My daughter suggested doing a Top 10 challenge: the Top 10 Christians musicians I’d like to do a duet with. Since I cannot sing to save my life (but I play the radio REALLY WELL), I had to modify this. And I decided to drop it down to the Top 5 for the sake of time and my poor memory. I am going to put in a caveat – I can’t include Jesus in the list because He is a given.

It’s kind of a fun question to think about. Who are the 5 believers I’d like to hang out with. In the past I’ve shared posts on the saints who have influenced my life and wrote about Corrie ten Boom and Keith Green. So I guess I’ll have to leave them out too, since they’ve each had their own posts. Here are my choices, in no particular order.

Top 5 Believers I’d like to hang with.

• Paul – because they way he writes confuses me.

I figure that sitting down and talking to Paul would be very helpful! He writes convoluted and rambling sentences and sometimes I just don’t understand his train of thought. I’d love to sit over cocoa and let his heart for the lost sink into my soul.

I will confess that I don’t have an overwhelming passion to reach the lost. I do have a passion to train up the saints. But Paul seemed to have both. His incredible love and compassion for the churches, and the burden of that love, comes through clearly in his letters. But he has such a dual mission and passion that I do not possess. I would love to hear his stories and glean from his vision and purpose. I’m sure that it would grow me and change me from the inside out and have a great impact on my ministry to the church.

• Peter – because he was so impetuous.

I feel a kindred spirit with Peter in so many ways. He constantly blew it with Jesus. He said stupid things, he did stupid things, he had great faith one minute and was clueless the next. So often I feel that this describes ME! I love how real he was, how he didn’t try to hide his weaknesses and how he came to Jesus, warts and all, and just put his whole trust in Him.

Peter was such a spontaneous man. He RAN, he JUMPED, he was the first to follow and the first to fall. I want to hear from him about his absolute commitment to Jesus, no matter what. I want to listen to him tell me stories of walking with Jesus, of watching Jesus with the elderly, with children, with the stubborn, with the fearful. I know that only the tip of the iceberg of stories were written in the Scriptures. I want to hear the stories of Peter’s impetuous following and failing. I want to be encouraged to jump in with both feet, not worrying about where I land!

• Mother Teresa – because she laid down her life in sacrificial love.

Now, I realize that I most likely have very different doctrines than she had, but she lived out her faith in a real and sacrificial way that I do not understand. She seemed to have seen Christian love outside of the politics of the world. She seemed to have lived out the ‘faith without works is dead’ verse and touched the lives of countless people as a result.

I would love to sit and hear her stories. To be challenged to live beyond my small little world. I would love to hear how God met her time and time again in the midst of her need as she served others. I would love to hear her passion for the lost and the rejected. I would love to hear how simple faith in Jesus was at the core of her life’s work and that, in the end, love was the greatest thing of all.

• Papa ten Boom – because his love for God’s people carried him home.

This was a simple watch maker who lived his love for Jesus out in every aspect of his ordinary life. He trained his children in the ways of God and was willing to give up his life to honor and protect the “apple of God’s eye”. In the midst of the most horrendous circumstances, he let his love and obedience command his actions.

I would love to hear the stories of his life in discipling his children. His wisdom, his insight, his understanding of the Word of God. I would love to sit at his feet and listen to the generations of training from the scriptures that brought him to that place in his home where he defied the government and obeyed God. I’ve read some stories his daughter Corrie told in her books, but I feel that she was only able to scratch the surface of the wisdom of this octogenarian living out a simple faith in an extraordinary way.

• Martin Luther – because he followed where the scriptures lead him.

It could not have been an easy thing. To go against the power and might and tradition of the Roman church and declare the scriptures superior to tradition. I know that some of his doctrines differ from what I believe, but I love the heart of the man who would be willing to defy the entire church in order to cling to the truths of the Word.

I would love to sit down and hear his stories, his processes, his fears and his convictions. I would love to listen to how the living Word of God changed his life and brought passion and obedience to be linked up with God’s truth rather than man’s declarations.

So, how about you? Who would be YOUR Top 5 Believers to hang out and chat with, and why?

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All Scripture quotations are taken from the NASB.
Unless otherwise indicated, photos from pixaby.com