Indeed, Paul, why did you not just decree and declare all of this mess away? Should you not have been the head and not the tail? Why did you not slay some demons and live your best life now? You cast demons out of others. Why let this happen to you?

2 Corinthians 11:16  I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. 

17  That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. 

18  Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. 

19  For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. 

20  For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. 

21  I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. 

22  Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. 

23  Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 

24  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 

25  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 

26  In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 

27  In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 

28  Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 

29  Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 

30  If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. 

31  The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. 

32  In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: