“3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
‘7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains, or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
‘9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
We are family
I Got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up everybody and sing
All of you are a blessing to me. Even for those of you that I have never met before that are reading this blog, you are still a blessing to me. We are a family in Christ. Simply put, that is what we are. We are a community of believers called upon to support each other in our needs and offer thanks in our joys.
In these opening verses to his letter to the Philippians, Paul graciously thanks God for his brothers and sisters in Christ. He is overjoyed because of them. They are supportive of him in his time of captivity, and by golly Paul is letting them know his thanks. In another letter, Paul talks about we are all members of one body.
We truly are many unique parts of one body. We are one unit. We are a team. We are partners in faith. Its like Family Feud! Only, instead of another family against us, our opposition is the devil and his works. The fight that we fight against the devil is an impossible one. Un-aided we are lost. However, we can rejoice (and again I say rejoice) that Jesus already fought this fight for us. We are on the winning side. We win because God fulfilled the Law to its very letter. God manifested himself amongst us at his birth, became a human, lived a blameless life, and took our place on the cross for us, and was raised by God so that we too may one day be raised. Rejoice in this! Again I say, REJOICE!
Paul, thanks God in this letter for his fellow Christians, asks that they rejoice always, and prays that they would continue to grow in depth and knowledge of the Lord our God. This is my prayer for all of you as well. REJOICE!
And assembled as one, in the name of the Son.
Lifting hearts, lifting hands, celebrating as friends
And proclaiming the Lord, all our praises afford
We are brothers and sisters in Christ.
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3 comments:
Reminds me of a sermon.
Isaiah 35:10 "and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."
He talked about joy and gladness we should have in God. Not in earthly items. And God's joy is the best. It lasts forever and will never fade away.
I really like these verses because they reflect my life lately. I have found myself thanking God every day for the amazing friends I have made over the past few months. I am especially thankful for all the ways my new friends have helped me grow in my faith. While I love my church family back home, I have never been so moved in Bible studies as I have by the discussions with friends and at weekly prayer and praise nights.
Lately, I have found it easier to live like my confirmation verse- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I think a large part of living according to God's will is having a network of other believers who support each other by giving encouragement and offering help when it is needed. This fits in with Paul's explanation we are all members of one body. We all have different gifts to offer that allow us to help the body function very efficiently together. And it’s all part of God’s amazing plan for us.
I never really thought that when I started going to the LSC that I would ever become family with those there also. Like I always here, the LSC is where friends become family, and that really has happened. I am so thankful and so blessed for all those God has put in my life. And realize now, that we are one big family.
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