St. Paul wasn’t any more done than we are in the sense that every doctrine had been completely described and adequately understood at the time of his death. He was done only in the sense that he had advanced the conversation as far as he could.

All the advances of Church and culture since the time of Paul have begun with laypeople gathering with each other, around scripture, and in prayer. The priesthood only emerged when the Church began to grow and needed consistent leadership.

Where is the next place where there is a critical mass of believers who are evangelically motivated to find bold and novel ways to talk about Jesus, believers who are less concerned with “the wrong sort of people” and more concerned with (gasp!) being the right kind of witnesses.

We may be witnessing the emergence of a new set of God Fearers in our time, people driven to reconsider religion because of the moral absurdity that has taken over large parts of the West.

There were bigmouths in the Church from the start, people who dared to talk about Jesus out loud, very loud, louder than the people who were uncomfortable, louder than the people who hated them, louder than the people who killed them, loud enough to be heard by the people who finally recognized them as the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

The Canaanite Woman recognized Jesus because people talked about Jesus, talked to Jesus, were unembarrassed by Jesus.

God raises the face (e.g. shows recognition to) of any who come to him in love, respect, and worship.