Greeting Brothers,

I would like to welcome you to the beginning of our bible study of Phillipians and what I hope will be a blessing to anyone who reads this. May God direct every keystroke to be in His favor and not of mine. However, before I start, I want to share with you briefly what I have been going through these past 12 hours.

As you may have previously read, I am in what appears to be  a “holding” pattern where God knows exactly where I need to be and I have no clue… at least I sometimes allow myself to get caught up in a whirlwind of uncertainty and the last 12 hours was one of those times. Needless to say, in my attempt to square off with the Almighty in my frustrations, He has once again proven that He is in control and has placed both scripture and people in my path to speak words of encouragement and wisdom.

To quickly recap, my funds for my business dried up, the bills are stacking up, my 2 year old son will most likely be having surgery which the cost will be equivalent to one months worth of pay (I know I know – get to the point Mark – this sounds like a country song), and my wife, again bless her heart, had the audacity to ask me if we were tithing. And to be honest (sorry Pastor Steve), we haven’t.

Now before we rush to conclusions, which I did last night, I automatically got ticked off about how we are in such a downward spiral of funds and that we didn’t have the money to tithe. I kept going on and on about how God has PUT ME in this position in the first place and where I felt I couldn’t afford to tithe and NOW I had to tithe to just get back in His favor? Really!? I felt at that moment of frustration, why I had to “pay to play”. Was God punishing me (or as my wife put it – loosing His favor) for not tithing? I mean really! This is nonsense. Right? RIGHT? (12 hours ago I would have expected anyone in this position to give me a “shout out” of  an “AMEN Brotha!”). Now before I continue I need to point out that this lesson is not about tithing. That topic is much bigger than my pay grade by every measure. It just happened to be the tipping point of my frustrations. (I want to be clear that I do believe that it is very important to tithe and once again realize that no matter what our income is, it is God’s in which he blesses us to have, and the we do in fact need to start “happily” tithing again.. and we will).

Flash forward to the present and all I have to say is.. um.. well.. what appeared logical in my reasoning 12 hours ago was  amazingly exposed as flawed and yet humbling and awesome to experience. The fact that my God allowed me to wrestle with Him on my issues as he patiently listened to my frustrations, and at the right moment, orchestrated the people and scripture in my path at the precise moment to tell me that HE is in control and that HE will be with me no matter where I am at. That HE loves me no matter how upset I get, and that HE will not stop molding me until HIS work is complete in me!  So how did this happen? How did my attitude and perception change 180 degrees in 12 short hours from my “moment”  to… dare I say… JOY? Bare with me if you will because this is the part where I hope and pray that  the transparencies of my experience can be a blessing for anyone reading this.

During my breaks and lunch time where I currently work, I reluctantly continued with my assigned scriptures so I can stay on task to read the bible in a year. It’s something that I have been wanting to do for quite sometime and I had made up my mind to do it this year (ironically I choose to do this the same year I started my masters program – go figure). As I got into the word, this is what stood out:

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” LUKE 11: 9-13

“Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” PSALM 12: 5

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me. ” PSALM 13

And finally  Phillippians 1: 4-7

” In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.”

So brothers, what does this mean to you? Right now some of you might be scratching your head wondering what kind of bible study this is. Here you thought this was suppose to be about finding Joy. Hey, I feel your pain. Hopefully, though, you can spend a few more minutes to hear me out because you will soon see that there is A LOT to be joyful about. If you haven’t read the first chapter in Phillippeans yet, stop here and read it. Then please come back to finish this.

Back? Great! Now that you have read the chapter, can you notice a difference between Paul’s letter and mine? Let me shed some light if you didn’t. Paul is in prison. Probably not the most friendly and clean environments. If there is anyone that has the right to complain about his surroundings and predicament, it’s Paul. Here God clearly gives him a mission and in return for his obedience he get’s a ticket to prison. So how does Paul start his letter? I can safely say it was a lot different than mine.

He praises and thanks God. He shares with his readers that no matter where he is and how crappy life is at that moment, he has… JOY. Why? Because he knows that God started and will finish a good work in him. And this was God’s promise to him back then AND for us still to this day! It’s the type of love that we can count on no matter where we are with Him in our relationship.

Brothers, here defines the joy. God loves us all. As long as we continue to seek Him, no matter the “moments” we have, He will continue his good work in us and mold us in His image. That is His promise, and you know what, I can see it now. Today, I had the privilege to experience God’s word’s through the mouths of those I conversed with today. It’s the same with the scripture that I read. Was it a coincidence that I read the Phillippeans chapter that helped me understand God’s love and reason for joy at the same time I struggled? No way! He knew what I needed at the right time and opened my eyes to his Grace. Funny how the Spirit works isn’t it?

So where do we go from here? I wrote this letter in a manner that contrasts with how Paul wrote his. His attitude from the start was strictly based on the promise he was given by our Creator. And because of this positive attitude, he was able to experience the pure joy God want’s us all to experience. Why did I have my “moment” just 12 hours before writing this? Some may have their conclusions and opinions, but I believe this was a beautiful illustration and reminder that God loves us all no matter where we are. If we can remind ourselves and each other (like those whom I met with today) of that promise, we can all experience the same joy Paul felt while he was in prison writing his letter.

I thank you for your patience reading this passage. I can’t promise you how long next weeks devotion will be because I have no idea what God has planned for me.  This is where I would love to hear how this first chapter speaks to your heart. How do you interpret it? The floor is yours. Keep it clean and keep it real.

May God bless you and may you too feel Joy!

Cheers,
Mark