PHILIPPIANS 1

Our third book that we're studying together!
We will read the four chapters of this book until Sept. 30th, and we'll begin another fresh (longer) book on October 1! So please stay posted and see which book we're going to read. And read my emails too, when you get them, so you know what's going on.


Philippians 1:


Paul is writing yet another letter to the church is Philippi (not the Philippines...unfortunately, he had no contact with the Asians).

If you go to: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~mhowell/background.htm, you can find some useful background information on this book.

Paul's locked up in jail as he's writing this book as well. I'm not sure if this comes historically before Colossians, but I know that they were written around the same time. It might have even been from the same jail at the same time period, written to two different churches.

In chapter 1, he talks about evangelism. There are two parts in this chapter that I really liked. First, he talks about being real when you spread the Gospel or do work for God (v.15-18). I think this one may be pretty applicable to us on the praise team. I'm not going to lie to you, I really appreciate it and it makes me happy when people tell me after service, "Good job Roh", "You sounded really good", and such. And sometimes, as we play some times, the thought that what we're playing sounds REALLY good, and that it's a result of MY and OUR hard work and talent, makes me feel really good and even boastful of our own talents. And sometimes I want to show this off and give ourselves the credit. But Paul says that people do it out of goodwill do so in love. Are we playing our guitars and piano, are we singing, out of love? Or are we singing for different reasons? It's something to ponder once in a while after you have a good session of praise. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with having fun, as that's what I tell you guys to do every single time during practice or worship on Sundays. But when that enjoyment and excitement is rooted from love for God and the people at our church, that is true worship.

Another verse that I liked is verse 27: "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a matter worthy of the gospel of Christ." This relates to being "Godly" 24/7. Remember last Friday, when I gave my shveal about being true to what you believe in for all the moments of your lives? Remembering that God is always with you, and that he is watching you because he loves you? This verse tells us to use the Bible as our instructional guide to deal with WHATEVER situation that we may face. He says it sort of in the way that it's not only God that is watching us, but everybody around us, constantly. Your friends watch you. Your parents watch you. You watch YOURSELF when you write in your diary, when you listen to yourself, etc. Are we living the best life that we can?

That's a tough question to answer, because it's hard to define "best" in this context. But sometimes, this is just intuitive. You just KNOW when you're not doing your best in many aspects of your life. My challenge is to think about the areas in your lives where you feel like you can improve, and find practical solutions to them.


Sam's proposing today! Hope to see you there, and Happy Sabbath!


Shalom,

Roh

Admin wrote:Our third book that we're studying together!
But Paul says that people do it out of goodwill do so in love. Are we playing our guitars and piano, are we singing, out of love? Or are we singing for different reasons? It's something to ponder once in a while after you have a good session of praise. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with having fun, as that's what I tell you guys to do every single time during practice or worship on Sundays. But when that enjoyment and excitement is rooted from love for God and the people at our church, that is true worship.

I know it's a rhetorical question roh.. but I wanted to like answer it ya..
I play to express, not to impress.
I used to play the guitar purely for myself, I used to play for hours at home when I had the time, and I always just play a jam track in the background while I solo over it trying to get my own "sound", "tone" and emotions through using the instrument.
But now.. I find myself lucky that I could find you guys and be a part of the Praise Team because now I could play to express my feeling of worship, and love for God through the guitar; serious double-whammy chocolate bar ice cream.
Also I get to enjoy Fridays and Sundays with you guys, which is chillz

I think Paul outlined what I believe about giving up your life topic, and I could definitely relate to how he feels (of course not, I'm not jailed for believing in Christ, I'm just jailed in my corporeal status and within society, which I hate ya.... I'm kinda emo when it comes to viewing society and what not lol I think I might go to hell for this... I wish I could stop thinking this way)
So now... after reading this Chapter I dunno whether I should laugh at my enemies, "that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself." OR to help them out.. Paul kinda contradicts himself here I think. Even looking at the whole context of the thing, he talks about him helping people and stuff.. so I'm a bit puzzled maybe I'm just focusing on this out of the context or something...
But I get what he's saying about the other things, and I did learn a lot from all you guys' devos and the chapter! as usual
So.. onto today's actual devo >_>