{"id":1588,"date":"2020-09-21T12:12:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T11:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2020-09-21T12:12:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T11:12:50","slug":"message-from-the-minister-letter-16-sunday-20-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1588","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister Letter 16 &#8211; Sunday 20 September"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear\nall,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nhope and pray that this letter finds you well.&nbsp;\nThis week we move on to Paul\u2019s letter to the Philippians.&nbsp; Paul has written the letter to encourage them\nin their journeys of faith even though he has the desire to be with\nChrist.&nbsp; It is always good to receive an\nencouraging letter, or equivalent, or one which gives us pause for thought and\ninforms us to keep going and keep up the good work.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The city of Philippi was an important place\nat that time, as a leading city for the area but not quite of capital\nstatus.&nbsp; The church was in its infancy\nand composed a number of leading women and former pagans therefore Paul wants\nto see the church grow and become consolidated for the future.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nportion of the letter we are examining this week is chapter 1: 21-30.&nbsp; It begins with that well known verse: \u2018for to\nme, living is Christ and dying is gain.\u2019&nbsp;\nThis partially reflects the previous verse in which Paul was expressing\nthe hope that he won\u2019t have to suffer and be put to shame.&nbsp; So Paul in one sense could be trying to\nreassure himself by stating that if this does happen, he will be united with\nChrist sooner.&nbsp; Perhaps his mind is\njumping around from thought to thought and he is trying to rationalise his\nthoughts through writing this letter.&nbsp; So\nthere is an element of if he suffers and dies, glory will be brought to God and\nhis life of service will be brought to a close.&nbsp;\nThe gain for Paul will not only be eternal life in the presence of Jesus\nbut the promoting of the gospel which his martyrdom will produce.&nbsp; So Paul sees this as a win-win situation\nalthough in so doing he shows both bravery and courage.&nbsp; This verse also ties up nicely with the\nclosing verse of one of Wesley\u2019s famous hymns which states: \u2018Ready for all thy\nperfect will, my acts of faith and love repeat, till death thy endless mercies\nseal, and make the sacrifice complete.\u2019&nbsp; &nbsp;(Singing the Faith, 564). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul\ncontinues and it\u2019s like he is almost having a debate with himself.&nbsp; On the one hand, he wants to continue in the\nflesh, serving God in his ministry but on the other, is keen to be united with\nChrist.&nbsp; As he develops this thought he\nseems to realise that for him going to heaven to be with Christ would be better\nbut for the Philippians for him to remain in the flesh would be better so he\ncould help and support them.&nbsp; Paul then\nissues a challenge for them to live lives worthy of the gospel regardless of\nwhether he makes a visit to them or not.&nbsp;\nHe wants to reassure them, that as a church they can overcome their\nopponents and succeed for Christ by working together, striving side by side.&nbsp; Paul reminds them that serving Christ is a\nprivilege and even suffering for him is too.&nbsp;\nThere is so much teaching here to pack into one letter but essentially\nby striving to live for Christ and working together God\u2019s purposes will\nprevail.&nbsp; Let us hold firm to these\ntruths, and pray that God would bless our church as we like the Philippians\nseek to serve Him.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May\nour merciful God, the Author of the Gospel and beacon of Good News, bless us now\nand always, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear all, I hope and pray that this letter finds you well.&nbsp; This week we move on to Paul\u2019s letter to the Philippians.&nbsp; Paul has written the letter to encourage them in their journeys of faith even though he has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1589,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions\/1589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}