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<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER">“<b>TWO
ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Jim
& Marie Watt</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Tel:
<a href="tel:253-517-9195" target="_blank">253-517-9195</a> - Email:
<a href="mailto:jmbetter@gmail.com" target="_blank">jmbetter@gmail.com</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Web:
<a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/" target="_blank">www.2rbetter.org</a></b></p><p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER">May 12, 2012</p><p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><br>
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<font size="3"><b>2012-05-12 - PHILIPPIANS - Introduction</b></font></p>
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<font size="3"><b>(From “The Message: The Bible in Contemporary
Language” - Eugene H. Peterson)</b></font></p>
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<font size="3"><b>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.</b></font></p>
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<font size="3"><b>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.”</b></font></p>
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<font size="3"><b>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.</b></font></p>
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<font size="3"><b>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.</b></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><font size="3"><u><b>NOTE</b></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><b>:
</b></span><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>“</span></span><u><span style>Joy</span></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>
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?</span></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
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<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><font size="3"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>Then
Nehemiah came up with - “The </span></span><u><span style>joy
of the LORD</span></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>
is your strength.” Neh. 8:10. </span></span><u><span style>True</span></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>!</span></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><font size="3"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>Next
David says, “Weeping may tarry for the night - but </span></span><u><span style>joy</span></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>
comes with the morning.” Psalm 30:5.</span></span></font></p>
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<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><font size="3"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>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 </span></span><u><span style>lot</span></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>
of positive </span></span><u><span style>joy</span></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>
here!</span></span></font></p>
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</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><font size="3"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>So
do you think that God considers </span></span><u><span style>joy</span></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>
to be an important ingredient for the “overcoming” Christian?</span></span></font></p>
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</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><font size="3"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>Read
again Eugene Peterson's “Introduction to the Book of Philippians”,
and let your heart receive from the apostle Paul his overflow from
the </span></span><u><span style>joy of the
LORD</span></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style>! J.A.Watt</span></span></font></p>
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