Defense of the Gospel Again

Greater Still Favored

But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.

23 Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

24 But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.

Philippians 2:22-24

Well, it seems there is always more to be found from within, that is of the grace of God truly as he had promised us among many brethren. It just so happens that he is in the habit of calling many sons unto glory. Paul though as some of us so often do are prone to getting it twisted in the habit of making a point of the grace of God that he had promised his children. Not that there is anything yet to be proved of the Lord for from here on out it is taste and see that the Lord has been good indeed. Still though, there remains a purpose that would be found of him there of bringing many sons home to glory as to the Father in Heaven and for this cause he is spoken his Word among men. You know though we would tend to get a human perspective caught up on this thing and also all sorts of feelings. It is almost enough to give Timotheus Pauls own spiritual son so to speak commendations for all sorts of good things. Though behind it all it leads unto God for he is hardly an unkind or unjust Father in Heaven there to his children. Having sought the things which are his then and not of this old world down below that there is certain proofs of who he claims to be that have come along with the Son. Regardless of whether Son or Father besides there is still never sin to be found with our Lord. Certainly it is impossible that he should lie whether to man or any being created there for his praise and glory of course and just that so too having promised himself. Then again his Word changes not of that I am sure unless of course not a jot or tittle should pass away from his Word except that all be fulfilled. Thus it is a oneness in heart and in purpose and in single mindedly service to be seen then with him. I mean, Timothy might have served Paul well for a time as a messenger as far as the Gospel was preached unto men. Though honestly, is not that who we were representing as we walk here with him. Then again, I would like to see just how Paul is planning on commanding the Lord. Certainly his sending presently is not dependent on the whims of all men nor so even that of a mssenger central whose soul purpose is of telling the truth of the Gospel just as it was preached unto them. It is a hope in him to see him again shortly as soon as the Father is willing to return to his people and so make his home with them just as he had promised the prophets so long ago that what a holy Father thus these would serve. Hoping though to send the Lord soon or perhaps just one of his servants of them without the will of the Father in Heaven in nothing short of madness is not it seeing that it is our God who has called unto men. Thus Paul says for his trying it surely he is not expecting any good results but just that of the praise of his glory. Assuming though that our Father is far more than a servant keep and leader and promise tender of that for his purpose instead.d It is a mighty strange trade is not it, riches for all of Heavens glories. Therefore it is just a trust in the Lord as Paul would have said and so many others besides simply to trust on his will.

Callings for Then

Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and

companion in labour, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that

ministered to my wants.

26 For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had

heard that he had been sick.

27 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not

on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

Paul here has got heart prayers and cries as much as supposed and to some who cannot bear the thought of a separation, being that much more generous for the sake of the work in the gospel. Epaphroditus too is with them all for the sake of the church if it had not been for those that knew in Christ he belonged. Surely you would not know what Epaphroditus meant despite it being a longer name of sorts and also engaged in the care for the self. I mean, I do not know about you but just consider if you will this. It is the best cure for the wonder so far. Though I was quite sure that then you would get deep down inside that everything works out for the eventual good of yourself, the church and the gospel to which we were called. That is the labor there for you if you will, almost as though there were something to hide. Thus, the companion and minister knows all about the needs of the gospel and also of Paul with dispenses to them still. To them that would seek for our God is the very best Guide and also Provider that ever there was in the house of all men. In this case, Epaphroditus has been in need of the Lord. Perhaps you have not wanted anything but that which is needful. Then again, your wants may even be lots of bad things. When it comes to the way you should not go out as in hunting for something or in bringing of need. There is no better is not there than just to seek unto him. The seek unto him part is to the exclusion of these other things looking for only our Good God in Heaven. It is he that will come alongside and so too will also provide for just as Epaphroditus being but a matter, it is not to abide this his in the service to man. Though for sure when God depends on the blessing without the curse there in the matter, it is abundantly clear it is only of him. Surely it is so that our God would not condemn just the world but would come in with someone else left to answer were it not for our God who is the overwhelming answer of the glory to come and in this case, Lazarus comes too for ought of the Lord. There is naught left as of just now but the thoughts and intents of the heart. Sure it might not have occurred to these ill-disposed then at the moment for how good our God is of his going and so also his return to his people. These people it seemed took everything these had to offer by their hands for a minute of comfort and cheer and of wants gone away that surely by Paul these too might have ought left to say. Though the Gospel is more than just a provide for you then but rather that the Righteousness of our good God up above might come on in and be seen in our lives. Surely at times in this life it can be hard to see the struggle and poverty and wants or needs abound in the life without someone to provide for the things of the Lord. Longing though and heaviness at times is best when it is taken up on back to the Source. That is to say the only One who can heal there again be it just for the wants of the heart or that of the body and lives. It does not seem right though does it, that our God should allow this man to grow missing or ill. Though at times you see, the pruning has come that our God might have the greater worker still in our lives. Thus, the sickness can sometimes come that the glory of God might be poured out in the land. Then too there is the corrective aspect in that allowing his grace and his glory that none might go missing. It is difficult is not it at times such as these not to see the work of God in our lives. Though when it seems that he is missing or absent or otherwise gone, that is when Mary and Martha had found that along came the Lord with a song. It went something like this for all who cared to have listened. As in the Gospels much prior it went I am the ressurection and the life and all the wants contained therein besides and the answers to them or providing for very much rather when it comes to a life well lived there with him. In fact, he who believes on him, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water as he makes our desires to line up with his Son. Not that our God cares naught for the sake of the soul nor yet for the feelings of Paul. Just that in the eternal perspective as Mary and Martha had found there is something more needful when it comes to serving and a reward from the Lord. Having chosen the better part then just to sit there with him, it is that thing much more needful that will not be taken away not by any so far. This you would see Paul will have practiced all the way through his ministry there to the people and so on back all the way to the glory from whence he had been called for the hope of the Gospel, a telling of his plans there for man.

There Unto Still

28 I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation:

30 Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.

At this point in the text, perhaps this illness has come simply that the church and likewise Paul might learn just to trust on the Lord. So often in the church there arises a situation and also dangers that we might have been sent to forth with the Word. Far be it from me though to explain what he had said other than that the sorrows and the troubles alike all praise his name. Hence, the sorrow is connected directly with this person our God had been keeping. It is at this moment that our God had entered the scene and with him everything changed. When someone like this has gotten ill until death for seemingly doing good it raises questions and wonders that maybe our Gods not as good as supposed. Surely that is not to say there is some fault to be found with the Lord. Note though how that the Lord makes us not just to trample upon the grace there of his as those that are misusing of him and what he had said. Sometimes though there is what his service has reached which produces very much a poverty of thought between the Word, action and deed there between those and the Lords. You might have thought the devil had triumphed above all for the time being were it not for your knowing but the ways, Words, and deeds of the Scriptures. You know, how that one persons service to God in the wants of the body above all had affected them all. Then too, consider what would have happened had this same one only been engaged in not serving the Lord. Lets say it had been only the works of the soul and to this end only God knows. Considering also as Paul had once said this same man had been sick unto death for awhile. Whether that came as a means of correction or just rather to but usher him there into the presence of God is not something that just anyone knew. Rather, it should have just been asked then of him. Certainly, as Gods been changing his story as but one turned from grace and into his glory, it calls for some joyousness proper. After all, do not the angels of Heaven praise him whenever anyone has come back to the Lord. Better still were it someone of whom we would had note and prayed for especially that there might have been a change as unto the Lord. Paul says at this point we were supposed to receive as with him then and also to mark who we were doing it for then. See, when it comes to the body the Lords, there is naught to be gained with him but his own great rewards. That being said, there is nothing quite like what we were doing that for in the end. The holding in reputation too might have come just as we look from the matters of one onto somebody else there again. At one point in time, this also had expended his life for the Lord. Given these things, whether renewal to repentance is possible as had once before or just that our times rest in his hands is entirely his to control The Lords that is and hence he is found in our asking for then. Also, it might have seemed strange that someone found in the Lord would have faced a difficult time in the giving and also right living for the sake of God and his Word also just as he said once before. Thus though of this you were sure, that our Gods the one who changes all things and brings the whole world on back there to his Son. Be not afraid little flock, what of the kingdom, the service, his people, the sheep of his pasture, and also for what he had planned.

Identifications in Him

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Philippians 3:1-3

It seems Paul has finally learned the secret of abiding in Jesus perhaps now more than ever. Though contentment with Godliness that also lives in the house of the just would also come later in the epistle. Nor yet the confusion that follows when there is those that have collapsed under the matter at hand as though suffering but a weight in the load. Certainly the Lords presence though is not the overwhelming thing here to which Paul would have harkened. Is not it funny though that the rejoicing takes place no matter whether the confused or not, in their right mind or not or no matter what you would have otherwise rathered down here below. Basically that is to say that Paul is finding going over the same things once again to be no big terrible chore. Nor is it something else to have brought hurt from any other power then thus far. As Paul would have considered the rejoicing in the matter at hand is enough to chase back the clouds of darkness and been enough to ensure his reflection of the heart of the Father again. The safety though that comes cannot be underestimated as those who instead would have cared for the things of the soul. Perhaps the gospel comes with some eternal peril of what has been preached about so far in the midst whether now or so far long ago. Still too though, as you would already seen along with it can come also the dangers of man. Not everyone seeks after the Lord as you would already know having been given opportunity instead but to study his Word. To Paul and the church unto whom there he ministered, this opposition took a few different forms. There is some dogs spoken of as those barkers and makers of noise who otherwise would have been without as much as supposed. Still though, the grace of God applied to these too just as well as they did the Samaritan woman whose child was sick and once had stood in need of the Lord. The evil workers too were something to which Paul had known hardly too few, being asked to come up against them time and again these makers of error. More than that even, there is them who would have hurt the Lord and his church and forthwith not being content would have crucified the own king of glory had these but any other sorts of utterance or some type possession. Hence is the bewareness that the opportunity might be given not thusly that any should perish but that all simply have stood in need of the Lord. The concision also are almost as the circumcision, that is them who identified their bodies by the state of their souls. I mean, it is one thing is it not to be saved and sanctified, healed and delivered, well on the way to Heaven and quite another thing of the sort to suddenly have an overwhelming identification of which there would be no report. In order to help you understand it all better, Paul is showing the circumcision as something outward that is been done with the lives. It is worship is not it that affects more than the matter at hand being just of God as much as he planned. There is rejoicing in Christ too as the one who changes all things. The flesh too in that it is passing away so that there might have been grace in the house of the Lord. Hence in the passage of what he would rather, there is no confidence is not there save but in the Lord and his Word. After all, he is the only thing sustaining us in all we would go through given but the breath of the Lord. Hence you could have most said of him thusly that his tribe you would rather as them which are identified simply as children of the mighty Great King. So too can you rest and trust completely in the God who changes all things, menders of the hearts and lives that are broken, and so brings us all back home to the Father again.