The Life and Times of Joe Suttle

Distractions keep coming up, and there is seemingly no way out. But there is! It is the word "NO" uttered in no uncertain terms. When things come along, all we have to say is "no". Easier said than done. When you get up late for a morning appointment, do you skip the appointment? Then when the appointment is finished, why is it so hard to get back to square one and skip square two (which is already done)?

Honest questions, but some principles that we all need to handle in some fashion.

Finishing the two week challenge brings me to Philippians, which just happens to have only four chapters, so that works with the two-a-day.

In writing this letter to the Philippians, Paul finds himself in prison in Rome. Philippi is one of the places where he got a church started, and the people are concerned about him.[more] They wanted to make sure that he had food and other needs, so they sent stuff (probably money, some food stuff and who knows what else) to him. This letter is both a "Thank You" and some words of encouragement.

But even in the midst of imprisonment, Paul remembers why he is there, and uses that as a springboard in his letter. In effect he says "I am here because of what I was doing to advance the message of the Gospel. So don't stop what you are doing just because I am in prison. What has happened to me helps give courage to our brothers and sisters to speak up more! (1:12-14)

Paul kind of reminds them, that even though there might not be some great preachers like himself, they are still presenting the message about Jesus Christ and getting people to think about what He did and who He is. And then Paul says that even though some of those preacher/teachers might be doing it for the wrong reason and in the wrong way, he Paul rejoices!

Then he starts in with the logic…

The logic was to get the church in Philippi to be of one mind (the word in the Bible is "like-minded"). His logic in chapter 2 is not tied up in any human imaginings, but rather is all about Christ.

IF

• Christ encourages you
• His love gives you comfort
• His Spirit lives in you
• You sense His tenderness and compassion

THEN do the following and make me happy

• Be like-minded
• ;Have the same love (love the same way)
• Have the same spirit
• Have one purpose

Then, he says all this should be without any "get ahead of one another" attitude or "look how great I am", but rather he says "consider others better than yourself."

Now that's a hard pill to swallow!

Go ahead. Dissect it! Get your hands around it! Try as you might to wrap your mind around it, you can't get away from the "tenses" of his directives. There was no "try" or "see if you can" or "give it your best shot". It was clearly like a mandate – something he knew they and we can do. You can argue with it, but…

The decision to do or be is ours and ours alone.

If you are following the day and dates, you may have noticed that there was nothing new yesterday. Today is makeup day!

Wasn't bad enough that the day started of busier than usual, but a glance at chapters five and six showed me that this was not going to be easy. Maybe it would have been better to have chosen a different book. After all, who wants to hear anything else about husbands and wives.

Wait! There is so much more in these two chapters. What has been impressed on me is "don't get bogged down in what you don't understand. Act on what you do understand."

There are several key points that Paul makes:

• Clean, honest living (5:3)
• Don't be tricked by what you read or hear (5:6)
• Take time to understand what the Lord's will is (5:17)

And that was just in chapter 5! Okay, so I skipped over that [more]"submit" stuff, and for good reason. That is a post in itself, and besides it's a real stopper if you do or don't believe what it says. Did you notice that I covered both sides. Some things are like that. They fall into the category of gasoline on a campfire, even if you do want a bigger fire.

The last part of today's two had some good information about labor/management relations. Certainly worth reading and applying. Just don't forget, Paul was writing to believers, or followers of Christ. He was not talking to the whole world – this was not a front page story in the "Ephesus Times". Remember, this letter started out with "To the saints in Ephesus, the faityful in Christ Jesus." So…be careful how you spread these instructions around.

Paul ends thie letter with some ways to prepare yourself as a Christ Follower in how to live. His words again, are filled with images that readers of this letter would immediately grasp.

My translation of verses 10 through 18 would be something like this: Remember that your strength comes from the Lord, so get some. Protect yourself from the devil by covering yourself with God's body armor. Build yourselves up with His exercises so that you are strong. Don't forget, that everything you need to know is in the word of the Lord, so learn it – remember it – do it!. Talk to Him all the time – let Him know what you need. Don't forget to ask Him to help our brothers and sisters.

I do like the way Paul ends. As he asks them to pray for him, it was not so that he would be treated better, or get better food, or be famous. All he asked was that he might not be afraid to clear up any misunderstandings about the Good News.

His word was "fearlessly". Now, the question is "what do I fear?"

Deeper than that is whether or not I remember how to overcome that fear? If I cannot remember, it's "repeat the chapter" time.

Confusing? Okay, this is week two, day two, and homing in on Ephesians -chapter 3 and 4.

Having said where my reading took me today, it's interesting that verse 1 of chapter 5 kind of sounds like it belongs to this reading. More about that later.

It was interesting how you find Paul referring to himself in verse 2 and does not say how important he is, but rather "I got this gift (grace) and it made me fit for you – the gift was so I could be the messenger for you. (v2). How different from so many who come with self-help or "get rich" philosophies. Those kind of people usually come boasting about how great they are and how we (the lesser people) ought to try to be like them.

Paul makes clear in chapter 3, verse 7 [more]that he is not the important one when he says "I became a servant of this Gospel." In the minds of the Ephesians, it was clear that Paul was saying "Don't look at me as the great one – I am your servant!" To them that was a clear picture. They understood what a servant was – how they acted, how they spoke to those around them. He was a messenger.

Then he tries to make sure that they understand that this Christ, the one who by grace set them free, was giving them power. His words were that God's intent was to use the church (the body of Christ), and they were to be bold in proclaiming the Gospel. Constantly, he encouraged them to not be discouraged or worry about him in prison – in effect, don't get side-tracked.

Paul, in verse 17-19 paints a picture that gets very difficult to imagine. It's as though he says to them, "Close your eyes, and think of the deepest hole you have ever seen, or the darkest place you have ever been. Remember how far it was to the horizon – you thought you'd never get where you were going." It was a "You ain't seen nothing yet!" moment. The imagery was to remind them that God was and is bigger than anything they have encountered or could imagine. It was a clear message that God's love knows no limits. It is not bound by borders or knowledge or anything measurable.

In other words, God's love cannot be stopped!

Now, he starts on the work of unity – how believers need to be helping one another. Building up rather than tearing down. There are his words that "speaking the truth in love" we can and will grow to be more and more like Christ. We, the body, the Church, builds itself in love.

It's interesting that he speaks again about how we should talk to one another. And before you growl back at me, this was a letter to believers. He was not talking to the all the people of Ephesus, but rather, the church in Ephesus. This was about brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't but this load on your non-Jesus-following friends or neighbors!

As Paul closes chapter 4, he tells us to watch our mouths. He leaves a big question for us without really saying it. One of those "Are you doing this?" moments in life. You have to listen to what you are saying even before you say it. Think about what you are going to say and then apply the words in verse 29.

Wait a minute Paul! You can't mean verse 32 about how I should treat them!

If this chapter just ended with verse 32 we might be able to sneak something by, but smack up against the first verse in chapter 5, we got a problem.

The problem is the imitation of Christ, and the fact that we are supposed to do that, living a life of love and giving ourselves up.

If that's true, then…