If a line is drawn in the sand, where will you stand?
Philemon 1
1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker— 2 also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers,
5 because
I hear about your love for all his holy people
and your faith in the Lord Jesus.
6 I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective
in deepening your understanding
of every good thing we share
for the sake of Christ.
7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.
8 Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, 9 yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love.
It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— 10 that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains.
11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.
12 I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. 13 I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel.
14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary.
15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back—not to mention that you owe me your very self.
20 I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ.
21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.
22 And one thing more: Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers. 23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. 24 And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
The Imitation Game - a movie.
Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine. ~ Christopher Morcom
Paul was set to be upwardly mobile. Educated correctly, well placed. Top jobs. Correct political ideas. Believing in God.
And Paul met Jesus and went all over the European and Middle East world. Home arrest. Meeting Governors and Emperors. Mamertine Prison.
The Enigma destroyed and gathered the greatest code breakers - encryption solutions - of the U.K. Defeating the Nazis of World War II by understanding every message put out by the Nazi war efforts. Unfortunately, this led to secrecy and pain to use the message to the greatest effect possible. Defying detection to create a crucial victory. True hardship.
Later, after the war, the secrecy was ridiculous and short sighted. Taking lives and letting brilliance and heroicism be labelled as criminal. Costing the world loss. The death of a true hero.
A mirror is an object that reflects light in such a way that, for incident light in some range of wavelengths, the reflected light preserves many or most of the detailed physical characteristics of the original light. This is different from other light-reflecting objects that do not preserve much of the original wave signal other than color and diffuse reflected light.
If we take a message and make the message about our agenda - we have lessened the message. "All about me."
The Light of the World is Jesus Christ.
The first computer took all of the data and ran 159 million letters 20 million different ways for only 12 hours. And reset the message the next day.
Facts were processed. Statistics. Risks. Failures. Deaths. Grief. Trauma.
Nothing we would know about. We all live lives of perfection.
We do not need to know 1 in 3 adults in the USA will face alcoholism.
We do not need to know 50% of marriages without college degrees will end with crisis, embarrassment, financial implications affecting generations. Social implications changing the direction of lives as the divorced need a new life. Changing the hope of the fabric of family and love.
We do not need to filter the basic fact - college debt collides with mortgages our grandparents didn't have. We do not need to look at the hopes of this debt laden generation.
We do not need to look at the correlation of marriage, home ownership (Thomas Jefferson said our hope of financial security is owning a home) family cohesiveness. The increasing division of 3 classes of society.
We do not need to know that as cancer death rates decrease, Alzheimer increases. We do not need to know suicide moves from the leading cause of death to 13%, a jump from the prior 11%.
We should probably look at the fact of marriage lasting from vow to death-due-us-part substantially increases with college education. God believes in the Exodus - slaves are given freedom.
And then, regardless, if you are the 1in 6 who experienced sexual molestation in the USA -
We have only one decision to make when we are faced with:
~ job loss
~ tragic accident or fatal accident
~ illness - the highest probability of bankruptcy
~ injustice
~ racism
~ crime
~ power struggles and attitudes used as weapons
~ families that do not care for one another
~ domestic violence
~ physical illness
~ labeling - false or true
~ aging
~ isolation caused by divorce, illness, distance for jobs, children growing up, widowhood
What Decision?
Is God Good?
Why this Question? Because even to decide there is no God - based up things like the variations of water used to create life on the planet. The intricacy of DNA. The inability to create dirt. The inability to reproduce ourselves without using what God has given us. The solar system creating gravity. The beauty of the world. Love.
This is a crucial question - is God good?
Job fought this. Humility found the answer. Humility can be a tool used of cruelty. So, what is the answer. Love.
When we are Loved - we are filled by something we can hardly define. We recover. We Hope. We have the ability to rise again.
Critical
I was talking to a Pastor who said he is called into the hospitals to help strangers. Dying is hard. Generally not for believers. Usually a believer comforts the ones the believer loves. And passes on to Jesus. Why talk about death when we are talking about finding Joy in Life. Because at this critical time - we find what matters. There is no greater revealing, than at critical.
Romans 8:28
We know that in all things
God works for the good
of those who love him,
who have been called
according to his purpose.
If we believe God is Good - we have the power of His Grace to rise again.
If we believe God is Good - we can Love.
If we believe God is Good - in this faith - we are nourished. Able to fill others. Filling up ourselves.
If we believe God is Good - we can take failings of life and trust God for better days.
If we believe God is Good - in this impossibility - we are able to read the Word of God applying to us. To our core.
If we believe God is Good - we are moved beyond our comfort zone. Creating failure. Jesus declares this to be true. Creating courage. Creating Life. Creating a funny path we never saw - giving us meaning. Making our obscure quirks part of life. Making life a beautiful work of stained glass - from the bits and pieces. Creating quilts. Creating paintings. Creating space to trust and love. Overcoming. And in the Body of Christ taking chances - we find we are part of a culture coming out behind the walls of the middle ages. Learning to read and see the Word of God. Defeating disease - creating hospitals. Feeding the starving - creating a culture of farmers to feed one another. Defeating slavery - of debts - creating a place where families can have hope.
Because we believe God saw His creation as good.
Because we believe God sees inside all of us and finds us worthy of His Love. To save the world.
To believe well enough that it is not, "all about me." Blessing all of us. Making our lives, our families, our homes, our jobs, our neighborhoods, our risks, our failures, our joy - making the blessing cover us all. Because we hold Christ in our essence. Christ in our being. Jesus is our hope. Jesus is Love. Jesus Loves. Jesus Lives.
Because God is GOD.
We believe in Mercy.
And in the Love - we are all blessed.
Luke 1
77 "to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, t
o guide our feet into the way of peace."
Luke 18:27
Jesus replied, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."
Papa, Abba, Daddy, Father God,
We have one hope for ourselves, our worries, our loved ones, for the people You give us - Jesus.
The Good News. Increase our Holy Spirit within us.
We are blessed. Amen in Jesus. Amen.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves †
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