Today's reading covers the book of Philippians, Paul's letter to the church of Philippi. Philippians as a book on extreme joy. If joy was an XGames event, this would be the manual. Extreme joy. There are few books of the Bible that focus more on joy than Philippians. But the fascinating truth, that gives this study an extreme edge... is that this book on joy was written by a man in prison, a man in chains, a man with circumstances we would not necessarily define as joyful. And this was not his first bad experience.
When he wrote to some of his friends in Corinth; he was swapping "good old days" stories...and comparing himself to others he said something like this, (I Cor. 11:23-28) "They say they serve Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in jail more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. I was beaten, stoned, and shipwrecked--three times! I've faced more danger in more places from more people than I can count."
So much difficulty and now in prison, possibly facing execution...so when Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord and again I will say rejoice," his words have power because of his life experience.
In this episode, we will pause for a time on Paul’s antidote for worry and anxiety because if there is a joy-sucker out there it’s worry and anxiety right? And my goodness in the last year we have had more than enough good reasons to worry. All the uncertainty has been fertile soil for worry. But Paul tells us that no matter what...we can have joy!
