Joy - Philippians Introduction

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

May 12, 2012


 *2012-05-12 - PHILIPPIANS - Introduction*

*(From “The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language” - Eugene H.
Peterson)*


 *This is Paul's happiest letter. And the happiness is infectious. Before
we've read a dozen lines, we begin to feel the joy ourselves - the dance of
words and the exclamations of delight have a way of getting inside us.*


 *But happiness is not a word we can understand by looking it up in the
dictionary. In fact, none of the qualities of the Christian life can be
learned out of a book. Something more like apprenticeship is required,
being around someone who out of years of devoted discipline shows us, by
his or her entire behavior, what it is. Moments of verbal instruction will
certainly occur, but mostly an apprentice acquires skill by daily and
intimate association with a “master,” picking up subtle but absolutely
essential things, such as timing and rhythm and “touch.”*


 *When we read what Paul wrote to the Christian believers in the city of
Philippi, we find ourselves in the company of just such a master. Paul
doesn't tell us that we can be happy, or how to be happy. He simply and
unmistakably is happy. None of his circumstances contribute to his joy: He
wrote from a jail cell, his work was under attack by competitors, and after
twenty years or so of hard traveling in the service of Jesus, he was tired
and would have welcomed some relief.*


 *But circumstances are incidental compared to the life of Jesus, the
Messiah, that Paul experienced from the inside. For it is a life that not
only happened at a certain point in history, but continues to happen,
spilling out into the lives of those who receive him, and then continues to
spill out all over the place. Christ is, among much else, the revelation
that God cannot be contained or hoarded. It is this “spilling out” quality
of Christ's life that accounts for the happiness of Christians, for joy is
life in excess, the overflow of what cannot be contained within any one
person.*



 *NOTE**: *“*Joy* is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.” -
Teilhard de Chardin. I found this quotation in a boys' room many years ago,
and it captivated me. Fits in with Paul in Philippians?


 Then Nehemiah came up with - “The *joy of the LORD* is your strength.”
Neh. 8:10. *True*!


 Next David says, “Weeping may tarry for the night - but *joy* comes with
the morning.” Psalm 30:5.


 Back in the '50's in Chicago at the Kostner Avenue Baptist Church - we had
each member memorize a chapter from the Bible. Marie outdid herself, and
memorized the entire book of Philippians - a *lot* of positive *joy* here!


 So do you think that God considers *joy* to be an important ingredient for
the “overcoming” Christian?


 Read again Eugene Peterson's “Introduction to the Book of Philippians”,
and let your heart receive from the apostle Paul his overflow from the *joy
of the LORD*! J.A.Watt



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