Romans 15:15-19

¹⁵So, my dear friends, don''t take my rather bold and blunt language as criticism. It''s not criticism. I''m simply underlining how very much I need your help in carrying out this highly focused assignment God gave me,

¹⁶this priestly and gospel work of serving the spiritual needs of the non-Jewish outsiders so they can be presented as an acceptable offering to God, made whole and holy by God''s Holy Spirit.

¹⁷Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased--in the context of Jesus, I''d even say proud, but only in that context.

¹⁸I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders.

¹⁹In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece.n