By Mike Dawson
Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Columbia
Focal Passage: Philippians 4:1-9
Joy in prayer. Joy of adversity. Joy through humility. Joy in knowing Jesus. Those are our first four lessons from the Bible’s “Joy Book,” Philippians. When the Apostle Paul wrote this joy-filled letter to his friends in Philippi, he was imprisoned in Rome for preaching the Gospel.
Even though he was under house-arrest, he saw himself a free man in Christ, and he wrote out of a free and joyful mind and spirit. An evidence of God working in that Roman jail: any letter showing such a positive outlook, being sent from a government-run place of confinement — in that day or this — would probably have been censored or heavily redacted! Yet this letter was apparently sent out just as Paul dictated it.
So now we come to the fifth lesson: Joy through PEACE, from Philippians 4:1-9.
Frankly, trying to shed light on such glorious verses is like trying to make some of God’s most colorful flowers more beautiful by spray-painting them; we really just need to step aside and point out their beauty! [Read more…]