In all my remembrance…
Having several missionary friends, I watch as they come and go to their countries where they serve…it is hard to leave both ways sometimes…to come back to the States…but they are eager to return to their places they serve and eager to be with family here…
One friend recently came back and she is eager to return after visiting family and friends, burying her mother, playing with grandchildren…her call to her “children” in Africa is strong as she ministers to them…
Another is returning from their visit with friends they ministered to for years as they translated the Word…a wonderful reunion, encouraging others, but now coming “home” to the states…
Both were eager to come home and eager to leave…am sure, without a doubt they thank God in their remembrance of they people they left behind…both ways…
As I read Philippians, Paul wrote…
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
What then?
Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,
Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.To Live Is Christ, Yes and I will rejoice,
Phil.1.3-7, 18
He had stayed in Philippi, met people there who responded to the gospel and he still yearns for their joy, encouraging them that God completes his work in each one….
We have the same encouragements in our lives now…
God is at work and will complete it …no matter the continent…just as he did in the people of Philippi…
Thank YOU….
Acts 16….speaks of Paul’s time in Philippi….from the conversion of Lydia to
being jailed, the conversion of the jailer and his family, taken before the magistrate, let go…
“And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.
We remained in this city some days.
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.
The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us…
Acts.16.10-15
For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
1Thess.2.1-4
Shelter…
Looking toward where Paul traveled so many years ago…
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