We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their own good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.” Again, it says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.” And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him.” And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—  by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you. But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord’s people there. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ. I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there, so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed. The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

On April 30th, 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte, needing immediate funding for his wars and continued empire expansion in Europe, sold 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi to the United States. The purchase price for what became known as the Louisiana Purchase was a mere 15 million dollars. For roughly 4 cents an acre, the United States had doubled its size and, in doing so, sounded the starting gun on what would become a half-century of pioneers, wagon trains, and frenzied westward expansion. Millions dreamed of discovering new land and what new adventures awaited them west of the Mississippi. And many, with only a few dollars and all they owned with them, headed west, not knowing what lay ahead of them.

The expansion of the early church happened similarly, starting in Jerusalem in the East, then spreading westward to Samaria, Antioch, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Illyricum, which is modern-day Yugoslavia and Albania, and Rome on the Italian Peninsula. Eventually, the church would spread further west to Gaul, Britain, Ireland, Spain, and eventually to America. At the time of Paul's writing of Romans, he had a great desire to come to Rome. Paul also had plans to visit modern-day Spain on a missionary journey to pioneer and plant churches on the frontiers of what at that time was commonly known to be the ends of the earth, but God's plans and Paul's plans didn't always line up at first. Stopping off in Rome on the way, Paul anticipates that he can enjoy the support and fellowship of the Romans before he goes to preach the Gospel in the largely unknown regions beyond. Paul most likely wanted Rome to be his base of operations for his mission to the western part of the empire, even as Antioch was his base for the eastern part. Paul had these plans, which he assumed at first were also God's plans, yet things did not work out exactly as he thought. Paul went to Rome, yet not as a missionary, on his way to Spain. He went to Rome as a prisoner in chains, awaiting trial before Caesar, where he would preach the Gospel on a very different kind of frontier. God had unexpected frontiers for the Gospel in Paul’s life, giving him unexpected access to preach to the Emperor and the influential royal court of Rome itself. After his release from Roman imprisonment at the end of the Book of Acts, we have reason to believe Paul made it to Spain and preached the Gospel there, but the journey was far from how it had been drawn up.

Paul had a pioneering spirit. One might call it an entrepreneurial mindset today. He possessed a God-given desire to plant, establish, build, and strengthen. He did not want to build on another missionary foundation. He wanted to do pioneer work for the Lord and go into new lands – not because it was wrong or bad to continue the work started by another person, but because there was so much to do on the frontiers. Paul saw his pioneering heart as obedience to the Scriptures, fulfilling the passage he quoted from the Old Testament. And Paul was right, but God, in his wisdom, had other ways of bringing these plans about. Paul thought he would stop in Corinth on his way to Jerusalem to deliver a monetary gift collected from Christians in Macedonia and Achaia (Acts 20:1-3). Paul’s observation on this subject is appropriate: the Gentile Christians of the broader Roman empire had received so much spiritually from the community of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem that it was only right that they help the Jerusalem Christians monetarily in their time of greatest need. Paul would indeed head for Rome after his time in Jerusalem, but once again, it would not at all be in the way he planned! God had other routes and plans for Paul and other ways that he would break into new territory that Paul wasn't even thinking of. Perhaps God also has plans for your life that may take shape in ways you haven't even imagined yet!

An underlying idea in today's passage is how Paul wants the Romans to partner with him in ministry through their prayers. The New English Bible translates this: 'to be my allies in the fight.' The New Living Bible translates the phrase like this: "join me in my struggle by praying to God for me." The ancient Greek word translated as 'strive together' is "sunagonizomai" – meaning “to agonize together.” This is the only place in the New Testament where this specific Greek word is used, and it displays the heart of what the early church would be built and strengthened upon -- to agonize and suffer together for the cause of Christ in a way that acts as a refining fire. And the early church would be greatly refined in the fires of adversity over the following centuries. Sometimes, even today, pioneering for the Lord is not a geographical idea, meaning it may not be packing your bags and going to India or South America. In your context, pioneering may mean sharing Christ in a workplace that does not yet have a Christian working there. It may mean sharing Christ with your extended family, who very rarely have ever seen what an authentic Christian life should look like. It may mean sharing Christ with the person covered in anti-Christian tattoos. It may mean that you pioneer your neighborhood and show people in word and deed what the local church is all about. It doesn't always look like what you imagine, but God calls people to reach the business world, the entertainment world, the political world, and even the educational world, often in unexpected ways. We have been called into every aspect of society, and sometimes, that calling doesn't look exactly like we picture or imagine it. But God will allow those to flourish right where they have been planted when they set their eyes on Him. You don't always have to go somewhere else to be used by God. Look first to right where He has you right now, and in that way... adventure awaits!