Jesus Fellowship: No longer a slave. 11/3/15

Day 306

Today's Song:

Walk around heaven
Mighty Clouds of Joy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiDCAXIw0yU
No copyright infringement intended.

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/Phlm.1

Philemon

Greeting
1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon's Love and Faith
4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.[a] 7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Paul's Plea for Onesimus
8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,[b] whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant[c] but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

Final Greetings
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Supplied Life Devotional by Bill Freeman

The seat of our personhood November 3rd

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” 1 CORINTHIANS 2:11
The seat of our personhood is our spirit. Our real “knower” is our spirit. We do not know ourself apart from our spirit. I am an empty shell without my spirit. I am a personless person without my spirit. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit and joined Himself with my spirit. Now I can live from my spirit (Rom. 1:9). Now I find my uplifted personhood in this organic “I” (John 14:20).
Do we see this? It is marvelous to know that Christ is your person. When sin shows up, you can boldly tell it, “He has the sin and I have the righteousness.” That will catapult you right into His arms to love Him, to draw from Him. He gave the law in order to exhaust us and convince us that we need to live in union with Him. He already knew the flesh was fallen, but we did not. So He came with the law and exhausted the flesh to the utmost, so that He could regenerate our spirit and get Himself into us. Romans 8:3-4 says, 3 “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Now we just walk according to Spirit, somewhat spiritually irresponsible. We are not obligated to what shows up in our thoughts and feelings. He paid the debt. We are not obligated to the flesh anymore (Rom. 8:12). We do not owe it anything. We do not owe it an answer. We do not owe it an excuse. We do not need to defend it. It has been judged once and for all on the cross. This is wonderful!

Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH)

Anna, Ariana, Ariel, Georgie, Linnette, Wes, and Zoe.