The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 495

 

The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 495

Today’s Kick Start! Psalm 119:20-22 (NKJV) 20 My soul breaks (is crushed) with longing For Your judgments at all times. 21 You rebuke the proud—the cursed, Who stray from Your commandments. 22 Remove from me reproach and contempt, For I have kept Your testimonies.

Philippians 1:1-8 (NKJV) Greetings and a Prayer of Thanksgiving

1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

God, does not change; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever—The Messiah!

 

The apostle Paul is encouraged by the Philippian Congregation. As a child of God who seeks God’s Will, we too should be encouraged by Paul’s greeting and prayer of thanks to God for these saints.

 

If the apostle were to look at our church; what would be his response? Are we like the Corinthians whose administration condoned immoral conduct in the congregation, or like the Galatian Church who conducted their church administration by keeping the Law instead of Grace? The seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 are as active today as in the day when the apostle John recorded the Words of Him, ’…who is the First and the Last’ Revelation 1:17.

 

Of course all of us would like to say that our church is like the Philippian church, yet in our heart of hearts (that is; our soul) we know our church since God has already revealed our congregational character to each of us, as we are children of Him who knows us—Acts 15:8 – So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us. Remember too, the Holy Spirit is not some emotional response to an experience, He is one who guides us into All Truth.

 

Getting back to the Philippian church we can see the encouragement in the apostle’s spirit. In his explanation of his prayer for this church he states, “I thank my God, every time I think of you” Paul knows the Philippian people very well. Let me ask a question, when did the church at Philippi begin? It began with a possible suicide, Acts 16:25-40. The Philippian jailer along with his entire household (servants included) trusted the gospel of the grace of God. How about it? Is our initial belief in Christ a full and established TRUST?

 

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