Philippians 1:25-26

"Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again."

So what is Paul saying here? Just before these verses he threw out two options, that he live, or that he would die. He was torn between which would happen and which one he would rather have. But now he is saying that he is sure that he will stay alive. He says though that he will keep on because of the Philippians, so that he can help them. So that they may have joy, that they may progress, and that they may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus.

There are two things I want to say I guess. While in jail he is probably thinking, 'if God wanted to take me He would have by now' so therefore he concludes that he still has some ministry left to do. As long as he is on the earth he has a ministry. (Do you?) And second, I want to point out that he lives for others not himself, he says that he is convinced he will live and come to them again, not so he can enjoy life (it is) but that he can help the Philippians, and I think generally he meant all churches as well.

So the application to this would be to have a ministry that you can give your life away too. Paul wanted to get out of prison so he could spend time with people.

Overflow of Philippians 1:9

Ok this is an overflowing from Kyle's post on love, I tried to post a comment and it didn't seem to work so I am going this route, so sorry if it is on both. I just copied and pasted below, good thing I did too I almost lost it all.

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Amen. A few things come to mind when I read this, and also a thought that fits right in with this that I had in the car today.

God is Love. He is the model, just like Pete said. He is the manifestation of Love, he is the definition. His redeeming work for us, His perfect life, His obedience, His sacrifice is what Love is. He emptied Himself from the Heavens, came to earth lived a perfectly obedient life, and gave Himself up for us, FOR US. He gave everything so that we may know the Father. Let that sink in, we had no opportunity, no chance, no hope. And he completely selflessly gave Himself for us in His perfect Love for us. That is how much Jesus loves us. Before time began, He picked us out and knew He was going to suffer for us, for our eternal joy. No matter what we do, He has redeemed us, covered us with His blood, we turn from Jesus everyday, we turn our backs on Him for lesser things, but He calls us back to Him because He Loves us. So with what Kyle said this is how we should love, this is our model, this is 1 Corinthians 13. We must always remember what our source of Love is as well, Jesus.

Great now that I went off on that I forgot my other points. Oh yes, and from Ephesians 3:19 (I love this prayer) Paul prays for the Ephesians that they would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge and that they would be filled with all the fullness of God. Just the part that says the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, this just makes me think that no amount of knowledge, no amount of scripture memorization or understanding is comparable to the love of Christ. Bask in this and we will overflow with His knowledge. I was thinking tonight, "I am so weak, I do not know anything that is contained in the Bible, I can't say the right things when I am 'at the plate'". And this came to mind, and it is just a great reminder of "Yes you are weak, but Christ is infinite and can do all things. He works within us. If we focus our Bible study and all of our time on the love of Christ, then this surpasses all knowledge. The love of Christ is what matters.

And finally just that Jesus Himself says that the whole law can be summed up into two laws. Love God above all else, and love your neighbor. Common theme, love. So a multitude of the law can be summed up into one word, love. This is exactly what Kyle said.
To Him be the Glory!

Philippians 1:3

What is up everyone. I am here, it has been a while since I posted last or made any changes to the blog, my bad. But with Philippians starting lets get this thing cracking, it has been encouraging so far to see everyone involved. Keep it up. No one really posted on 1:3 yet so I thought I would throw it in there quick. So far there has not been a ton said about certain verses, and it is hard to have a ton to say about a greeting, they seem so "simple", but just for the future (I am not saying this happens, just some help) it will be nice to have studied the verses around it as well, so try to study each verse of Philippians so we can get a lot of good info from each other. And then try to apply it. Piper said in his daily radio broadcast this morning, that the how questions that we get from scripture are not merely application but they are Christianity, so lets try to ask how do we do these things.

Philippians 1:3 "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,"

Well obviously Paul is telling the Philippians that he is thankful for them. But usually when we are thankful for someone we say thanks to that person. But here he says he thanks God for them. So this implies that God is the one who is at work within the Philippians. Also it sure seems that he loves the Philippians very much, since every time he remembers them he thanks God for them, just imagine that. Can I say to anyone that every time I think of them I am thankful? No I can't, even to the closest person to me I would not be able to say that I have a spirit of thankfulness for them. So why is he so thankful for them. Because they share in the Gospel together. Because they both have salvation in Christ and they are both running together for the prize. Paul helps the Philippians and the Philippians help Paul. Last night on my run I was thinking about the race that we are running in our faith. And I thought that as brothers and sisters we need to help those who are hurt and cannot make it on their own. And I thought "Do we pick them up and carry them?" I would have to say no. What good would that do for them, it would bring them further in the race but they would not get any better for when you put them down. So we need to encourage and push each other to get 'better' in the faith, to get stronger, but not find a quick solution and patch the problem for now, it will just get worse down the road, and most importantly to pray to God that He would make them stronger. Anyways that got off topic. Conclusion, we do have a responsibility and we do need to help each other, but instead of doing something for them, we need to pull alongside our brothers and sisters and run with them.

Back to 1:3. How can I be thankful, every time I think of you? Mike, Aaron, Brian, Pete, Pat, Jake, Arun, Kyle, among many many more (Paul was thankful for a whole church, so how can I be thankful for all of Bethlehem Baptist?). Well I think it once again goes back to the Gospel, because of our partnership in it, we are brothers we are helping each other whether we see it or not, and we are stepping into a war everyday together. So how do we do this? I think of you with the lens of the Gospel, I think about what you are doing for the Gospel and about your Salvation and how Christ is moving in your life. I think about the circumstances that brought us together, and ALL the grace God is showing in your and my life. Well there are more ways I am sure, but these are just a few, with the Gospel being the center, hey it is why Paul is thankful, so it should be pretty big in our thankfulness.

Just imagine what our prayer lives for each other would look like if we had this mindset, imagine how our time together would be if we were constantly thankful. I think with a thankfulness comes humility, how much more could we serve each other if we were thankful every time we thought of each other. Wow. I pray that each one of us would be able to say that we are truly thankful for everyone who is in the Body of Christ, every time we think of them. It will definitely be hard, heck it is impossible, but with Christ all things are possible, with His power we can do it. So be Gospel centered in your thoughts, toward everyone and everything around us.