July 15, 2020
Philippians 1:12-14
Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.  As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.  And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
New International Version (NIV)
Paul was back in jail.  Again!  The last time the Philippians saw him he was being beaten and thrown in jail.  But then he and Silas sang hymns during the night in a worship service that can only be described as seismic in its implications.  The earth shook, the prisoners were set free and the jailer was set free as he placed his trust in Christ. 

Paul got out of Philippi that night, but Philippi never got out of Paul.  The faces and voices of the fellow believers there stayed with him.  So he wrote to them remembering their kindness to him, “I thank God every time I remember you . . .”  Paul’s Philippian pattern persists into his present.  He had praised God from the pit when he was in Philippi.  Now Paul writes from prison to encourage the believers with great joy.  He is grateful for them and confident that God’s plan for the Philippian believers will be accomplished. 

I’m not saying that prison was good for Paul, but God worked good out of it.  Of course we do our level best to avoid imprisonment, and we should.  This quarantine period may feel like prison to some of us.  Paul’s letter to the Philippians tells us good things happened when Paul was in jail.  Somehow, he saw his imprisonment as advancing the gospel.  The palace guards who were holding him captive figured out he was in chains for Christ.  Also, his fellow laborers became even more bold to share their faith.  It turns out that the gospel cannot be silenced by governments or opposition. 

Is it possible that God is working even more powerfully as we are choosing to worship online only?  I have a friend at a Starbucks nearby.  We became friends years ago when I drove to Galveston every night for a week to preach.  So I stopped in to get my PBJ box and my Venti Chai Latte, then headed out.  My new friend wondered what I was doing every night as I headed to Galveston.  Two more years, two more preaching events in Galveston.  For a while, my friend thought I went to Galveston every night of every week.  Today when I stopped in they were out of PBJ boxes?!  But he told me that a class had required him to watch a worship service.  He chose ours and liked it. 

We hear that we leave a carbon footprint and a digital footprint everywhere we go.  I wonder if we leave a spiritual footprint, too.  I suppose everywhere we go we are planting seeds.  We can plant seeds of the gospel, or we can plant other seeds of anger or unkindness or mistrust.  What if the seeds we plant today actually grow someday?  What will they become?  They will grow.  They will become something.  Be bold with good news.  The good news is we are worse off than we thought, and more loved than we ever dreamed.  Plant that seed.  Life will grow out of it.  Prisoners will be set free.
Pray with me:         
Father, we thank you for those who share ministry with us.  You have started a good work in us Lord.  We know you will carry it on to completion.   Lord let us plant seeds of life in the hearts of those we meet today.  Please give us your joy and let it be our strength today.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.    
Join us in memorizing the Word.  Scripture for this week:    
Matthew 6:12-13
And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.’
Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan.  Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG 
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week.  In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year.  Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.  
Joyfully, 
Duane 
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