Few things are more fulfilling than finishing a productive day.

We love to check assignments off our personal to-do lists and sense the reward of getting stuff done.

Well today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall reminds us that sometimes our personal

ambition can lead to a shallow spiritual life. In our study about the Apostle Paul, we're learning

that on occasion we need to tap the brakes, slow down, and take some time to listen. Beginning

in Galatians chapter 1, Chuck titled his message,

The Necessity of Solitude, Quietness, and Obscurity.

Verse 11 of Galatians 1, the first nine verses of Galatians 1, he has been defending his

apostleship. In verse 10, which is sort of a transition, he asks a question and then answers it.

Am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? Notice that question. If I were still

trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. Look at the word still. I take it that

the, that Saul of Tarsus was a man pleaser. Part of what drove him was the nod of the Sanhedron.

Verse 11, I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel preached by me is not according to man.

I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

I take it the revelation came when he was alone in Arabia.

We'll get to that. You have heard of my former manner of life in verses 13 and 14 he talks about

before his conversion. Look at how busy he was. I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure. I tried to destroy it.

I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, among my countrymen, being more

extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. I was pursuing these Christians to get rid of them.

Now look at verse 15.

This is at his conversion.

When he who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, called me through his grace,

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